#29 Welcome to new friends

an interrupted week, challeging Italian school work and Taormina

Hello Friend,

First of all, I want to say welcome to anyone new here. I am so happy to have you reading along with me.

I’m also happy I finally wrestled with my imposter syndrome and kicked aside my procrastination to begin this newsletter.

I never thought I'd ever manage to get any subscribers. Perhaps my family and friends, but I am surprised to see a few perfect strangers and acquaintances enter the room this week, which is fantastic!

Thanks for the encouragement. I hope you enjoy reading my rambles.

I have been blogging for the longest time, and I have never been able to shake the feeling that many creepers flick through my blog without ever commenting or being a part of my creative process. I'm not too fond of the idea of being stalked. It's creepy.

So I like the idea of starting this newsletter where I can write specifically for specific people in mind, I began in February with a handful of kind friends and family.

Now we have a friendly, generous group. I like to imagine all of my readers in one room, and I am chatting with each of you.

There is quite a bit of a crowd, not too many to feel uncomfortable, but enough to stroke my ego. So thanks for subscribing; glad to have you at the party.

This week has been one of those weird ones during the year, where festivities have consumed most of it. Then you start back at work in the middle of the week and then feel like you are in a crazy rush to catch up, only to realise there is no point in that because you keep forgetting what day it is, so you give up on the idea of doing anything at all and put everything back a week so you can start properly on a Monday working week! It's like that at Christmas and New Year's and now after Easter.

Easter here in Italy is much bigger than Chrissy as it's the beginning of spring, and the religious celebrations are larger than life and last a whole week. So the result is a week of intense celebrations, a few days of equally extreme eating and socialising and not too many actual days of holidays to get over it all.

Everyone is forced to return to work and school without the chance to rest and recover. We are still all in a collective food hangover.

My poor 13-year-old son barely had a week off from school, and he has been groggily shuffling off to school, hardly knowing where he is at the end of the week and next week; he has the dreaded 'prove in valsi' this year!

The prove are standardised tests that every student in Italy participates in at the end of elementary and middle school, indicating their comprehension levels in Italian, Maths and English. They are a big deal as they reflect how well the school performs and determine a percentage of each student's final grade.

This year is a big one for my son; apart from these, he also has a final exam where he has to write and present a complex thesis paper and sit a written exam. It's probably the most significant test he has ever had, and it's all quite challenging.

I've never heard of such a complex way of assessing 13-year-olds. Basically, he has to choose a thesis theme and then tie each of his school subjects into the essay.

So not only does it has to be a cohesive essay on a central topic he has to also talk about specific elements from each of his school subjects. Imagine an essay discussing issues in Italian, English, French, Science, Math, Geography, History, Art History, Technology and P.E. This idea alone gives me a headache.

But it doesn't end there; after the essay is written, the poor kid must present it orally before a series of professors who can ask him questions about the various subjects studied during the year.

The shy 13-year-old me would probably have choked under pressure. How stressful.

But hey, if you have the gift of the gab, I can see how you could probably be able to babble your way through your subject with a little bit of razzle-dazzle.

Such a fascinating final exam before the kids head off to high school in September.

I don't think I will ever get used to the school system in Italy; thank goodness I only have one child, so I somehow stumble through all the obstacles the system seems to throw at us.

Taormina has long since been Sicily's favourite resort town, perched on a coastal escarpment that looks out to the Tyrrhenian Sea between Messina and Catania in the northeast of the island. Its ancient narrow streets are full of little specialist shops, cafes and restaurants which are an invitation to step into the spell cast by this intriguing town.

This romantic town has inspired writers and poets alike, including D.H Lawrence, who lived in the city for several years. He wrote Lady Chatterly's Lover while living in Taormina and based several of his stories on local events. Lawrence also found time to appreciate local literature, translating the short stories of turn-of-the-century Sicilian realist Giovanni Verga into English.

Taormina always seems to have attracted English ex-pats, a testament to this is a charming Anglican church near the entrance to the town, which was constructed by the Anglo-Sicilian community.

The town's history is vibrant and complicated and dates back to the Ancient Greek period. Taormina was settled in 395 BC by residents from the nearby village of Giardini- Naxos, Sicily's oldest Greek-established city dating back to 735 BC. Giardini Naxos was where the Greeks established their colony during their domination of Sicily.

The early Greek settlers had fled the tyranny of Dionysius the Elder, who eventually conquered Taormina anyway, in 392 BC. The city was named Tauromenion in 358 BC and figured prominently in the regional politics of the following two centuries.

The settlement supported Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, against Syracuse in 278 BC. It was from Taormina that he conducted his Sicilian campaign with some ten thousand troops.

Taormina was one of the first Sicilian cities to support Rome during the Punic Wars. Eunus took the city during the slave revolt, and when the Romans finally occupied the town, they massacred thousands of enslaved people.

Taormina flourished in the time of Julius Caesar, only to suffer under Octavian, who retaliated against the city for its support of Pompey by expelling most of its inhabitants and offering their homes to Roman soldiers. Prosperity followed for the Romans of Taormina.

Ancient Roman poet Ovid wrote of the 'sweet mullet and tender eel' of Taormina's waters. Writing in the first century, Pliny the Elder praised Taormina's wines. The city's splendour, so evident even today, survived the fall of the Roman Empire, but her importance diminished.

The castle atop Mount Tauro was probably built by the Saracens on an older Byzantine structure and later enlarged by the Normans. Another fortress stood on still higher ground in the Castelmola district. Taormina's medieval and ancient city walls remain very much intact in the old city.

Taormina survived the fall of the Roman Empire even though the town's importance was scaled down after later invasions by the Arabs, Byzantines and Normans, who all left their mark on the city with their fortifications above the town.

The ancient quality of the town is palpable even a simple walk through the main street will transport you back in time. Taormina makes me recall the first time I ever visited Italy, as a teenager in the early 90s, a friend asked me what Italy was like and I said it's like a living breathing museum.

For someone like me who grew up with little tangible history, Italy was like exploring an Alladin's cave of stories and monuments. Even though Australia is a geographically ancient place with rich indigenous history, there weren't many buildings to marvel at. Because Europe has been constantly inhabited ever since man has existed, there is a never-ending layering of artefacts and histories.

Looking out from Taormina's Greek Amphitheatre into the crystal clear Tyrrhenian Sea towards Mount Etna, you get a real sense of Sicily's ancientness. This view is timeless, and apart from a few more buildings with the natural expansion and growth of the city, very little has changed over time. History becomes a very tangible thing when you see a place that has maintained its identity through the passing of centuries.

The Greek theatre at Taormina was built in the third century before Christ by the Greeks and still has a very active performance schedule today. During the year, it hosts an endless stream of Italian and international artists, including an international film festival.

The Romans expanded the arena, enlarged the stage and added a partial roof, which, unfortunately, was destroyed. Reserved seating existed even in ancient times, as some seats bear the inscription of Philistide, wife of Hieron II of Syracuse.

The world-famous view of Mount Etna and the sea beyond the theatre is breathtaking. The theatre seasons alternate with those of Segesta, the site of Sicily's other large Greek amphitheatre.

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 in some karmic writing 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

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