La Bella Figura : Part 1

“Being Italian is a full time job.  We never forget who we are.” Severgnini from La Bella Figura.

Recently Nick and I watched a Canadian news special about the sinking of the Costa Concordia and particularly about the actions of the captain Francesco Schettino.  The Canadian reporter was very critical of Schettino when he arrived at the first of the hearings.  Why was he critical?  Because he was wearing an exquisitely tailored suit, silk shirt, expensive leather shoes, and he had not a single hair out of place.  He was tanned and smiling for the cameras.  I commented on this to my husband.

“Well, of course he dressed like that.  It’s la bella figura!”  Nick nodded his agreement.  A strict translation of la bella figura is “a beautiful figure”.  A more useful translation would be “to make a good impression”.  While we in North America understand the concept of making a good impression, and many people would consider it important, it is not embedded in our cultures here the way it is in Italy.  The Canadian news reporter assumed (as many Canadians would) that his appearance and behaviour indicated a lack of humility or feeling of responsibility for his actions.  This is completely wrong.  His appearance and way of entering the courtroom would be expected in Italy.  It would be completely shameful if he hadn’t tried to make that impression.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I think his behaviour as captain was appalling and he should face a trial, but these comments by the Canadian journalist show a real lack of understanding of the Italian culture and psyche. 

Just by happenstance, a few days later I turned on my favourite Italian cooking show that is broadcast in Canada.  The Two Greedy Italians are two rather plump, very funny Italian gentlemen who travel the length of Italy to find some of the best traditional Italian food and to explain how it is related to Italian culture.  In this particular episode they visited a nonna living in Tuscany who talked about how la bella figura is part and parcel of how she gathers her food and how she feeds her family.  Hmmm.  Perhaps there was more to this bella figura thing than I realized. 

To make myself better informed on this topic, I started by reading Beppe Severgnini’s book La Bella Figura:  A Field Guide to the Italian Mind.  I glimpsed my first explanation of the need to make a good impression in his words about the airport in Milano: “Malpensa encapsulates the nation.  Only a naïve observer would mistake this for confusion.  Actually it’s performance art.  It is improvisation by gifted actors.  No one believes for one second that he or she is an extra.  Everyone’s a star no matter how modest the part.”  Hmmm.  Surely there is more to la bella figura than this seemingly egocentric view of life?  I began to ask my Italian friends and expats who live in Italy this question: What does la bella figura mean in your life?  I got these answers:

·      “I'm an American who has been living in Milan for about 18 months. I first interpreted the idea of bella figura to mean that people dressed their best to make a good impression on others, and I further interpreted it to mean that I (and my kids) would be judged harshly for not keeping up with trends or designer labels. I have no interest in those things, and I can't afford them in any case, so I figured I was doomed to disdain. Now I interpret it more generously. I take it to mean that each of us has a duty to be our best selves. For some that will lend itself to ostentatious shows of fabulousness, but for most of us people (Italian and otherwise) it will just mean "putting in the effort" to make the best of what you have, be it in terms of how you dress, how you cook and eat, or the energy and kindness you extend to others.” Expats in Italy

·      “…back in '70s my Uncle Louis, who traveled to Italy often, pointed out that in Italy and only in Italy, you can spend 10 thousand lire at a cheap trattoria or 40 thousand lire at an expensive restaurant and you get the same meal. From the poorest to the richest, they want to make a good impression with their food.” Expats in Italy

·      In Italy, when we say "bella figura" we are likely to refer to our behavior, before our looks. "Fai una bella figura" when you have just done something honest, useful and nice to the others. Or especially, if you are polite.  Banally, years ago we went to a restaurant in Rome, and the final bill was missing desserts and coffees. We could have shut up about it, but we felt it was fair to call the waiter and tell him. He was very surprised and admitted that such a thing would rarely happen. So, that moment we were making a veeery bella figura of ourselves and (to his eyes) of people from north Italy.  Bella figura is also showing you have a beautiful house, you can set a table in an elegant way, or cook in an extraordinary way.”  Anita and Irene Bozzetto

·      “…in my opinion the bella figura comes a lot into play also because we are a small town [Cianciana] and we all know each other and so a lot of people try to impress each other. I come from a big city so I don't have that kind of mentality. Plus it's a very outdoor lifestyle and we are strutting our stuff all over town and so they like to make a big show. Of course, we are individualistic and like to make a good impression, but in my opinion this is a good thing (individualism instead of collective) because it values the person - see the way the sick, elderly etc are treated around town.  Anyway, style is in the Italian DNA - fashion, art, cars, etc . God gives different people and nations different gifts so that they get together and make the world a better place for all.” Joe Guida

·      “I not only grew up in an Italian family but spent almost all the summers of my youth in Italy. I embrace the ideal of la bella figura, and although some people may interpret this term negatively, I see it as an aspiration of being your best self. I take pride in my appearance, for me, not for anyone else. I don't think you have to spend lots of, or any, money to embrace this notion.  I strive to always be gracious to others and bring hostess gifts, etc.” Expats in Italy

A Primer to Driving in Sicily: Before You Leave Home

Approaching Catania

It occurred to me last summer, that a primer to driving in Sicily would be a very useful thing, especially since Sicily has a real lack of convenient public transit and renting a car truly is the best way to get the most out of visiting the island.  I thought I would begin with a video by Bruno Bozzetto called Yes and No: Driving in Italy. Short of seeing people's dogs flattened and people killed on the street, I have seen almost everything that he has put into his video.  In fact, I have actually done a couple of the "no"s and several of the "yes"s.





I want to thank Bruno Bozzetto and his daughters Anita and Irene for giving me permission to embed his video on my blog.  He makes great videos and if you want to see more, I suggest you check out his Youtube channel!

I don't pretend to be an expert on driving in Italy.  I have had, now, about 9 weeks of experience driving in Italy - most of which was in Sicily.  When we rent a car, I do all the driving.  It is much cheaper renting a standard shift than an automatic and my darling husband, Nick, is not comfortable with a stick shift, nor does he like driving unfamiliar roads much.  Also, it costs an extra €7 per day to have an extra driver so I play chauffeur.  At some point, once we figure out how to get insurance without being residents, we will buy a car - probably some beat up old Fiat - but for now we rent.

Before You Leave Home

There are a couple of things that you need to know before you leave home.

Our Fiat Panda rental car

International Driving Permit
(in case you couldn't read the picture!)

1. You MUST be at least 18 to drive in Italy.  No ifs ands or buts about it.  
2. If you don't have an EU licence, you need to get an International Driving Permit.  In Canada, you can go to your local Automobile Association (even if you don't have a membership) with your driver's licence and for a minimal fee (in my case it was $25) you can get your IDP.  The IDP provides a translation of your driver's licence into numerous different languages.  It is good for one year.
3. Rent your car through a travel agent at home.  It is cheaper renting it outside of Italy and, more importantly, you get better comprehensive insurance.  Trust me.  I don't care how good or experienced a driver you are.  You might be the stunt driver for Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me (which just happens to take place in Italy) or Jason Statham in Transporter, you still need the best comprehensive insurance possible.  
4. When selecting the type of car, think about the smallest car you can get away with and then get one size smaller.  We had a Fiat Panda last summer.  Very nice little car - peppy, comfortable, easy to drive - but I still wished I had a smaller car.  If you can get away with a smartcar or a Fiat 500 you are better off.
5. You will need sunglasses if you are there in the summer.  Find the coolest possible sunglasses - either designer or believable knock-offs.  In Italy you need to put on the best bella figura (literally: beautiful figure - it's all about making a good impression).
6. Take meditation classes before you leave.  While driving in Sicily can be fun, you are guaranteed to have some heart-stopping moments.  Anything you can do to lower your blood pressure and stress level when those moments happen will do you some good.  "Om mani padme hum".  

Cappuccino in the Morning: Part II

Coffee marks time in Italy.  Espresso at the bar on the way to work in the morning.  Cappuccino before noon.  Gulp back your espresso and head out of the bar in minutes.  It is a caffeine-laced labyrinth if you want to immerse yourself in coffee culture in Italy.  Here are a few rules that I gleaned from a Telegraph article from 2009.  

Let's start with the word 'espresso'.  In North America, and I presume in the UK, espresso is used in coffee shops or when you purchase coffee in the store to indicate a particular kind of coffee.  In Italy, all coffee is espresso therefore if you simply want an espresso, you order il caffe'.  I remember making this mistake a couple years ago.  We were in a hotel in Marina di Ravenna that included breakfast.  The first morning our hostess asked us if we wanted il caffe' and I specified espresso.  She gave me a very odd look and said, "Si', il caffe'" then shook her head presumably thinking she was dealing with an ignorant foreigner - which I was - at least about coffee.

As I mentioned, cappuccino should only be consumed before noon and even then between 11am and noon is questionable.  The thinking behind this is that hot milk is not good for you on a full stomach which you presumably would have after lunch.  And god forbid that you should order a cappuccino after a meal in a restaurant.  This would certainly label you as a boorish foreigner.  What applies here to cappuccino also applies to any other coffee drink that contains milk.

A "Godfather"-themed bar in the town of Corleone

Coffee is ordered in a bar.  Bars are not quite the same as in North America.  Besides serving alcohol, they also serve coffee, soft drinks, gelato, pastry, panini, pizza, and (if you are lucky and in Sicily) arancini.  Children can enter bars.  Bars open in the morning and, at least in Cianciana in the summer, stay open until 2 or 3 in the morning.

Our favourite bar in Cianciana - Antico Bar Trieste

Waiting for il caffe' with our new friend, Gaetano

In Canada, if I go to a coffee shop and order a coffee, I will sit and sip my coffee taking my time to finish it.  In Italy, if you drop by a bar to order il caffe', you stand at the bar, stir in heaping spoonfuls of sugar and toss your coffee back quickly.  Afterwards you drink the glass of water they often offer you, and then you head off out the door - no wasted time.  Another note - if you are living in a small town, you should spread your custom between all the bars in order to stay on friendly terms with everyone.

What to call your coffee: these are just a few of the options you can get in a bar.

Il caffe' - we would call this espresso.  It will have a thin light brown foam on top which is called 'crema'.  You will hear the gentlemen in the bar discussing the quality of the crema as it is considered a very important part of the quality of the coffee.

Caffe' Hag - this is decaf.  It is the name of the largest producer of decaf coffee and has been adopted as the general name for it.

Caffe' Americano - this is a much weaker and more bitter coffee and is closer to what is normally served in North America.  Italians also call this acqua sporca or dirty water which tells you what they think of it.

Caffe' con Panna - espresso topped with whipped cream.  Yum!

Caffe' Corretto - espresso with a small shot of liquor - often grappa (very strong Italian liquor) but other liquors can also be use.

Cappuccino - pretty much the same as in North America.

Caffe' Macchiato - espresso with just a touch of milk and foam.


Food that you can get in a bar:

Gelato in a brioche (sweet bun) - any place that serves ice cream in a sweet bun for breakfast is alright with me!

This is an arancine - it is a deep fried rice ball stuffed with meat ragu' or spinach and cheese or ham and cheese.  Truly a gift from the Sicilian culinary gods!

No description needed.

Ragusa Ibla

Last summer, while we were biding our time waiting for the sale of our new house to go through, Nick and I had the opportunity to visit a few places in Sicily that we hadn't seen before.  We didn't always agree on the destination - usually I wanted to go to the places that were close-by and Nick would more often choose places that were farther away.  I did the driving so Nick often would go along with what I suggested, but there were a couple of places that Nick really wanted to see that were quite far from Cianciana.  One was the Acantara Gorge from the previous post.  Another one was Ragusa Ibla.

Ragusa Ibla lies in the south-east corner of Sicily, below Ragusa Superiore.  The original Ragusa was built on the side of a steep hill.  In 1693, the area was hit with a severe earthquake and the town was destroyed, sliding to the bottom of the hill.  Instead of relocating the town, the townsfolk decided that they would rebuild in the same place.  As most of the rebuilding happened in the 1700s, the town today is filled with wonderful baroque architecture.  Many of the people moved to the upper part of the town - Ragusa Superiore, but some still stayed in the lower part - Ragusa Ibla.  While some of Ragusa Ibla is now falling down, some is still standing and is being maintained beautifully.  A stunning example of this is the Cathedral of San Giorgio.

What I loved most about Ragusa Ibla were the winding, narrow streets that took us to surprising places.  We followed one up a set of stairs and past some lovely old row houses - well kept and striking.  We rounded a corner and found ourselves walking along a narrow path lined with baroque shells.  This wasn't apparent immediately until I put my face up to a couple of the windows and found that the interior of the houses dropped two floors to what had become a grass-strewn yard over the years.  Some of these interiors now had trees growing inside them, yet from the outside it looked like you could knock on the door and someone's nonna would answer and beckon you in for a glass of wine or a cup of espresso.

Enjoy here some of my pictures of the buildings in Ragusa Ibla.

For more information about this stunning corner of Sicily, I would recommend you read Baroque Sicily by Jann Huizenga.  Jann lives in Ragusa Ibla and her blog is full of interesting bits of info and lovely pictures about the area.

Alcantara Gorge

GOLE ALCANTARA

Not far from the resort town of Taormina and the slopes of Mount Etna is a stunning gorge formed by the hundreds of lava flows with which Etna has gifted the surrounding areas.  The walls of the gorge reminded me of my mother's pottery studio - the pile of discarded clay that was thrown on piece by piece until she had created a multi-layered ceramic checkerboard.  These towering walls, amazingly, were home to small cacti growing between the cracks.

Cactus growing on the walls of the gorge.

The gorge, or gole in Italian, has 4 hiking trails.  Nick and I took the shortest one, about 1.5 km.  It was a roasting hot day, when we were there - 38 degrees Celcius.  As we walked along the pathways, I found myself grateful for the shade along the path and also for the occasional 'mister' that sprayed cool water over us.  The path took us to lovely viewpoints that gave us glimpses of the river below.

After a nice lunch, we took the elevator down to the river beach. (Yes, an elevator!).  The edge of the river was filled with people - elderly nonnas with their toddler grandchildren in tow, young German women sunbathing topless, middle-aged British men in baggy shorts, Italian men strutting in speedos with gold chains tangled in their chest hair, and shapely young Italian women with perfect make-up and perfect hair wearing brightly coloured bikinis.  

As we made our way down to the river's edge there was a large sign written in Italian, English, German and Spanish warning us that the river was frigidly cold and we should only spend a few minutes in the water.  I stepped in the water.  While chilly, it was most definitely not frigid.  I grew up on the mountains to the north of downtown Vancouver, Canada.  I spent my summers swimming in the snow run-off in Lynn Canyon.  The water here in the gorge was not so cold.

Nick and I made our way to a little beach in the shade of the tall walls.  While he sat on the beach, I walked against the current as far up the river as I was allowed to go before I hit the river rapids.  The walls of the gorge rose up on each side like the dome of a cathedral.  The only sound was the echo of the rushing of the water.  There was a nearly spiritual feel to the place and I felt my cheeks start to hurt, I was grinning so hard at this amazing experience.  Everyone I passed who was walking the other way in the river had the same grin and was sharing the same experience.

I probably stayed in the water for over an hour.  It was a magical day.  Both Nick and I left feeling that it was an afternoon well spent, although I must admit, I suspect one reason Nick was so pleased with the day had something to do with the topless sunbathers!

Catch Up Time

Our Sicilian Home

It has been about seven weeks since Nick and I got back from Sicily.  We hit the ground running here and this is the first chance I have had to really do any writing for the blog.  So, those of you waiting for updates on our Sicilian home, my apologies.

August 24^th, after we arrived back in Canada we got the email we were waiting for.  Joe, our terrifically helpful realtor, sent us the word:

I was going to write to you this morning to tell you the good news that we signed the deeds on Thursday afternoon…  Congratulations!   Joe

Celebrating the purchase of our house with Joe our realtor (in the middle)
and Scott our contractor (on the right) the day we left Cianciana.  Nick is on the left.

And then September 6^th we got word from Scott, our equally terrific contractor/renovator saying that the work was underway.  Of course, the path of renovation never runs completely smoothly. 

…there has been a small glitch in that it has rained this week quite heavily and has unveiled that the terrace in front of the kitchen has some severe leaks through to the room below…

and

… we have been having some problems with the neighbour who is complaining that damp rising from the wall between your garage and his kitchen is ruining his kitchen. He would like to put the problem right between you…

Fortunately, the solutions to the problems have proven to be fairly easy and not too expensive – certainly not compared to the glitches we had when we renovated our Canadian house!  The leak was fixed by removing the tiles from the terrazza, laying a waterproof membrane and re-tiling with new tiles.  About 800 euros well spent.

As for the neighbour’s kitchen…our ground floor walls had been covered with a horrible vinyl wall covering that we had wanted to get rid of anyhow. 

Our ground floor.  All of these walls are now down and are stripped back to the stone.

Scott removed all the wall covering and then the render (probably plaster) on top of the stone walls.  What will most likely happen next is to let the walls dry over time and see if this improves the situation with the neighbour’s kitchen.  If not, then there is some treatment that can be done to the stone that will help take care of the damp.  I must say that when Scott emailed us with a “damp problem”, I was a bit terrified.  In Vancouver and on Vancouver Island, “damp” is associated with “leaky condo syndrome”, which frequently costs the owners tens of thousands of dollars.  But the removal of the rendering added only 150 euros to our bill.  With luck, that’s all we will have to do and we will be left with a ground floor that has beautiful exposed stone.

In the meantime, Scott sent us pictures of how the kitchen will look...

...and today we heard that he is removing the asbestos roof from the storage room on the terrazza and replacing it with a new and non-cancer causing roof.

The storage room on our top terrazza.

We picked a new colour and new tiles for the outside of the house.  Before we left Cianciana, we walked around the town and looked at colours and tiles that other people had used.  The house is on a narrow street so we thought a bright colour would be better.

Our house will look like this on the outside.

All in all, work is progressing well and we are counting the days until we land in Sicily again in 274 days (but who’s counting!)

COUNTDOWN TIMER WIDGET