Palermo Part III - Italy Pure

Tobias Heller
22. Jan. 2017
7 Min. Lesezeit

Festivities & Celebrations

Italian Christmas - Sicily prepares

The initial intention of staying maximum up to two weeks has inevitably passed once Christmas decided to step on the doorsteps, ringing the bells noisily to get attention. I wonder if it is possible to get the christmasy spirit here in the south, while palm trees grow just around every corner and the temperature has not even fallen below 15 degrees yet, with daily sunshine and cloudless skies. Deeply connecting christmas with the sensation of stepping into the house after being outside with hands shaking and burning reddish cheeks, lusting for a coffee next to the warmth of the fireplace, while local radios play cheesy christmas songs, which are unbearable to hear after a while. Shortly before christmas though, I still run around in shorts and t-shirt, while the local Italians are dressed up for Siberian Winter, wearing heavy coats embroidered with fur, long pants and thick winter boots with inner lining, and on top of all large bonnets and scarfs that are wrapped several times around there necks, close to the verge of strangling them - despite that, still maintaining a well dressed and fashionable appearance, as Italians usually tend to do.

One late evening I run across the central streets and to my astonishment find the streets brightly illuminated by a somewhat untypical christmas decoration. Large frames have been placed in the streets, in such an accurate straightened out way, with the exactly the same distance in between them - and indeed out of disbelief I measured it by steps. I expected a somewhat more chaotic kind of freestyle decoration, not those straight and stringent rows of half squares. They don't even resemble the slightest the cheesy christmas vacation I am used to from Germany and don't convey much of a christmas spirit, and maybe this is exactly why I somehow like this style of decoration. It simply is not what it is supposed or expected to be.

Amidst this preparations sits one that surpasses all the others: the opera house. Similarly unexpected I step cross Teatro Massimo late at night, on my way home, and first of all notice that there are noticeably more people gathered around the theater despite the late hour and the fact that there is no performance on tonight. Then my glance finally sets hold upon the theater, those columns are sparkling and shimmering, the entrance brightly lit and the long stairways decorated with a broad red wave of christmas flowers, that seems to cascade downwards. Christmas trees have been placed on the upper level, and even the palms have been adorned by long strings of light going down the long trunk. Not necessarily the type for tasteless christmas decoration, but this is something I can't consider to number among those. It is a precious view to look at the magnificent building with it's long prominent columns and it still may not set my mood into christmas mode, yet my spirits are lifted up high above.

Festivities & Celebrations

Italian Christmas - Sicily prepares

And finally the 24. is there, thrusting the doors open violently - how did the time pass by so fast? Unfortunately I still have to finish some works before I am set off for christmas vacation, which I will spend with Gianfranco's family. I open the last package of my advent calendar I got from him, and a red christmas hat reveals itself, which I put on in a silly good mood, thereby feeling like a house elf that got a sock from his master. Today my plan is to finish the construction of a new level inside one of the high-walled apartments of my boss Sarah, climbing around like a monkey laying out the wooden planks that would serve as floor. And then, when I am just so close to the end of finishing today's work, i get up hurriedly from kneeling down, and a piercing pain erupts from my back, seeping through me in a hot wave and locking me in a bent position.

In the end I would have to spend the whole evening like this, slightly leaning over and barely able to walk properly without a pressing uncomfortable pain in my lower back, assumably a nerve that has been clamped in. How lucky I am to spend christmas with a nearly graduated doctor, and his aunt works as a nurse in one of Palermo's hospital and might be able to give me some treatment to soothe the misfortune once we arrive at her house, where we spend christmas eve. When we arrive, the kitchen is already overpopulated and I find myself immersed into cheek kissing, left, right, here and there, I start to get confused whom I have saluted while new incomers join the family festivities. I estimate that we are over 20 people in that kitchen, on a table Crips, Chips and sweet soft drinks are placed and when the doorbell rings another time, a huge pile of pizza packages enters the kitchen making it's way through the crowd. Strangely, while I chew on my piece of pizza held in one hand, and a bottle of beer in the other, I feel more like accidentally stepping into a student's house party, with the difference that the average age is way below the thirties. There is no silent night playing softly in the background and everyone sits and stands around the kitchen randomly, engaged in talks with family members, some of which they might not have seen for a little while. Smiling I imagine my own family at home, all placed at the kitchen table set with the fine tableware that is used mainly for special occasions. Surely they are already done with the christmas meal, which traditionally consists of various sausages, salads, a lot of bread and hot orange-cinnamon flavored red glühwein while christmas songs are playing softly in the background - a moreover tranquilized, laid-back and overly traditional way of celebrating christmas.

With the proceeding evening, people start to occupy the living room and the soft couches, immersed in conversations. My lacking ability of speaking Italian, which sometimes really unsettled me while staying in Palermo due to the fact that english seems to be a rare gift spread amongst not overly many people, does not bother me much those days, as I have enough translators for the elder people in the family group. My christmas evening this year is crowned by a syringe that Gianfranco has to stab into my lower back, containing a liquid which is supposed to help my backs pain to subside faster.

The following two days resemble an overabundant eating binge around a large table at Gianfranco's Grandmothers house. Red disposable tableware is spread over the table and fully loaded platters and bowls with mouthwatering food come in from the kitchen, the wonderful mingling scents already announcing their arrival. It ranges widely from ricotta cheese, mushrooms, green salad with pieces of orange and soused dried vegetables over to strips of beef and meatballs and furthermore. My plate is constantly filled by others, urging me softly to try from everything, and I reckon it is most unlikely that I am about to starve today. I am already filled up, but did not expect that the feast will go on even further, as the various cakes and Sicilian sugary delicacies find their way onto the table, and once more I find myself shoveling food into my mouth. Later on we stroll outside in the fresh air to let the food find the way down our bowels, whilst others are getting immersed into playing cards. When we arrive late at night I get into my pajama, happy about a bed, very well knowing that the next day will include one thing for certain: food. And from that, plenty.

Festivities & Celebrations

Double Birthday - Double Fun

My birthday in Palermo will always stay especially in my memory. As it happens that Gianfranco's birthday is just exactly one week later in january, we celebrate those days together. It will be a nice get-together, as my dad's partner Gerda and one of my closest friends Monika will join us in Palermo for several days. The lady I work for, Sara, offers me and my two visitors to stay over in a large two-storied apartment with several beds, a beautiful old kitchen allover decorated with patterned blue tiles and a spacious living room with fireplace and high windows that would flood the room with light during day. In the upper level a rooftop terrace is nestled in-between green bushes and plants, offering a nice flair and view. I have done renovation works for her during my stay, such as repainting the walls, those layers of color were about to burst off, renewing the windows and fixing various broken things around the house, and ever since I deem it to be a precious magic place in the middle of Palermo's Center. For that reason I am overly happy to be short-term owner of this place, able to host my german reinforcement here.

It is saturday and we are all going to a restaurant with Gianfranco's main family members - not the whole bunch of them like for christmas - and here the crew of Italians meets the outnumbered german squad. Incredibly happy to have Gerda and Monika here with me in Sicily and somehow being given the possibility to let both of them take part in the things I have experienced I introduce them to my gorgeous Italian family, which has been overflowing with hospitality and kindness during my stay. After an incredibly good dinner we all go back to our apartment, preparing glasses and sparkling wine while midnight slowly draws closer and Gianfranco's parents got deliciously sweet pie for us, mine with the number 26 shining in golden light beneath the lit candles, and Gianfranco's with blue colored number 27. Once it strikes midnight we blow out the candles simultaneously, of course not forgetting to make a wish while doing so.