Experience Sicily

Tag: ragazzi

  • Me And The Guys In The Piazza

    When I started learning Italian in 1996 while backpacking solo through Europe, it was a dream of mine to be able to talk to the locals and (attempt) to understand their cultures. I wanted to hear what someone from another country thought and felt. Since gaining a command of Italian, it’s been a great joy…

  • Signori di Ragusa Ibla

    I was fortunate enough to have my photo taken with the distinguished members of the G. B. Marini Operators Circle of Ragusa Ibla on Tuesday.

  • Socializing on the Avenue 

    Old school social media on Corso Giuseppe Garabaldi, Castellammare del Golfo 

  • Say Cheese

    New friends who my client Anthony and I met in the piazza in Marineo, Provincia di Palermo, the town from where Anthony’s father emigrated to the U.S. In the early 20th century. These gentlemen helped us locate Anthony’s distant cousin who lives down the street from the piazza.

  • Peace Be With You

    I was high up in a piazza in Polizzi Generosa when I looked over the wall to find a group of boys playing soccer below. When they saw me and that I had a camera, they all gathered together to greet me from afar, wishing us onlookers peace. So, on September 11, I send peace…

  • A Kid in a Pastry Shop

    A kid in a pastry shop–better than a candy story, I think. A little nostalgia for today: my dad’s birthday–and in anticipation of Father’s Day (US) on Sunday. Here’s my father Peter at 8 years old in Bagheria at my great uncle’s pasticerria Bar Aurora. Written on the back of the photograph, my uncle Stefano…

  • Sicilians Love NY

    Ragazzi (guys) hanging out in the Piazza della Republica, Mazara del Vallo.

  • Where the Guys Meet-Up

    When traveling to smaller cities and towns, in the piazzas and at the local bars, you will see men congregating and very few women. (Bars in Italy aren’t like bars here–they are all-day, family-friendly social centers based around cappuccino, espresso, sandwiches and baked goods, soccer broadcasts, and cocktails; hence, not just cocktails.). The home is…

  • Bar Aurora: Bagheria’s Place to Be

    This photo was taken by my uncle Stefano during a visit to Sicily in 1950. It is of 3 young bakers or baristas in the kitchen at Bagheria’s Bar Aurora. Bar Aurora was owned by my great uncle Domenico Cuffaro. It was–as the over-exposure from a following photo on the film-roll shows–a laboratorio (bakery), pasticceria…