Sicilian Diary

We were supposed to go to Stromboli for a 2-day break before the high season kicks in and we'll have no more days off until September. But the weather got quite stormy and the sea was going to be rough for the crossing so at the last minute we cancelled, and opted for Marzamemi and the wild white beaches of Southern Sicily (near Syracusa). There's an international film festival on there in this quaint fishing village, with screens up in the main piazza and side streets. There is now a motorway the whole way there basically, so we were there in 2.5 hours, fantastic. After Catania the terrain changes, becoming lower and smoother, more open fields cultivated for vineyards, olive groves, hay, wheat etc and then around Marzamemi there are km and km of stretches of greenhouses – all semicircular, low-lying for the melons and higher arches for the Pachino tomatoes. I was most disappointed to discover that the Pachino,or cherry tomatoes are not indigenous to Pachino, as it would seem; ...

19 July 2010 The usual back-and-forth going on between the potential new cook and ourselves regarding the contract and pay. In this country it seems the power lies with the employee. Or perhaps it is just because they know we have no one else lined up. How they boast about their talents is quite something. Perhaps we are all just too humble in Ireland. This cook, or should I say ‘chef’, started off with an unattainable figure for his pay (again – it was he who named the sum, not us …), knowing full well that this would oblige us to counteroffer a high figure and that somewhere in between would probably be agreed. We watched him at work this week, but it was a fairly quiet one for the kitchen. While compliments were received for the food, we never got to see him deal with 3 or 4 orders arriving at once, or a full restaurant. Just as well for his first week, as he needs time to note how we do things etc, but it is hard for us in such limited time to discover just how competent he really ...

This obscenity is plastered on several billboards around Milazzo. It just clarifies, in case anyone was still in doubt, what Sicilian males think of women. Here, we have a woman, naked apart from her red shoes, advertising solar panels. This commercial says "Montami a costa zero." A play on words. Montami means 'set me up' ie in the sense of having your solar panels installed - but it also means 'Ride me' and the Sicilian males have photographed the girl in just the position in which they would like to do so. Needless to say my Spanish friend and other members of the Donne Libere have already been on to the company to get rid of this degrading and volgar and chauvinistic advertisement. The director simply doesn't undersand what the problem is.... There is no hope. 2010 in Sicily.

We had the new cook on trial last night. He just came for a few hours. He seemed capable of only speaking to mio marito at first, until I started asking him direct question about some dishes he was proposing for the summer menu. He is absolutely huge, built like a sumo wrestler, he’ll not be able to do much moving around in our kitchen! He did speak more convincingly than anyone I have seen in the last year who professed to be a cook. Indeed, this man calls himself a chef. His CV does cite several well-recognised hotels and restaurants, but no formal training. Our second cook has worked with him before and says he is a proper chef; this of course means that he will be pushing for high rates of pay. He is also from Naples. My mother-in-law is still fuming about the fact that the German-Sicilian cook never appeared. We last heard from him when mio marito was away on a boat trip a few weeks ago and he got me on the landline. I told him to stay in touch and let us know if there were any ch...

The police came by on Saturday night saying we had to close at 2am. Luckily, a friend from another bar had warned us about this and we had a sign up saying Last Orders at 2am! Usually at 2am it is our busiest time. The bar was packed on Saturday at that time. We said we thought we just had to stop serving drinks, and he said, I’m sorry but the new rule is that the locale must close at 2am. I would be delighted to see us all get to bed a bit earlier except that it had a big impact on our takings for Saturday night. And we need Friday and Saturday night takings to survive as a business! The policeman had two guys form the army with him as backup, and we recognised them as regulars – they looked really sheepish and embarrassed. Apparently there is a new chief of police and he wants to make his presence felt. It will probably die down in a few weeks – it better do for August, which we all depend on for good takings for the rest of the year … At least the policeman was decent and not throwi...

My sisters arrived Saturday night in the most stressful circumstances. I was so annoyed that we had no one to pick them up. We would both be working Saturday night so we had to find out about taxi services, since the last bus was at 8.10pm from the airport, and they would not make the last train from Catania to Messina. The agencies all quoted €140. Megabucks. The bus costs €12! I phoned the agency Garage delle Isole to see if their minibus might be picking up others on Saturday night and the receptionist said no, but she called on Saturday morning propsing €100. In fact it was SHE who called to suggest a taxi for €100. So the girls accepted. But the girls were delayed getting their baggage, of course we are talking about Catania airport. SO they said the driver was calling them and seemed a bit agitated about the delay. Then half way into the journey I got urgent calls from my sisters. They said the agency had called, three times in Italian and then once in English, a lady telling the...

I left the locale after midnight having been there since 6.30pm for the book launch. Things were quiet enough. But I found our house to be the cross-section for about 4 different bands playing live outdoors, each of them belting out equally atrocious music. The band playing nearest was attempting terrible renditions of and 70s and 80s Italian rock music. I hardly recognised Paolo Conte’s lovely ‘Via Via con me’. The second nearest was a screechy woman trying to perform international rock music – I heard various U2 songs being murdered. The background din was so formidable I couldn’t hear the news on TV, even with the windows shut. Absolute nightmare when you know at 12.15am that this awful din is going to go on until at least 2am. However, I was aware that everything did come to an abrupt halt at around 2am due to a police raid on the nearest and loudest locale; they weren’t there to stop the music apparently, but rather were looking for a Mafioso, stopping punters and asking for docum...

Last night Pachamama hosted a book launch: ‘Lesbianism in Nazi-Fascist Europe’. Only our locale could have hosted such an event. The organiser, my Spanish friend, was highly excited when she came, with her projector and images and requests for fun music to lighten the atmosphere. Arci-Gay arrived from Messina laden with posters on safe gay sex and anti-gay and anti-discrimination slogans which he then plastered all over the front of the locale. It reminded me of the early 90s in Ireland, and the 80s in England. but being gay is still a taboo topic in Sicily. But apart from Arci-Gay and the Rita Atria Women’s Anti-Mafia group and a few of the Donne Libere there weren’t too many people. The usual. We had just enough chairs so it was perfect in the privé (sideroom). I thought all was going well – young Claudia introduced the subject matter and then the two co-authors talked about the difficulty of researching a topic about which there is so much secrecy and censorship. Survivors, they sa...

Our aperitivo on Sundays is going well, each week there are more people. Although now that the heat has arrived, we reckon people will tend to stay until late at the beach and either come late for the aperitivo or not bother at all. So we’ll have to see how it goes in July. I say we should play it by ear. Have a minimum of food prepared and then if necessary prepare more. Although that could prove difficult if we have to prolong the aperitivo until later as it could clash with customers who wish to have a meal – too much activity for the kitchen. We’ll see. The locals love it, because our food is so good. When I think back to the aperitivos we used to have in Tuscany, ours is definitely more abundant and better quality of food, all freshly prepared. The whole idea of the aperitivo is that you don’t make money on the food, but rather on the drinks consumed, as people will want to have a second drink to accompany their second round of the dishes. That is how we operated in Tuscany anywa...

Last night was very busy after the mere three tables on Tuesday night. We watched the Spain Portugal World Cup match on Live streaming. But last night I had told mio marito to rest and I’d call if we needed him. But first the Fortunato Wine family arrived with a party of 9 and sat outside. Then a table of 6 came and sat outside, six women, who then moved because the cats were prowling around – the ginger has given birth to 6 kittens. The tabby cat and another silvery one chase each other on the rails of the gazebo overhead, while the kittens scamper between flowerpots. Our clientele is divided between those who love them and those who don't want them nearby while eating. I would be in the second camp but it is so hard to get rid of them. We have put plastic bottles fo water everywhere - apprently tis serves to keep cats at bay - but today we found a large cat poo right next to one of the bottles on the windowsill - clear marking of territory. Mafioso cats. Then another table of 5 a...