#49 Signs in the piazza

life in Sicily

Hello Friend,

And … I'm back.

If you noticed me missing from your inbox last week, that's because I was busy with my son. He was preparing for his first-ever end-of-year oral exam. I wrote all about it in my last free newsletter.

I'm pleased to report it went well for him. After a week of me drilling him and he was yabbering along like he was a madman.

The exam was a bit of an anticlimax, but it was an excellent first experience for him. A room of professors lined up on a desk right before you as you launch into your spiel and PowerPoint presentation.

Each professor willingly interjects to ask questions to clarify what you have said or help you add small details. The school principal was there too. It was all very official.

Even though the written exams have already been corrected and marks assigned, the exam is a formality showing each student's abilities to assemble an oral synthesis of their work during the year, and the visual presentation counts for extra credit in I.T.

So we are officially on summer holidays!

I think all those poor students studying in the heat of early June deserve a vacation, hats off to those high school students who still have another week of exams before graduation!

I'm happy to be back on the keyboard writing this newsletter for you. Last week it felt like I had missed an essential part of my weekly routine when I didn't post something for you.

So happy to be back. Hopefully, I'll get some inspiration during the summer and find some extra things to share.

Thanks again for reading

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I love taking photos of walls and signage; they have the quality of an old postcard, like a faded memory of an ancient time.

I took this photo of this fragment from a poem on a wall at Monreale. I liked the dirty, faded paint, the lettering seemed like something from the Fascist period, and I thought I'd be able to track down the quote. It sounded like some form of Quasimodo, Ungaretti or Pascoli.

It reads: L’Italia è un isola che missing text se per gli altri il mediterraneo

(Italy is an island ——- if for none other than the Mediterranean)

Thanks to one of my readers, I  tracked down the origin of these words. They were initially part of a speech given by Mussolini in 1936.

The full quote is:

L’Italia e’ un’isola che si immerge nel mediterraneo. Se per gli altri il mediterraneo e’ una strada, per noi Italiani e’ la vita.

(Italy is an island that is immersed in the Mediterranean. For others, the Mediterranean is a road; for us Italians, it is life.)

What more apt quote for an island at the heart of the Mediterranean. Sicily's strategic location has always made it a desirable prize for any ambitious conquerors to attempt to capture, making Sicily's history filled with many different threats, invasions and colonies. None would fit comfortably or, more importantly, permanently on the island.

This tiny fragment from il Duce's speech was scrawled on a wall in the piazza at Monreale, outside of Palermo, to be mostly ignored and forgotten by those walking by.

There is also something special about watching Italian kids hanging out in the local square. In Sicily and Italy, the piazza is an extension of the living room, where people meet to socialise.

These guys seem just as comfortable as if they were sitting on their sofa at home, as their lives in the local community are an automatic extension of their family. When you don't have anything to do, you take a walk out in the square.

Often young people sit, talk and randomly meet up with friends as they while away the hours in the piazza before going for a gelato or a pizza, a coffee or a beer at the bar. Depending on what part of the day and season, something is always happening in the piazza.

I hate to be long-winded, so I will stop here for now.

I'll keep trying to write something worthwhile here every week, perhaps more often if I get into the zone.

Thanks for subscribing, and be sure to send this to a friend or someone you think might enjoy it.

Speak again soon.

With love and light from RDB