I met Giacomo in Rome when I was visiting Italy in the summer of 1982 with my good friend H. I returned the following summer, 1983, and met up with Giacomo again. This time he was in Trapani, Sicily, where his family lives. I traveled to Sicily to tour, since I had never been there, and also decided to visit him.
I really enjoyed the week I spent in Trapani, which is about an hour South of Palermo, along the coast. I had the pleasure of meeting his friends, parents and brothers. I enjoyed that the entire family had a delicious lunch together every day prepared by Giacomo’s mother. Never mind that him and brothers were all adults. I adored this tradition of having a huge family meal together in the afternoon, more like our dinner, followed by a siesta. This break from work in the hottest part of the day makes sense to me!
While in Trapani I stayed in a small pensione called Hotel Miramare, which means "facing the sea". We all joked it should have been called Hotel Mira all'Angolo because it really faced the street corner, with no view of the sea in sight.
I also met a lot of his friends while there. I enjoyed the friendliness of the Sicilian women. Every time I have been in Rome, or any other large Italian city, the Italian females have been less than friendly. In fact my friend Lisa and I have come up with a phrase to describe the look we got from the Italian women: “Sguarda di Morte” or “The Death Stare”. This is a look only Italian women can really do properly. They look at you blankly without seeing you; look right through you and with this one non-look you get the message. The Italian Death Stare lets you know that they are far superior to you in every way; far more sexy; far more fashionable; and look far better with their hair uncombed and unwashed that you look with your clean, combed hair; much more able to look sexy with armpit hair than you ever will; and would banish you from their country and from speaking to their men forever. However, while visiting Sicily, the women and girls were nothing but sweet and friendly and chatty to me. I did not get one Death Stare my whole visit to that island. I appreciated finally being able to have a conversation with a person of my gender. They were all very kind.
I had taken the train from Rome to Sicily, stopping at the Lipari Islands, Toarmina, and Siracusa, before taking a cross-island bus to Palermo and then a train to Trapani. Since Giacomo works for Alitalia, he was able to find me a flight from Trapani back to Rome for the same price as taking the train. The flight is only an hour, so I decided to take the plane. I had been paying for a hotel room in Rome during my 2-week sojourn to Sicily. Since single rooms were hard to come by and I had found a sweet deal in the historical center of Rome, for a ridiculous rate of about $20 per night, I paid for the room before I left, and kept a lot of my stuff there. I truly did feel like an expatriate.
This is when Giacomo and his 3 friends and I decided to make this photo shoot. I was leaving and they were very sad to see me go.
GIACOMO AND I AT THE TRAPANI AIRPORT TICKET COUNTER:
(Note the cigarette in my hand!)
GIACOMO AND DOMENICO WIPING TEARS FROM MY EYES:
MICHELE, DOMENICO, GIACOME AND UGO WAVING "ARRIVEDERCI" WITH THEIR HANKIES:
MY DRAMATIC CIAO AS I RUN TO MY PLANE. NOTE UGO DOUBLED OVER IN PAIN:
