A Happy Sound in the Grotto

Left: My grandfather and grandmother just prior to departing for Italy in 1973. Center: A stash of letters written by grandfather in 1946. Right: Blue Grotto.

  

My grandfather sang in the Blue Grotto and he was extremely happy. Everyone applauded when he finished. The story has been with me since I was a kid. I wasn't there, but I can construct the details easily, part imagination and part borrowed imagery from a postcard my grandmother sent. Two dozen people in a boat, slowly being rowed through the cerulean water, and my grandfather stands and sings with the captain. The walls and roof of the immense cavern amplify his sweet baritone voice. People in other boats stop and listen, and are jealous that he isn't in their boat. That was in 1973.

Reading an old travel diary resurfaced this story and others about my grandfather. The diary, kept by my grandmother, describes their time in Italy, and the time they went to the Blue Grotto. My grandmother in her typical economical prose wrote: "Dad and the rower started singing and it was a happy sound in the Grotto. So very blue!"

~The diary~

My grandparents visited Switzerland and Italy in 1973, and Italy in 1979. My grandmother kept a diary of these trips in a small brown notebook that recently came into my possession. The diary took a convoluted path through our family to end up in my hands. After my grandmother's death, a family squabble ensued forming a rift between two sides. The diary was taken by an uncle on the side of the rift that I wasn't on. (Not that I chose a side, but in family matters, neutral is not an option.) Eventually, the rift closed, my uncle died, and the diary passed to my mother who gave it to me.

I give my grandmother credit for diligently keeping the diary during their long exhausting days of travel. I can imagine that she had a head full of impressions and ideas that she needed to empty into the diary, much like I've had with my time in Italy. Her diary entries provide a peek into what caught here attention, what fascinated her, and what annoyed her. For example, she:

• Tracked the cost of things.
  • Pompeii: "We arrived at Pompeii. Took a Fiat limousine to Pompeii 4.000 lira (we knew we had been taken) but were too tired to do anything about it."
  • Venice: "We had a coffee each. (Couldn't believe it when it cost 1.200 Lira ea. $2.00 a cup!) That's when we decided to leave." [I can't help but love that she hightailed it out of Venice over the price of coffee.]
• Pondered why women weren't shaving under their arms.
  • Rome: "An interesting note about Italian women. In the 6 years since we've here they've come a long way. Almost every girl, even women paint their nails, but for the life of me, I can't understand why they can't shave underarms. It's appalling to me. I've checked and observed, even the most fastidious + up to date modern Roman girl. Yet when she holds the strap on the bus, I can't believe it! "
• Lamented how hard the bed was at a relative's house. After arriving there she wrote:
  • Ceprano: "Then, hit the sack and that's just what that bed is - one hi and one low mattress put together."
• Noted food and customs.
  • Palermo: "All they do is eat, talk, laugh, eat again. Nice friendly people, but tiresome, repetitious and always ready to eat." [What's wrong with that Grams?]
  • Italy in general: "Good thing I brought Maxwell instant and Cremora. We can't stand their black coffee in the morning." [Grams: am I really related to you?]
  • Of Palermo on her second visit: "And of course the whole of Palermo has gone downhill. Now more than ever the people nave no scruples about throwing their garbage around. Everywhere one looks, there are piles of garbage in the streets. Their parks are dirty and dusty. Everyone eats and throws their remains on the grounds wherever they are. It's appalling to see how inconsiderate they are of cleanliness. Even with their dense population (they claim that's the reason for the messiness), it would seem if they were taught to observe clean habits, Palermo would indeed be a better place to live in, and visit."

The niggling, slightly cranky tone of her writing is my grandmother's "voice". I agree with on some points and disagree with her on others. Maybe she wrote these never expecting them to be published. Furthermore, I can't claim that my travel diaries rise to any better level.

When I spent time as a kid with my grandparents, I remember my grandmother more because she did most of the talking. Throughout the years, my grandmother sent me cards and letters such that I remember her in words as much as I do in person. In those cards and letters, her tone was similar to the diary: full of chit-chat, sometimes slightly irritable, and with few mentions of my grandfather. The travel diary was interesting for its few glimpses into what my grandfather liked and when he was happy. To be honest, my grandmother wrote and talked more all those years because my grandfather was barely literate.

~~Like a sardine~~

The literacy of my grandfather wasn't something I thought about until along with the arrival of the diary there also came a small stash of letters. The letters were written by my grandfather and are the only thing I have ever seen written by him. In 1946, age 34, he had hernia surgery, and stayed in the hospital from August 30th to September 7th. The stash I received are the letters he wrote every day to my grandmother.

Upon reading the letters, I was struck by the child-like quality of his writing. He wrote English like I write and speak Italian: choppy, and not quite right. The letters reveal that he had a very limited understanding of how to write in English.

In the letters, my grandfather wrote about mostly how he wanted to be out of the hospital and how much he missed my grandmother. It's clear from the letters that the separation from my grandmother was very hard for him. My grandmother was able to come every few days to visit him. And in one visit, she brought some pasta that all the other patients said was the best they ever tasted – my grandfather recounts to her in one letter. In another letter, he tells my grandmother to keep her head high in some family squabble that is only obliquely referred to in the letter. He says: "They are all a bunch of no good Lous[es], they all stink, I believe it."

Two other interesting aspects of the letters are his terms of endearment and his fish analogies. His terms of endearment toward my grandmother and their two kids at the time are conveyed in very physical terms like "…my baby’s Joe-Marie are they fresh if they are just tell them I be home in a short while to beat them up with the strap." and "I could beat you to death, And Hug you to death I love you Deeply in my Heart."

Then there are the fish analogies. Perhaps my grandfather really resonated with the ocean. Perhaps he liked to eat fish and it was on his mind. Or, more likely, perhaps these were the few idiomatic expressions he knew how to use in English to express how he felt trapped in the hospital, in his bed, hopeless and far from home. His fish metaphors:

• "I just feel like a dead fish I feel that I am in another world"
• "I felt so blue when I look through the windows was a beautiful morning here I am in bed like a dead fish its 6 days honey"
• "I felt like a herring in bed when you went home I did know what to do you look very pretty to me But don’t get Swell Head"
• "My dear beautiful wife, Today is 7 day 3 more to go or 2 more or 1 more I feel fine but I am still blue Holiday pass and I am still in bed like a sardine."

My grandfather's parents were born in Sicily and my grandfather was born in Brooklyn. He lived the first third of his life surrounded by other Italians, speaking Italian. He probably didn't finish high school explaining why he wrote at a basic level. As I remember it, his spoken English was basic, but serviceable. As a kid, I didn't judge language abilities as I might today as an adult.

The diary. Left: Cover. Center: Page listing family met. Right: Last page and overview of the trip.

~~~A pipe for Dad~~~

In the travel diary of 1973 my grandfather, Sal, is also referred to as "Dad". He is alluded only a few times, all positive. His life was always filtered through my grandmother's actions and words in her role as the main bread-winner, decision-maker, and spokesperson of the family.

A typical entry in the diary about my grandfather can be boiled down to this: "Sal was happy". His happiness was in simple things: touching the tomb of a saint in Padova, seeing the holy reliquaries in Orvieto, or sleeping with church bells. (My grandmother couldn't sleep at all in Orvieto because of the bells, but my grandfather slept soundly and peacefully.)

Excerpts from the diary include:

• Padua, at St. Anthony Chapel
  • "Then we walked around and saw and touched the tomb of the Saint. This made Dad very happy."
• Bologna
  • "We had coffee, bought cards and pipe for Dad." [He loved his pipes.]
• Florence
  • "We stopped to eat. Dad had tripe and mussels, ugh!!" [Go Gramps!]
• Orvieto
  • "Then we went back to hotel. I washed some things and wrote cards. But then try to sleep. The bells ring every 15 min! And they are right next door. Sal doesn't mind. He loves bells."
  • "Famous for its of relics of the "Miracle of Bolsena". We happened to be right there in the little side chapel when they had their yearly showing of the 'cloth' and we went up the ladder to see it and I took a picture! Sal very happy to have been here at just this time!"
• Capri, Blue Grotto
  • "it was a happy sound in the grotto."

My grandparents visited the Blue Grotto in 1973 as part of their first of their two trips. In that trip, they drove from Zurich to Rome stopping at Bergamo, Padova, Bologna, Florence, and Orvieto. Their itinerary seemed to be on-the-fly, something I could never do, but maybe should try. They had places they wanted to end up, but seemed content to stop here or there, or just as easily, leave a place if it didn't appeal to them. After dropping their rental car off in Rome, they continued further south eventually ending in Palermo. In the southern segment of their trip, they took public transportation, of which my Grandmother kept detailed notes of prices and quality of service, and more importantly, vented when she felt they got ripped off.

My grandmother's family was from outside of Rome, Ceprano. My grandfather's family was from Palermo. Ceprano had the sack-of-a-bed. Palermo had the eat-talk-laugh-eat-again people. Oh, to have been able to travel with them! My grandmother with her impossibly large handbags filled everything plus a sandwich or two, her constantly sore feet, and her shrieks of "Oh, Sal!"

~~~~Parlare~~~~

Both of my grandparents spoke Italian and my grandmother could write it. I learned to speak Italian and be able to distinguish dialects long after they died. Their "Italian" voices are too faint in my head to be sure, but based on their family histories, my grandmother likely spoke like someone who grew up familiar with the Romanesco dialect and my grandfather with a cross between the Neapolitan and Sicilian languages.

As a kid at Sunday dinner at my grandparent's house in Connecticut - naturally at the kid's table in the kitchen, separate from the adults - my grandfather would come in and make sure we all had our coca cola with a touch of wine added. As he poured he would mutter phrases of endearment or scolding. His phrases pop into my mind every now and then, teasing me, daring me to decipher them. Once in a while, one of his phrases does map to something I've heard in Italian. For example, his term of endearment: scungillo or scunciglio or sconciglio I believe maps to a common name for whelk (cf: ref and ref). Or maybe, he could have been saying scugnizzo - street urchin, which would make more sense in how he used it.

~~~~~The Blue Grotto~~~~~

I was 8 when my grandparents went to Italy for the first time in 1973. They were first-generation Italian Americans from New York, and the trip was very important for them and the family they visited. We received postcards ever few days, including one of the Blue Grotto. The postcards were dispatches from the unknown for me.

My grandmother was always good about sending postcards. In fact, in 1973, the night after arriving in Zurich she wrote in her diary: "Wrote a few cards (we bought cards and stamps at airport)." Now that's efficient. Having just landed and bought postcards is not something I would ever do.

The postcards my grandmother sent were addressed to the whole family, but they always ended up with me. I hogged them and poured over them, looking for revealing details about their trip. I saved those cards for 30 years. One postcard from the 1973 trip was of a big St. Bernard dog on an impossibly steep mountain slope. The dog stared out from a field of yellow and red flowers. It was somewhere in Switzerland and I can still see that dog's blank face. I guess my love of travel started with those postcards and I owe many thanks to my grandmother for sending them.

On the other hand, I am a little peeved at my grandmother for the lack of interesting details about my grandfather and the Blue Grotto. They visited the Blue Grotto on a day trip from Naples and there is a lot of information about how they came and went and who they met, like this passage: "We got up early, breakfasted downstairs in restaurant. There we met a mother and daughter, Mary Ann and Donna, from Hollywood, Calif. We talked them into the tour of Capri with us and off we went." While I'm sure Mary Ann and Donna from Hollywood were nice, I'd love to know more about the Blue Grotto and my grandfather. What song did he sing? How long did he sing? Did people ask for his autograph? What did my grandfather feel like later that day? Did he talk about the experience? Did he want to return to the grotto?

Instead, my grandmother wrote only this: "Then we were rowed back to the other boat and then shore. There a canopied mini bus awaited and we were brought up to Ana Capri."

~~~~~~Memory diary~~~~~~

My grandfather lived his life in the shadow of my grandmother. She dominated their relationship, out of character and necessity. The hospital letters left me with the impression of my grandfather as a child-man. And in some ways he was. The travel diary left me with the impression of my grandfather as a secondary character in a play, a character that never gets fleshed out fully. Singing in the grotto was one of his brief scenes. Who that man was singing in the grotto and why was he so happy? The playwright leaves us hanging.

I spent many summers with my grandparents. With my grandfather, it was mostly time together without words. We just did things. Maybe I need to judge him on his actions and be happy with that. So what if he didn't write well or much.

Thinking about our wordless time together, I can remember many things about my grandfather. He loved: wine - he was always sneaking it; pipes - I remember the wonderful tobacco smell; gardening - I remember helping him and enjoying it; going to church - boy did he nag me every Sunday morning to go with him. My grandfather didn't like certain kinds of pasta or conflicts. He wanted everyone to get along. He liked playing the lottery (he won $10,000 once) and he never had more than 2 or 3 dollars in his wallet. All facets of my grandfather locked in my internal travel diary called memory.

I remember his thick white hair, his smell, and the way he smiled. I remember his murmur: it was sort of cross between a low hum and rattle. He did it when driving, gardening, and when tending the fire on cold winter nights. I remember it well because I would sleep on the sofa near the fireplace. He moved slowly in the dark with only the glow of the fireplace for light, in pajamas and slippers, murmuring. He would tend the fire and then head back to bed. Sometimes, my grandmother, would kick him out of bed for snoring and he'd end up on the couch with me, his feet in my face. I remember those feet.

Doing Family Research in Palermo

We were in Palermo over Easter doing some family research. This post can be considered part II of the previous post On-the-Ground Italian Family Research. Let me just breathe a sigh of relief and say that we got everything we needed and everyone we worked with was helpful.

Anagrafe Information

Here is some information about the anagrafe offices (link 1 and link 2). They are in Italian. Unfortunately, they don't tell you the most important thing which is that the office for old records is right across from the main train station, conveniently located. It’s a grayish, formidable looking building with brown signage above the windows saying “Muncipio di Palermo”. During off hours, you can’t really look in any windows because everything is shut up. Normal hours are something like 8:30 to 1:30 (check to confirm). When you enter through a gate on the side of the building (away from the ocean) there are several doors to choose from. One door is the place you pick up previously requested information or things that are already in the computer. It’s the “sportello”. The other door has a security guard inside and that’s where you should go if you need to do research. You want to ask the guard to take you to door #6. It’s just to the left of the elevator past the guard post. Below is a picture of the building with the main train station in the background.


Once inside the door, you meet someone there and you can state what you need. As usual, having all the information on one or more sheets of paper and easy to read will help. Also be prepared to take notes as it will help to record dates and volume/number from the index (more below).

You can get photocopies for just a few cents apiece or you can ask for an extract. The extract might take a day or so to process since the information has to be typed into the computer. Then you can just go to the sportello and have the extract printed out.

Note that the first step the person helping you will take is to consult the indexes. The indexes are listing by date of births, deaths, marriages that list the volume (located elsewhere in the office) where the actual information is. Pictured below is the shelf that contains the index information from the 1800s.


Palermo Cemetery Information

There are four main cemeteries in Palermo (that we know of): Capuchin (location), Santa Maria de Gesù (location), Sant’Orsola (location), and Rotoli (location). We found staff on hand always to answer our questions, so stop at the main office (near the main entrance) and begin by asking someone to check the records. You can do this at all four cemeteries discussed here.

The Capuchin Catacombs is a huge tourist attraction because of the mummies in the basement – so to speak. The entrance to the touristy part is different but close to the main entrance to the cemetery. Just inside the gate to the right is an office where you can ask someone to look in the records. You need date of death and name. The Capuchin cemetery is just east of the city center. You can walk to it from the main train station in about 35 minutes.

Sant’Orsola is not as much of a tourist attraction, though I think there is a church inside (Santo Spirito) that is listed in some of the guide books. Again, you can walk from the central train station to the cemetery in about 20 minutes. A plan of the cemetery is shown below.


Santa Maria de Gesù is located quite a bit south of the city. Take a taxi or a bus(#210 from bay #2 in front of the main train station – for more info on buses see http://www.amat.pa.it/).

Rotoli is located quite a bit north of the city. Take a taxi or a bus (#139 from bay #1 in front of the main train station). This is the largest of the cemeteries and the most likely place to look. A plan of the cemetery is shown below. The sad thing here is that a fire wiped out all records before 1933 – this ultimately sank our search because we were looking for someone before this date. However, not is all is lost, because in most cases you can search for a related family member who died after 1933 and then use this to help locate the ancestor who died before 1933.

Note that the main office for the cemetery is where Via Papa Sergio turns into Via Vergine Maria (a truly miraculous kind of conversion :-)).

Some Gardens and Parks in Palermo

We were both surprised by how well the gardens in Palermo we did see seemed to be taken care of, with attention to trimming and design. We did not visit all the green spaces but hit the major ones. All the ones listed below, except the Orto Botanico, are free to visit. Here is a good site that summarizes gardens of Palermo.



Villa Bonanno – This green space is just east (toward the ocean) of Palazzo Reale on Via Vittorio Emanuele. This space is full of palms and has some old Roman ruins in it that hardly anyone knows are there.



Villa Garibaldi – Not sure where the Villa is, but this green space has some huge banyan trees in it that make it quite shady. Set your navigators to Piazza Marina to find this park.



Villa Giulia - This green space is adjacent to the botannical garden and is close to the sea on Via Lincoln. It’s a nice little retreat from the sometimes endless pavement of the city. Across from the park are two pasticcerias for a quick coffee or snack: Bar RosaNero and Bar Touring. The park closes at dusk.



Villa Whitaker – You can tour the Art Nouveau Whitaker (or Malifitano) Villa for 3 Euros or so, or you can enjoy the garden for free. A bit overgrown here and there, it has some great plant specimens the builder of the villa, Joseph Whitaker, had collected over the years. The Villa and the park is located on Via Dante 167, heading away from the harbor. Piazza Indipendenza – This green space is just west (away from the harbor) of Palazzo Reale on Via Vittoria Emanuele. This space has a merry-go-round and seems to be a more frequented spot by locals going to or coming from somewhere.

Orto Botanico – This botanical garden is located near Villa Guila on Via Lincoln. Of course it’s late March so not much is in bloom but we were impressed with scientific layout of the garden and the good labeling of specimens. We were surprised by the number of Chorisia speciosa (false kapok) tree and the trunk shapes. From this photo you can see that the trunk shapes can get quite interesting.

Terrazza a Mare – This green space is not what I would say is a plant lovers paradise, but it is one of the main promenade spots on the weekends. Young and old congregate on this huge stretch of land by the ocean.

Palermo Modern Art Museum

First and foremost, the Galleria D’Arte Moderna Palermo (or the Modern Art Museum of Palermo) has changed location. The old location was by the Politeama, clear across town. The new location is Piazza Sant’Anna (via Sant’Anna 21) which is near the intersection of via Roma and via Vittorio Emanuele. The new location is beautiful and the collection was a pleasure to visit. (It happened to be free this week – some national week of free museums or something like that.) The gallery showcases the works of Sicilian arts. We especially appreciated the work of Francesco Lojacono.

(On the brochure cover is one of the several versions of The Sin by Von Stuck.)

Giorgio de Chirico - La Metafisica continua

This show (February 28 – March 30) on Giorgio de Chirico was running while we were visiting the Modern Art Museum of Palermo. It seemed quite popular. We didn’t know much about de Chirico before going and had a better understanding after we left. But, afterwards we both turned to each other and confessed that we did not care for his work. It didn’t speak to us, especially the horse/mythological paintings. Looking at them hurt the eyes. Here’s an example.

Max Ernst Nella Collezione Würth

Part of the visit to the Palazzo Reale in Palermo included an exhibit of Max Ernst. The folks sponsoring the restoration of the Capella Palatina are the Würth Company out of Germany – and many if not all these Ernst works are from their private collection. We didn’t know much about the art of Max Ernst, but after the visit were a little better informed about this German artist. Like the Chirico exhibit we also saw, we both decided it wasn’t our favorite. Maybe because the surrealist movement (which Max Ernst was a part of) had core ideas that we didn’t really agree with. (Or maybe, we are snobs stuck in Renaissance mode – infected by everything Florence?)

Palermo Restaurant Picks

We were in Palermo for a week which included Easter. We generally ate a large lunch and then snacked for dinner back in our apartment. We used the Osterie d’Italia Slow Food Guide to guide us in our restaurant choices while in Palermo. We enjoyed them all. Here they are with a couple of notes:


Antica Focacceria San Francesco, the most famous, was probably the least refined in terms of flavors and presentation but still is definitely worth a visit even if to just support the addiopizzo campaign. Queues can get quite long for this popular place. You grab a tray, order, get your food and sit where you can. We ordered something like Menu #4 because it gave us a taste of everything for 13 Euros. It hit the spot as our first meal in Palermo. The Antica Focacceria San Francesco is located on Via A. Paternostro, 58 and opens out onto a little piazza in front of a church.


Trattoria Primavera was our Easter dinner and we could not have a more pleasant holiday dinner. It was packed, but we reserved the night before so had a table waiting. On a second outing to the restaurant a few days later for lunch we talked to the owner for a while which sealed the deal for us as a favorite place to eat. You’ll find typical Sicilian dishes here. Trattoria Primavera is near the Quattro Canti in the Piazza Bologna.


Maestro del Brodo is near the center of the famous Vucciria market. (The most famous representation of this market is Renato Guttuso’s famous 1974 painting La Vucciria. Search for it. By the way, the painting is in Palazzo Chiaromente which can be visited.) Maestro del Brodo is great because you walk in (at least for lunch the two times we went) and you are pleasantly accosted by two dozen or so very tempting antipasto dishes laid out in a small buffet. Next to that are all the fresh fish you can pick from for your main dish. Both times we got the self-serve antipasti buffet, a pasta dish, and a main fish dish – about 64 Euros for everything including wine and water. As I write this I’m still thinking of an appetizer which was chopped bits of veal jaws and feet (sort of cartilage-y) with a condiment of lemon and salt and served cold. Sounds odd, but it was delicious. However, fish is the main attraction in this restaurant.The Maestro del Brodo is located on Via Pannieri, 7.

Trattoria degli Artisti was the simplest of the restaurants we tried. We visited for a late lunch and at first thought so-so, but then as the meal progressed and we talked with the chef we grew to like it quite a bit. The chef came out and gave us a lesson on the finer points of preparing the involtini di pesce spada – slightly different than this video, but gives you the idea. The Trattoria degli Artisti is located on Via Torquato Tasso, 118.


Cucina Papoff was the fanciest of the restaurants we visited and the most expensive of this small list of restaurants, though not prohibitive enough to try it. The door was locked when we arrived, but we could hear something going on and so rang the bell and then the door magically opened and we were greeted by one of their great wait staff. You’ll fine refined versions of popular Sicilian dishes. Cucina Papoff is located on Via Isidoro La Lumia, 32.

Punto Prodotti Tipici

Punto Prodotti Tipici is a nice place to get some typical Sicilian products complete with recommendations for preparation. Plus, visit this place to support the addiopizzo campaign. When we were there just before lunch the owner shared some orange-flavored olive oil on bread and offered wine. The shop is found on Via Mariano Stabile 97, which runs parallel to Via Cavour.

Pizzo – Protection Money

We went to Antica Focacceria San Francesco in Palermo once (this last week) and passed through the piazza in front of it several times and noticed that there are always police out front. Why? Well we learned in time that they are guarding the famous eatery. But, why? Because its owner has refused to pay protection money and therefore is the target of the Cosa Nostra. What’s protection money? See here. How sad, but also how positive folks are standing up. In fact, here is a list of businesses refusing to pay “pizzo” or protection money: addiopizzo.org (literally “goodbye pizzo”). Please consult the list of businesses that support this effort and consider patronizing them when in Palermo.

I wonder about all the glamorization of mafia behavior in popular entertainment. I imagine it isn’t quite so much fun when you have to live with it for real. It’s not entertainment anymore, it’s life or death. More immediately apparent to the visitor is the bombed-out look of some parts of the oldest parts of Palermo, which is due, in no small part, to the Cosa Nostra’s involvement in city development post-WW II – i.e. “coaxing” everyone out into the periphery of the city. Again, there is hope because we were told it is coming back to life.