It seems there’s always something new to catch our eye at our weekly street market and we enjoy strolling past all the displays just in case we missed something last week!
The steady, rapid-fire Italian spoken by neighbors catching up on the news is still just background noise as our Italian hasn’t progressed to where we can understand a tenth of what’s being said. But we’re happy just chatting with each other as we stroll, stopping occasionally to comment on items of interest.
Two women walking toward us catch my eye because one of them is wearing a gorgeous jacket and as we pass, I comment to my husband, ‘I really like her beautiful jacket.’ Hearing my comment, one of the women wheels around and says, ‘Was that English I heard?’. We all stop. The woman is flabbergasted that someone at the market speaks English.
During our brief chat, we learn her name is Miriam and she was born in America to Italian parents. She is staying in town with friends, one of whom is the woman with her. Her excitement is infectious, and she translates all that we say to her friend Rina. Rina then quickly calls her husband, Joe, to relay the news that there are Americans living in town. She hands her phone to me and I discover that Joe speaks perfect English because he was also born in America. Thinking he’s at home, I invite him to come down to the market so we can all have a coffee. He laughs and tells me he can’t right now because he’s at work, so we just exchange phone numbers. It’s hard to tell whose more excited, and we’re all eager to hear one another’s story.
Later in the day, I get a call from Joe inviting us to their home for coffee the next afternoon. Using google maps, we learn they live on the upper side of town, about a 20-minute walk from us. We’ve explored some of this neighborhood before on our walks, but just not this far up the hillside. This will be our first social call since moving here and we’re looking forward to an exciting evening. I carry a notebook and pen as I’m keen to know more about…well, everything really! Located on a quiet street and nestled in a grass-laid yard with fruit trees, the lower level of their spacious and comfortable two-story home is run as a BnB. A well-appointed 2 bedroom/2 bath rental apartment occupies the first floor and we admire the polished marble stairs we climb to their beautiful apartment on the upper floor. We are overwhelmed by their hospitality and spend hours listening to their stories and sharing ours.
Miriam, we learn, is a bit younger than us and was born in the US to Italian parents. Deciding to explore her Italian heritage, she spent several months in Sicily before coming here where she is now a guest in the rental apartment downstairs. She’s happily exploring the land of her ancestors and immersing herself in the culture.
Joe is also a child of Italian parents. While he was born and raised in the US, he chose to make his home here in this beautiful house his parents built and where he and Rina raised their four adult children. Joe, who speaks fluent English and Italian, amazes us with his vast knowledge of local culture and resources – like telling us about the free Italian lessons offered at the Adult Education School in the next town. My ears perk up! It would mean a bus ride through the mountains each weekday, but the idea of being in a physical classroom with students and a teacher sounds like an incredibly exciting way to speed up my language skills, plus it’s free!
Rina is the perfect hostess. Not yet fluent in English, she leaves the four of us to chat while she steadily treats us to small bowls of nibbles. Each time she serves us is an opportunity for her to practice her English. Miriam tells us Rina’s cooking skills are traditional and the meals coming from her kitchen are nothing less than incredible!
Miriam is a hoot! Her constant curiosity and acute observations keep us in stitches! We are inspired by her willingness to interact with everyone and envious of the fearless way she engages the locals using what Italian she knows. She hasn’t been here as long as we have so we enjoy sharing our knowledge of our little town and hearing of her experiences in Sicily.
Imagine, meeting three kindred spirits in one day! Our list of friends here is mushrooming, and we’re delighted to be greeted warmly by the locals everywhere we go.
One rainy morning, Miriam lets us know Rina is inviting us all to go to the market in the next town. Spending a day shopping with her sister is something Rina does every week.
As we are carefully inching our way through heavy traffic and rain-soaked, crowded streets, we happen to pass a hearse pulling into a hospital and I comment on it. Rina starts excitedly telling us something in Italian but all I can make out is something about a carriage, horses, and her brother-in-law. It’s like playing Charades! We continue picking our way across town and finally pull into what looks like a large, dark garage for servicing trucks. Rina motions for us to get out and that’s when I see them!
Lined up across the back wall are five or six massive glass-sided, ornately decorated carriages for carrying a coffin in a funeral procession. Most of them are horse-drawn, but one is mounted on a truck chassis so it can be driven. Except for one, all are black. The last one is all white and reminds me of Cinderella’s coach – only with large glass panels on each side. It’s slightly smaller than the others because it’s for babies and children.
I’ve never seen anything like this and ask if I can take pictures. Being alongside them, I marvel at the craftmanship on display here. Painted in gloss black with bright gold trim, they’re like huge glass display-cases surrounded by oversized carved angels or priests (your choice) and embellished with lots of lanterns and such. Inside each sits a glass case mounted on an elevated ornate base for displaying the coffin. Morbid, yes, but utterly fascinating! The reason Rina has pulled in here is to pick up her sister who along with her brother-in-law own this funeral home.
Packed in like sardines now, we manage to quickly fog up all the windows. As we pull back out into torrents of rain and continue weaving through the traffic, I can’t help but wonder how they can have a street market in such lousy weather.
We finally break free of all the congestion and emerge in open countryside. I’m still looking around for a street market when we drive into a parking garage situated in open land. I’m confused. We park, go down a few steps, through a door, and presto! We emerge in an ultra-modern shopping mall!
For the next few hours, we take in all the up-scale stores. And being curious, we go in some of them to nose around. Mostly though we wander around, stopping occasionally to take in the window displays. Mannequins are shown wearing the latest fashions with the prices of each item listed. We are astonished because the prices are about a quarter of what it would be in the states!
Our last stop is the Euronics electronics store where we score a 10-cup Mr. Coffee knockoff. My husband is ‘over the moon’ at the thought of having several cups of coffee each morning if he chooses!
Back out in the mall, a very cool elevated moving sidewalk takes us to the upper level. I notice that the mall is laid out like a huge two-level doughnut with the hole being an open courtyard through which you can access other areas of the mall. Circling the parking areas as we leave, we pass the entrance to the mall and its large marque sign. It’s finally stopped raining so I can clearly see that the entire mall is hidden inside a gigantic grass-covered hill. And the name of the mall? Volcano!
NEXT UP: Back to school….at seventy!
Ann Kucera is a freelance writer living and enjoying life with her husband in southern Italy