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

Sitting at Pizzeria Ristorante Duomo eating spaghetti all’ arrabiatta and bianco pizza, I looked around and noticed that I was the only one folding my pizza before I ate it. This was not completely unusual, but people eating pizza with a knife and fork was. When I first saw someone eating a pizza with a fork and knife in Italy, I was shocked. Back in New York, if I saw my friend eating pizza with a fork and knife, I would slap the utensils our of their hands and tell them to eat the pizza with their hands like a normal person. Realizing that it is acceptable to eat pizza with utensils in the place where pizza was invented was borderline life-changing for me. Eating pizza with a fork is both cleaner, easier, and more efficient.

The three people eating pizza with utensils were a husband and wife with their cute, chubby baby. They were wearing blue jeans, sneakers, t shirts, and sunglasses. They were speaking Italian, but seemed to be either visitors or atypical Sicilians. While having their meal, they seemed very engaged in their conversation and enjoying the company of their infant. These people were clearly enjoying their wonderful meal and time spent with their family. This confirms a hypothesis that I have developed over my time in Cefalú about the food and restaurant culture in Sicily.

It seems like the Sicilians view meals very differently than Americans. Meals here have lasted anywhere from 40 minutes to 4 hours. In America, a 4 hour meal would feel like a complete waste of time for most people; however, in Sicily it is a time where you can catch up with family and friends, spending quality time with the ones you love. I really appreciate this lifestyle difference and think that Americans might want to reevaluate their priorities to mirror those of the Sicilians. Of the people that are both wise and mature, I have found that most of them say that their biggest regret is not spending enough time with the ones they love. I believe that if we thought about meals less as wasting time and more as quality bonding time, we could all live much more in the moment in search of a happier lifestyle.