Posted by michaelp on Monday, May 15, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

On Saturday as I meandered through the streets looking for an open wine shop around 9:30 I happened to pass through La Piazza Duomo during one of the mayoral candidate’s speeches pre-election. I knew there was a big election coming up, but I made the assumption that it was the Italian national election because I never would have expected to see so many people involved in local politics. I couldn’t even tell you who the mayor of my town is, nevermind when our local election is, and I didn’t even know mayoral candidates gave speeches. I was impressed by how involved the people of Cefalu are in their local government as I watched 500 or so people intently watching and listening to this candidate as they careful calculated whether his vision aligned with the life they want to have here in Cefalu. The first realization I had was due to the close vicinity of everything and everyone in the city these people are just naturally more involved with the day to day life of the people and the life of the city. This being said each person has much more of a say in shaping the lifestyle of Cefalu. And people take that very seriously here. It seems in America we take the life we are given and conform to it because we see it as truth and since our towns and cities are so large and spread out we believe we really don’t have a say in the matter. But doesn’t appear to be the case her. There is very much a lifestyle difference here and the people of Cefalu take a lot of pride in and Im sure when they see the news and the way life is like in a more industrial society it can be seen as threat and they take an interest in local politics to insure that this lifestyle is maintained.