Theresa Maggio

Sicilians have really taken to the American celebration of Halloween, but not all Sicilians. Several religious groups got together and formed an anti-Halloween parade in which everyone dressed in white and you were invited to carry images of saints. A wooden crucifix led the cortege through Palermo's new pedestrian malls and through back streets  Read More 

From La Repubblica Palermo online: 12 cadavers have already been pulled from the sea in the Strait of Sicily after a rubber raft went down 25 nautical miles north of the Libyan coast because of force 4 high winds and waves. As of this writing 29 people were saved. Rescuers came on five ships coordinated by the Rome  Read More 

I am on the island of Favignana and I see many changes. I am nostalgic for the island in the days of the tonnara. Click on the caption to see a slide show of those days.

Italian Coast Guard film:



http://video.repubblica.it/edizione/palermo/tre-piccoli-migranti-venuti-alla-luce-sulla-nave-dattilo-le-immagini-dei-soccorsi/254320/254531

10,000 immigrants saved from the sea in the last two days, according to a story by Claudia Brunetto in La Repubblica today. 72 separate rescue operations in the Strait of Sicily. 28 bodies were also pulled from the sea, 22 of which had been aboard a vessel packed with abut a thousand people.

I am back on Favignana. I rented a bike from Zu Isidoro's ( RIP Zu Isisdoro) and peddled to Bue Marino, my favorite spot. One of them. No words for the beauty.  Read More 

To honor the third anniversary of the drowning of 368 African immigrant at the dock of Lampedusa, Italian TV last night broadcast the Oscar nominated film Fuocoammare, Fire at Sea, filmed on Lampedusa. It does not have much distribution in the US. It was a beautiful sad poem. Like nothing I had ever seen before.
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Rocky set up on my street corner in the Via Vittorio Emanuele every night and sold pane ca meuzza, in Sicilian, pane con la milza in Italian, or spleen and cheese sandwich in English, a typically Palermitan street food item.

University of Palermo anthropology professor Carlo Di Franco, who took the picture, writes on his personal Facebook page that Palermo's old knife makers appear in all the old markets of the city: the Vucciria, Ballaro`, and the Capo markets. He photographed Mr. Salvatore Cambria who for 60 years has operated out of his shop and workshop in Discesa Maccarrronai (Macaroni Makers Descent) in the Vucciria market. Read More