For all those who have asked the same question. No No I didn't encounter Don Corleone. How disappointing.
Though, I did get to see a gentleman in Trapani who quite fit the bill. He was wearing a dark suit, with shining black shoes. He wore a large dark overcoat on his shoulders (his arms were not in it) and he wore the obligatory hat and had a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He was walking up and down...
For all those who have asked the same question. No No I didn't encounter Don Corleone. How disappointing.
Though, I did get to see a gentleman in Trapani who quite fit the bill. He was wearing a dark suit, with shining black shoes. He wore a large dark overcoat on his shoulders (his arms were not in it) and he wore the obligatory hat and had a cigarette dangling from his mouth. He was walking up and down Via Vittorio Emanuelle (the main street there) as if he owned it. Everyone was tipping their hats or greeting a 'buona sera' as they passed him by. Even I somehow felt obliged to do so (not wanting to take panga with him!) so I also mustered up a 'buona sera' and he returned a who-the-hell-are-you smile to me. Atleast it was a smile. Apart from this encounter with the faux-Mafia I have not been able to befriend any Cosa-Nostrians. Sorry!
Btw, there are five kinds of Mafia in italy, depending on the place. The Sicilian Mafia is called Cosa Nostra (Our Thing) and is most famous courtesy Mario Puzo. The other ones are Camorra (Naples), Sacra Corona Unita and La Rosa (of Puglia) and 'Ndrangheta (of Calabria).
Anyways, to bring you upto date. Palermo was really nice. One of the best buildings there was the imposing facade of the Teatro Massimo. While on the Godfather theme, parts of the denouement of Godfather III were shot there. Went to one of the busiest Trattorias in Palermo for dinner one day. The Pizza was not nearly as good as those in Napoli. Later I guessed the reason for the crowd - The mainly male customers were there not for the quality of the food but because of le belle ragazze who were doing the serving there.
From Palermo, I moved on to Trapani (an Arab style fishing town which is also, like Palermo, is off the Tyrrhenean coast) in the very west of Sicily. The train ride was, yet again, simply breathtaking. I will not bore you with the pristine-sea-on-one-side-and-mountains-on-the-other details. The two-hour train journey had my nose pressed against the window as I did not want to miss any of those sights. Every train has a special place for dogs and bicycles (which seem to be the prize possession of every italian) so don't be surprised if you ever see a huge ferocious alsation travelling on the train with you.
I was quite disappointed when I first arrived at Trapani as I felt I had reached a run-down town of 50 years back. The town has a sea link with Tunisia (which is not very far down) so it has an Arab influence and for some time I felt as if I had reached a town in Morocco or Algeria. The Arab influence (on both the people and the architecture) was very palpable. When I saw the 'centro storico', I just fell in love with the place. It has narrow lanes with a beautiful church at every corner. It is difficult to image but every one was Dolce-and-Gabbana'd or Givenchy'd. And the silence was broken only by the ocassional fast-whizzing scooter or motorcycle. The favourite past-time of the elderly men seems to be hanging around at the local piazza (i tried, unsuccessfully, to get close to them so that i could hear the topic of their conversation. But I can imagine it would have been about the young women walking on the streets in front of their eyes and comparing them with the 'slightly' overweight wives they had at home!)
At Trapani, I had my experience with the most ferocious dog ever (believe me, he was even more ferocious than any of those I encountered in Mongolia). He followed me for around a kilometre with a hanging tongue and rabid eyes. It was because of that dog that i was not able to see the tip of Trapani from where I assume I would have got a nice view of the entire city. It is a surprise that I am alive to write this email to you.
I was slightly bored in the evening so I went and saw an Italian movie. It was slapstick comedy so I, despite my questionable italian skills, found myself laughing along the others. After the movie I decided for, hold your breath, yet another Italian meal. Went to this family run trattoria with the obligatory red-checked table covers. The entire family was sitting in the trattoria and I was the only customer. It was really nice to be fussed over but the children were howling and the mistress of the house was also contributing to the racket. She was what one would call a typical Sicilian woman - fat, apron'd, and naturellamente aggressive - she could easily take on Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. Put together!
Since XMas time was approaching, I had the whole town to myself after dinner. Walking alone on those narrow streets with well-lit up churches and buildings was indeed a surreal experience. I, thankfully, did not encounter the ferocious dog from the previous day.
From Trapani I moved on to Catania (the east of the Island, off the Ionian coast). This time the train ride was through beautiful sloping mountains. Passed from pretty close, but thankfully not close enough, to the town of Corleone (of Marlon Brando fame). There were immense orange orchards through which the train passed.
Catania is at the base of the active volcano Mt. Etna and black lava soot is visible everywhere. Apart from the obligatory church-at-every corner, the main church in town is that of St. Agata (patron saint of Catania. Almost every second girl in Catania is called Agata!). The piazza in front of the catedrale has a column with an elephant on top. What amuses most (though not a from-the-land-of-elephants person like me) is that the elephant's trunk is pointed upwards. This elephant, btw, is the symbol of the city. The town is dotted with a number of roman ruins.
Sadly, this is where I got my first taste of Sicilian rain (felt I was in Cherrapunji -it was raining non stop). It rained like mad. So was not able to do much sightseeing there. Unfortunately missed visiting Mt. Etna (it is apparently live and one can see lava). That, and not having spotted Signorina Monica Belucci, are the disappointments of the trip. Anyways, did a lot of travelling by bus around the city.
Another disappointment was that the day I arrived in Catania there was a Catania-Sampdoria football match (which, sadly, I missed!). But when Catania won the match 4-2 the whole town erupted into spontaneous celebration.
Onto gastronomic subjects - the favourite local dishes are Pesce Spada (swordfish) and I shall refrain from mentioning other kinds of 'unmentionable' meats that I have been consuming (lest i spoil the mood of the BJP-types among you!). Pizza al taglio (Pizza by the slice), Birra alla spina (beer on tap), Spaghetti and Marsala (a sweet wine made right here in the Sicilian town of Marsale) have been my staple.
The youth hostel at Catania (yes, as some of you have pointed out, I do get admission there despite my advancing age) was situated next to the busiest fish market I have ever seen. Certainly a very noisy area. The bar-restaurant is situated about 50 metres below the ground and has a beautiful spring running through it. It is indeed a pleasure to drink/eat there. Of course consumption of beer, with the sight of running water, makes one run to the loo every five minutes.
On Xmas eve, everything was closed and after a long search I did manage to find a family run pizzeria. I was treated to the sight of a Pizza being made in front of my eyes (sadly I had left my camera at the hostel since it was raining). Once my tutti-footi Italian gave me away as a non-Italian they all crowded around me and asked me all sorts of questions about India and by the time I left I got a large number of hugs from everyone wishing me merry Xmas ('Auguri').
Well, finally, with a heavy heart left Sicily and have reached Florence (which i considered to be my favourite city in my previous trip). Plan to use it as a base to explore a bit of Tuscany ! Btw, despite having seen the Duomo here earlier it still took my breath away when I saw it for the first time today. The entire train (Catania-Florence) was put, section by section, onto a ferry for the 3 km crossing from Messina (in Sicily) to Villa San Giovanni (in mainland Italy). The train was overnight but I couldn't sleep for even a second as the gentleman in our cabin snored louder than a lion roaring. No amount of coughing or banging of doors by my woke him up. So I had to endure his louder-than-a-train snoring :(
Indian-Italian Bhai Bhai
1 : The gentleman at the Tourist information centre in the heart of Catania informed me that they don't have any maps. Efficient!. But atleast he was sheepish while telling me so.
2 : At Catania railway station I asked for a Caffe Latte (have not been able to handle the milk-less extra strong coffee) and was given the same in a glass (much like the small glasses in which tea is served on the road side in India). Felt so much at home :)
3 : The frequency at which I have heard the accordion being played here made me feel that Raj Kapoor or the theme song of Godfather were never far away!
4. Since it was raining nonstop at Catania, I asked this Italian couple staying at the same hostel as me to negotiate the price of an umbrella. They did succeed in buying one and what seems to have been the clinching argument on part of the seller was 'the umbrella is indian'. The fact that an umbrella made in India was deemed as a symbol of quality made me proud. The fact that the umbrella lasted less than 24 hours deflated that pride quite fast.
5. One of the more popular 'dolce's here are Cassattas (a kind of sponge cake).
(Dec, 2006)
