Wednesday 28 October 2020

SICILY October 2020

 In these difficult times, I was able nonetheless to steal a few days to go see my aunt, zia Clelia, in beautiful Sicily. I managed this incredible trip just before Italy closed most of its activities: concerts, restaurants, limited travelling... 

It is the middle of October but I was able to swim, EVERY MORNING!

We stayed with my dad's cousin in the little village of Furci Siculo, just South of Messina and from there, we took little trips to the nearby villages.



This is us swimming

One of the first trips was to Forza D'Agrò, which is just South of Furci and can be seen from the beach where we were swimming every day:

The Castle of Sant'Alessio, can be seen on the far right. Just above it, we visited Forza D'Agrò


This is the beatiful cathedral of Forza D'Agrò, Maria S.Annunziata e Assunta (XV Century). This is where a young Vito Corleone hid in a donkey's basket in Godfather II!


Forza d'Agrò - Cathedral

While this one, where they were having a photo shooting the day we visited, is the Chiesa della SS. Trinità, also from the XV Century. 




From Forza D'Agrò, which is on the very top of a hill, one can see Taormina (on the left in the next picture) and Mount Etna, which in this special occasion was smoking and was covered by a light mantle of snow. 




It was so wonderfully warm, that most plants had flowers and fruits on them. Here you can see a mini-pomegranate.


The next day, we visited Savoca, a small town on the top of the next hill.

 It is a much better known - and more turistic - little town thanks to Francis Ford Coppola, who, in 1972, shot several scenes of the Godfather here. It is here that Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) met the beautiful Apollonia Vitelli, asked her hand to her father at the Bar Vitelli, and then married her at the local church. The town was relatively untouched and therefore the perfect set for the town of Corleone.  

This is the Bar Vitelli, still called like this. I believe the owners are actually called Vitelli in their "real life"! There was a beautiful vine, changing colours, and offering shade to the very few visitors.




Inside, the owners proudly display pictures taken from the movie. In this first one you can see the scene taken right in front of the main entrance.


And here there is Michael Corleone with Apollonia. 


We stopped for a refreshing classic: a strawberry granita con panna e brioche!



We then took a stroll to see the church of San Lucia where the wedding took place. The town is perched on two adjacent hill tops, so you walk on two narrow roads (one way each) from which you have the most incredible view: of Mount Etna on one side...


And the sea on the other:



In the middle, the church of Santa Lucia:


This is a particular of the rosette of the cathedral:


and this is the winding road that leads to the church of Santa Lucia.


Some of you might recognize it from the movie!


On another sunny and warm afternoon, we all went to Pace, on the very tip of Sicily, to see where the Feluche were moored. We discovered that there were none, since in the Fall they don't fish swardfish, and so we decided to take our video anyway, on the seashore!



This is our fabulous movie maker, Vincenzo Nicita Mauro!



zia Clelia getting ready with Pippo

We were actually waiting for a little while for the colourful little boat in the background to leave the harbour, since it turned on its engine and its noise was covering any sound we could ever produce. We had set our stage right there because of this very colourful boat. We melted in the sun a little, and then it finally left.

At the end, we rewarded ourselves with a refreshing granita al gelso (you see a gelso sitting above the granita. It is not a blackberry, but juicier and it grows on a tree!)




While zia Clelia was making the video, I walked around the beach and found some of the Felucca's parts moored. I took some pictures of the bridge where the fisherman with the harpoon walks, to the very front of the boat. The long bridge was separated in two parts, so you can see the front first, the back side then. 



After the video was finished, we took a selfie, like the stars we are!


On the last day, I was surprised by being offered a ticket to a concert - alas, one of the last ones for a while - from a friend of my uncle, who kindly gave me her seat once we discovered that the concert featured Bruno Canino and Antonio Ballista! The piano duo is an Italian institution, equal to the Ferrari and the Teatro La Scala, celebrating their 60th year together. The duo supported and premiered much of the piano duo repertoire in Italy and in the world, spanning from work in Darmstadt, to premiering Berio's Concerto, written for them and premiered with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Boulez! Bringing to the stages of the world music by Dallapiccola, Donatoni, Ligeti, Boulez, Cage...together, of course, with the more traditional repertoire. And, in fact, they performed Liszt's transcription for two pianos of Beethoven's 9th symphony. Maestro Canino, now about 85 years old, but cheerful and kind as always, was also my teacher more than 20 years ago, and it was a very toucing surprise to find him there and being able to talk briefly afterwards. 

A musical highlight to end a wonderful trip, is this Paradise? 

Wednesday 25 March 2020

:: Simple Rhythms ::

I just prepared a simple video to help to clap simple rhythms in quarters, eighths, sixteenths and triplets in 4/4, 3/3, 2/2
Please visit my YouTube Channel:

YouTube: SIMPLE RHYTHMS