Posted by curnintb on Thursday, June 2, 2016 in Blog posts.

One best learns about a land and its culture through those who live their everyday lives immersed in it.  There are some nuances of the culture, that even after a month of living here in Sicily, that I have not noticed or remain hidden to me.  Speaking with Davide allowed me to see Sicilian culture through the eyes of a Sicilian.

First, we discussed his day-to-day life.  He lives in Aspra with his family, a small town about 15 minutes from Palermo, and commutes to Cefalù to teach Italian language classes to English speakers at the Culturforum.  He seems to enjoy his job and talks to me with enthusiasm as he describes his routine.  He is usually the first one to the office, usually around 8 AM, so he opens the school, does some organizing, and then does some office work until his class starts at around 9.  He eats lunch at noon most days, grabbing something quick like a panino, then hops on a train to Bagheria at 1, where he gets off and takes a car to Porticielo.  In Porticielo Davide works for a scuba diving company, either taking groups out on dives or providing training to those looking to get their dive permit.  After finishing work around 6:30 PM, Davide often goes to the nearby town of Casteldaccia to spend time with friends.  At around 8, he will return home to his family for dinner.  After dinner, he enjoys spending time with his grandmother, who is very old, or watching TV and relaxing before bed.  He leads dives on the weekends with his dive company, but enjoys going out in Palermo on weekend nights.

We then discussed the state of Sicily: what he thought about the socioeconomic state, politics, and the medical system.  He did not have much to say about the medical system, as it seemed that fortunately he had not had too much experience with it.  He claims that the private clinics are well-run and reliable, but that the public hospitals could be a gamble in that sometimes they provided good care, other times not so much.  Davide went on to talk about the economic state of Sicily, which he suggests is continually declining.  My cousins in Puglia have said things have gotten better over the past couple years, that money is flowing more fluidly now.  Davide, on the other hand, has pointed to the declining amount of tourism as the source of Sicily’s economic downturn over the past couple years.  He states that Sicily cannot survive without tourism, and as tourism declines, so does the economy.  He says that the Sicilian people have not really tried to make up for this decline in tourism, and that they have not tried to repair damaged relationships with groups that may have had a bad experience.  On the topic of politics, Davide says, “In Italy, we say that the politicians here aren’t really politicians.”  He went on to describe how elected officials continue turn a blind eye to the needs of the people who elected them.  He asserts that the Mafia may be more powerful now than it ever has been, as they no longer even need to kill anyone to maintain that power.  He knows, as does the rest of Italy, that high up officials in the Italian government have a relationship with the Mafia today, but he cannot say for sure whether if it is the government controlling the Mafia or vice-versa.

Davide spoke of a grim future for Sicily, and his face seemed stricken with despair as he described the situation to me.  If there are more Davides out there, I think that Sicily may be due for a change for the better.  If self-absorbed people continue to control the Sicilian government, perhaps Sicily does indeed have a grim future ahead of itself.