Emilia-Romagna - early AprilSicily - late March

• Traveling
• Syracuse Overview
• Getting Food
• Restaurants
• Culture Part 1
• Culture Part 2
• Passegiata

Tuscany, Florence - April 8

Umbria - late April

Syracuse--Fare la Passegiata

As I said earlier, arriving during the Easter holiday week made for some fine people-watching in a phenomenon that apparently goes on year round and in many parts of Italy. We think it was at its peak in Sicily while we were there. This is the "fare la passagiate"--to take a promenade. The guide book says that this takes place from about 1700 (the end of work--whose work?) until suppertime about 2000. I do NOT undertand the logistics of this. Who's cooking? Who's prepping in the restaurants? Everyone seems to be strolling. Anyway in Ortygia it's much better on Sunday afternoon.

The strolling happens in several places, like the Duomo Piaza*, but the best place in Ortygia is the Passegio Aretusa--a wide board-walk (well, actually a stone walk) right up to the ocean on the west side of the island with plenty of sitting benches, some nice shade and drinks and sun glasses vendors. This is also where you find tour guides to take you around the island in a boat or elsewhere. (Here's a link to a photo of the Passegio at sunset after everyone went home.)

Everyone promenades--families, young couples in love, old couples in love, friends arm-in-arm, girl guides in uniform selling plants, grandpas in wheelchairs, young studs in wheelchairs, dogs. There are also strollers and bicycles; some people, but not too many are plugged into cell phones, even fewer are plugged into music players. And it seems like almost everyone is dressed to the teeth, especially on Sunday. Most of the men look effortlessly stylish; a great suit will certainly set you up, but some nice leather, a silk scarf, or even just a good saunter will do. But the women take your breath away.

Up until about age 60, women wear high, high spike heels, usually with dark, patterned stockings and lots of glitter on the shoes, the purse, the jewelry, the sun-glasses, hair ornaments. And it looks good. If not spike heels, the footwear might be spike-heeled boots or, once in a while, cowboy boots (this is cowboy country after all), with glitter. The clothes are Italian so they're gorgeous. Everyday clothes might be bought at the street market and are likely from China, but the passagiata clothes are their best. If a woman is not wearing a nice dress or suit, it can be slacks. The slacks are so tight, you would not believe they could get into them and manage to walk. And they still have the spike heeled shoes or boots. If you're too young for spike heels, then your shoes are gold or silver or sequined or patent leather flats. If you're too old, nice little leather pumps with 1-1/4" square heels and not much glitter, just some gold or silver accenting.

The make-up is impeccable; I think the girls start wearing eye-liner and mascara and eye shadow at about age 13. But at that age, it's clear lip gloss--a nod to the innocence of young girls? Once on the train, I saw a girl about 14 spend a full 30 minutes putting on her mascara. When I got off the train, she was still at it; it still wasn't quite perfect. (Once we also saw a Goth girl in full black regalia, with piercings and chains and the whole bit, including black army boots. but that was at the bus station so it doesn't really count--she might have been a foreigner.)

The children are also beautifully dressed--one little honey in a pin-striped suit and pacifier caught our eye right away. The little girls look like picture books out of the 30s--coats with velvet collars, lacy anklets, bows in their hair, white gloves, those shiny shoes.

There are lots of children at this passagiata, maybe partly because there also are children's carnival-type rides and cold drinks and candy and balloons and other silly stuff on sticks (like Shrek dolls) that the kids all want one of. So the children are all entertained while the grown-ups greet each other effusively and chat with friends and the older kids practice flirting.

It's because of the carnival trappings that we got what we consider to be a good insight into the Italian culture. Besides rides, like mini-motorcycles going around in a circle, there are little kiddie cars that can be rented. They don't have a motor but some wind-up device that works with leg-pumping and gives you a better ride than leg-pumping alone. And these kids (most of them about ages 6 to 9 and mostly boys) just race around like fools--dodging bicycles, rushing at dogs, wheeling around grandma and grandpa, swooping up to little brother to try to scare him.

We're convinced this is how Italians learn to drive--by practicing with these little cars. In one afternoon, we saw dozens of near misses, but only one crash. And the boy responsible got the worst talking-to I have ever seen an Italian, usually the most indulgent of parents, deliver.

Whatever technique they use to learn to drive, it's not anything we're taught to do. In the city, even in Ortygia with its narrow little streets, the people/car interactions are hair-raising. I can't figure out how they decide who has to yield, whether they'll stop for a group of tourists, whether they'll slow for a bicycle. Well, it has something to do with eye-contact, just like in big cities in the U.S. Sometimes there's a little honk that indicates "I'm not going to yield," but it's more than that. I would never drive in the city. The country-side maybe, but not the freeway either.

We loved the passagiata and watched it every chance we got; often the bars have heaters outside, so you aren't even uncomfortable while waiting for your friends to come by in the evening (I did mention that it's not very warm here, didn't I?). We didn't have any friends except each other; the Sicilians are generally pretty self-contained, and, despite what the guidebooks say, not very interested in tourists, unless they make their living off them. They're gorgeous people though.

My poison mushroom encounter meant we didn't have time to go look into the maw of Mt. Etna, getting ready to spew at any moment. And more important we didn't have time to go to the Valley of the Temples. It looked close enough on the map to be a day trip, but the Tourist Information Office had no information, a taxi driver ventured 350 euros when I asked him, so we finally gave up. Reluctantly, very reluctantly. If you want to do this. I advise you to make arrangements before you get there.

There's a lot about Syracuse I haven't told, but that's what you're getting. Our next adventure was the night train to Venice (we got off at Ferrara). This is not as romantic as it might seem, and it was a very irritating time to get from Syracuse to Catania to catch the train. But I think I'll save train adventures for a combined issue, some time in the future. But to give you a small hint, Dawn invented a new Italian word on this trip--albidarndare. The first person singular, present tense is "albidarndo"--just say it out loud, remembering that an Italian "i" is pronounced "ee."

We arrive safely in Ferrara and Jenny and Nichola picked us up at the train station and swept us away to our next self-catered apartment in Italy. And that will be in the next installment.

* I didn't take many pictures of people because it just seems rude. This was a week-day, and I didn't catch much fashion, but it's a nice shot of the Duomo.