From La Repubblica/Palermo edition of 22 March 2015.
A restaurant owner has given up and decided to move out of the Vucciria market area and night life hub of Palermo after a bonfire on the Eve of Saint Joseph's Feast (March 19) practically destroyed his business and put his customers and staff in danger. The restaurateur, Pippo Bisso, was a huge anti-Mafia figure. He says he was never asked in so many words to pay protection, because the petty crime bosses knew he wouldn't and that he would report them to the police. He was an extreme outsider to them. The mafiosini would send women and children to his 21-year-old restaurant Sant'Andrea to taunt and tease patrons at outdoor tables, and even had the kids come up and urinate next to dining customers, until he finally pulled sidewalk service. He had also experienced the typical threatening tricks of finding the keyholes to his business's door filled with super glue, his storerooms broken into and vandalized.
This year for the third year in a row local hoodlums lit a bonfire outside his establishment to celebrate St. Joseph's Eve in the traditional way, but when it burned out of control and firemen were called and police had to escort diners and staff to safety, the hoodlums pelted the rescuers with rocks.
A restaurant owner has given up and decided to move out of the Vucciria market area and night life hub of Palermo after a bonfire on the Eve of Saint Joseph's Feast (March 19) practically destroyed his business and put his customers and staff in danger. The restaurateur, Pippo Bisso, was a huge anti-Mafia figure. He says he was never asked in so many words to pay protection, because the petty crime bosses knew he wouldn't and that he would report them to the police. He was an extreme outsider to them. The mafiosini would send women and children to his 21-year-old restaurant Sant'Andrea to taunt and tease patrons at outdoor tables, and even had the kids come up and urinate next to dining customers, until he finally pulled sidewalk service. He had also experienced the typical threatening tricks of finding the keyholes to his business's door filled with super glue, his storerooms broken into and vandalized.
This year for the third year in a row local hoodlums lit a bonfire outside his establishment to celebrate St. Joseph's Eve in the traditional way, but when it burned out of control and firemen were called and police had to escort diners and staff to safety, the hoodlums pelted the rescuers with rocks.