If you have ever been to southern Italy in the summer months, you will know that all the girls there are hot, literally. You would be too, with temperatures hitting around forty five degrees Celsius during the summer months!
On Tuesday evening I met up with two such hot Italian girls for an aperitif in Brera here in Milan, and to catch up with how their internships are going. These two ex- students, who feel slightly cooler now that they are in Milan, were part of my English language course group on the recently finished master in media relations at the business school where I work.
One of these lovely young ladies hails from Puglia, whereas the other is from Palermo in Sicily. Both are charming, and very bright cookies to boot, but they are quite different. One, Gaia, is heavily into technology and is doing an internship with a media agency here in Milan which has Panasonic as one of its major clients.
On the other hand, there was the talkative Ilaria, who studied journalism, and loves writing – in that she actually prefers to use a pen and paper. Very old hat, I know. Actually, Iliaria’s claim to fame is that for her degree thesis she actually managed to interview possibly the most famous living Italian writer, one Andrea Camilleri, who created the famous fictional Italian police commissioner from Sicily, Montalbano. Ilaria is doing an internship at Sky here in Milan, and judging from her diary, she is not short of things to do.
Actually, Ilaria would prefer to be a journalist, but since she does not have friends in the right places, and is not prepared to, er, do particular kinds of favours, she cannot find work in this area. A great shame, as I am sure bubbly Ilaria would make very good journalist.
However, the point of this is not so much the differences between the hot ladies, as where they come from in Italy. They gave me quite an insight into southern Italian mentality, and the differences between Trulli infested Puglia and, infamous for mafia, Sicily.
Illaria’s Progressive Puglia
Apparently in recent years, the Puglia region of Italy, which is stuck on the heel of Italy’s great boot, has come on in leaps and bounds, at least from a tourism point of view. Puglia has woken up to the fact that it can make a living from tourism, and, from what Ilaria told us, is doing very nicely, thank you.
With areas as beautiful as the Salento, the Gargano, and charming little towns such as Ostuni, it deserves to be quite a tourist magnet. And the population of Puglia, in general, welcomes those who want to holiday in this glorious region.
To most of those outside of Italy, Puglia seems to be somewhat unknown, which is a great pity.
Delightful, and extremely cheap seaside restaurants abound in Puglia according to Ilaria, and they often serve a wide variety of fish based starters, which flow in cornucopian abundance. Beware, when in Puglia, order a starter by all means, but avoid asking for first and second courses, until you understand how much capacity still remains in your, quite probably, stuffed stomach. Prices are low too. For the price of one single drink in a chic Milan bar, you can fill your tummy, and drink the local wine too.
If you are thinking of coming to Italy, and have done the usual Rome, Florence, and Venice rounds, then do think about booking a holiday in Puglia. Only try to avoid July and August, for the heat will probably be overpowering. Even northern Italians have been known to resort to the air conditioned interior of their cars to escape the intense heat in Puglia. And believe me, it is far from cool here in northern Italy in summer, writes he sweating over his keyboard in Milan in mid-May.
Here is a nice slide show of Puglia for you to feast your ideas on:
(Now where did I put that ‘book here’ link…!)
Whereas Puglia embraces those who wish to visit the region, this, is more than can be said of peculiar Palermo, and the rest to laid back to the point of falling over, Sicily, alas.
Tourist Detesting Sicily
Gaia, who comes from Palermo, Sicily’s splendidly dilapidated, yet stunningly beautiful capital, appeared to be a little embarrassed by stories of the strange mentality her island companions exhibit. More a little later on. But even she admitted that the citizens of Palermo seem to detest tourists!
It sounds as though Sicilians just do not appreciate the beauty of their surroundings, and really cannot understand why anyone in his or her right mind would want to visit their funny little island. If you ask me, which you probably will not, Sicilians need to be shipped of to places like Middlesbrough and Hartlepool in northern England for six months or so. I guarantee that they will return to sunny Sicily and understand, finally, that they live in a place which is not far short of paradise!
After hearing Gaia chatting about Palermo, and the rest of Sicily , I came away feeling that Sicilians have a distinctly odd mentality compared to the population of Puglia, and northern Italy, for that matter.
Sicilians, in the main it appears, seem to have a total and utter aversion to work. They hate it with a vengence. Work is an annoyance, something which gets in the way. Although it was not entirely clear just what work gets in the way of! Still, Sicilians will happily regale all and sundry with tales of just how difficult it is to find work on the island, whilst conveniently hiding the fact that they find the the idea of having to work really quite distasteful. Most odd.
Ilaria’s Tales
To illustrate just how strong this objection to working for a daily crust can be, here are a couple of tales which Ilaria recounted of a trip to the Sicilian island of Pantelleria, I think it was. It is a story which shows that even when Sicilians do have jobs, they do not care for them.
Ilaria, a southern Italian herself, remember – the girl from Puglia, told us that one day, she wandered along to the local cake shop and made an innocent enough request for twenty cannoli – a sweet Sicilian cake. The shopkeeper, not sure if she was the owner, was absolutely flabbergasted at this request for oh so many cannoli. From the way Ilaria told this little story, you would imagine the lady in the cannoli shop had been asked to butcher a thousand cows, by hand, and with a needle, not make a plum order for lots of cakes. Incredible. Ilaria was told to wait outside the shop, while the cannoli maker begrudgingly went about making the blasted things. And no, it was not just before closing time, or anything like that, it was ten thirty in the morning!
The cannelloni did indeed arrive, eventually, and the cost amounted to over fifty Euros, but despite the profit, the cannelloni maker was decidedly discontent. Such, apparently, is the Sicilian attitude to work, and, it would seem, customer service, or rather, customer disservice!
In another incident, again on a Sicilian island, Ilaria’s friend, from work ethic dominated Bergamo in deepest darkest northern Italy, fell out with a whining waitress over decidedly second rate service.
From these stories, you can sort of understand why Umberto Bossi and his Northern League want to abandon places in southern Italy, like Sicily, to their own devices.
As a general rule, those Sicilians who actually want to work, and, though it might be difficult to believe, there are quite a few, like Gaia for instance, leave Sicily. More often than not, this career minded Sicilians head for northern Italy, in particular for places like work obsessed Milan.
Despite the differences between these two southern areas of Italy, there are some similarities. More of those in Part Two, which is coming soon (I’ve written it!) on Blog from Italy.
And that ends the first part of this account of Italy’s quirky south.
With great thanks to Ilaria and Gaia for having inspired this two part post! Part 2 is now online, it’s here: Hot Italian Girls From Puglia and Sicily – Part Two
Photo credits:
Gulf of Palermo by night – photo by Gabriele Ferrazzi, June 2006
Ostuni, Puglia, by night – Riccardo Prudentino (Utente Wikiricky)
The Island of Pantelleria – Luca Conti on Flickr
Palantine Chapel, Palermo, Sicily – by Urban
Images sourced from Italian Wikipedia entries.
Alessandro Grussu says
Being born and raised in Sicily, I find your picture of Sicilians as lazy-bones who despise work in all of its forms not only grossly inaccurate, but offending as well. Try to say “Sicilians seem to have a total and utter aversion to work. They hate it with a vengence … [they] find the the idea of having to work really quite distasteful” to the workers of Termini Imerese, who have been trying since the last two years to avoid the closing of the local FIAT car factory. Or tell that to all the workers of Molini Gazzi, Birra Triscele, Cantieri Lombardo, Agenzia Il Detective etc. and other factories and enterprises in Messina which have been closed by their owners in the last few years, throwing entire families in disarray. Or try to tell that to countless youngsters who spend years at school and at university, only to see them being offered so-called “work” without contracts, rights, regular working hours or a minimum wage. I doubt that you would accept to work in such conditions. Many Sicilians do because they have only this opportunity to sustain their life – and that of their families – besides being forced to seek new opportunities out of their island, which is what many are forced to do, not because they are no lazy-bones (as you believe), but because they refuse to comply to such situations.
You seem to have a very superficial, stereotypical and folkloric view of life in Sicily. Please come to stay here for at least three months (if you can) and try to see and live as much of the island as you can – Sicily is not only Palermo, you see. I’m sure your ideas about the relationship between Sicily and work will radically change.
Alex Roe says
Hi Alessandro,
The curious thing is that my impression actually came from a Sicilian who talked about people in Sicily and is not my own personal impression.
While I take your point on the workers of Termini Imerese, one of the reasons why FIAT wants to close the factory is that it is unproductive – this seems to support the argument that certain people do not want to work.
If what you say about Sicilians is true – and they want to work (I know some do – they are up here in Milan – I know a few of them and they are not at all lazy), and I know that down in Italy’s south it is often necessary to pay to get a job; then why don’t the Sicilians get together and sort the island out?
Then there is the mafia – organised crime creates easy money, hence its attraction.
Still, I would like to visit Sicily one day and find out whether my impressions can be confirmed – hopefully not. We’ll see.
Thanks for commenting.
Best,
Alex.
Alessandro Grussu says
Hello Alex and thank you for your quick reply.
You see, my criticism stems not only from my experience of a native of Sicily, but from my experience of trade union member and representative at provincial and interprovincial level. Therefore I can tell you that it is really shocking for me to read that a person from abroad has gained such a view of Sicilian life, when everything I experienced so far screams the opposite.
The problem with Sicilians is that millennia of foreign dominations – from Phoenicians and Greeks up to British/Americans – have left us with a much higher sense of distrust towards authority as the one you have found throughout Italy. All the hopes of creating a better society here were shattered after the Unity, which Sicilians mostly supported. (Tomasi di Lampedusa’s “The Leopard” and Luigi Pirandello “The old and the young” deal with this issue in a quite insightful way). Nor did the end of Fascism and the new Republic brought much to us: we were granted, first among them, the status of Special Region, but our autonomy has largely been left on paper (the opposite of what happened in similar regions like Trentino or Valle d’Aosta) and used as an excuse to create a regional goverment which sucks taxpayer’s money at ludicrous levels.
However several Sicilians are willing to fight to contrast organized crime with work and know-how – the youngsters from Addio Pizzo and the social cooperatives which make fine wines and other high quality products from lands confiscated to prominent Mafians, for instance.
As for Termini Imerese, the reason for shutting down was not scarce productivity, but outsourcing in Poland, where a workman costs FIAT about half the same amount of workforce spent here.
Finally, paying for jobs is not as widespread as you seem to think. It’s much more important to “have good friends”. But cronyism, as you already know, is a lasting Italian vice, sadly. The fact that its prime minister has liberally indulged in it does not help.
All the best, Alessandro
Judith in Umbria says
Go quick while it is still cheap!
Judith in Umbria says
Ummmm, canoli, Ale, because canelloni, secondo me, make a piatto salato.
I shouldn’t think you could paint the entire area with one brush, but I would happily take brush in hand were Montalbano on offer. Camillieri, well, OK because he created the desired one.
Puglia is my fave place to eat in Italy and it ain’t too shabby for other things, too. Pugliese are largely delightful.
Alex says
Darn it! I mean’t ‘cannoli’, not cannelloni. Have changed the post to avoid confusing people!
Thanks for pointing out the error of my words, Judith. What was intersting to me on the brush tarring line, was that girl from Puglia was doing a little tarring, but girl from Sicily did not disagree at all.
As for Puglia, it does sound very good, and you agree. As for the food, I’d love to lunch in a seaside fish restaurant in Puglia. One day, I will.
Best,
Alex
ReneS says
And also a photo of the girls in part 2????
And funny to see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25NDYfsRd4s
Alex says
Loved the video, ReneS! 🙂 (It’s in Italian – for others who’d like to test their knowledge of the language) Very good take on people from Milan, by a Sicilian.
Example:
Fixing an appointment. ‘Hey, what time shall we meet up?’
Typical Milan Italian response: At 6:55.
Typical Sicilian reply: This afternoon?
As for the photo, we’ll see…
Best,
Alex