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

I decided to observe Piazza Garibaldi from about 9:35am to 10:20am on a Monday morning. I was curious to see what the that start of the week looked like from one of the central spots in town. So, I grabbed breakfast and began watching.

This photo is the breakfast I got. Not 100% relevant to my observation, but it was delicious: http://drive.google.com/a/vanderbilt.edu/file/d/0B-HkeMGjP_PWZm5zRzhGVVE0WFE/view?usp=sharing

I never guessed that I would see so many interesting things in just 45 minutes. I watched people of various ages, nationalities, and professions cross paths and interact.

Pretty quickly, I began to watch a small group of older men who were just standing in a corner of the piazza smoking, chatting, and people-watching. They were pretty quiet, except when they would recognize someone who walked by and call out. They were in no hurry, and never pulled out phones or computers. It struck me that they appeared to have woken up and gotten dressed on a Monday morning just to meet and visit in the piazza. I cannot imagine Americans doing such a thing – especially younger Americans.

Here is a shot of the men visiting in the piazza: https://drive.google.com/a/vanderbilt.edu/file/d/0B-HkeMGjP_PWVldUdU5JdWw1YW8/view?usp=sharing

The next situation that caught my attention was a man selling seafood out of his Vespa. He had a box of what appeared to be mollusks stored in the seat of his Vespa, and he was just parked on the sidewalk in the piazza. When he would see someone he knew, which was about every two minutes, he would try to sell them his product. About half of the folks he stopped made a purchase, and almost all had a brief conversation with the mollusk-peddler. His job is pretty unconventional from my perspective, but for him, it must be normal to wake up, go fishing, and then spending the day tracking down customers.

This is the Vespa man selling seafood. He was pretty close to me, so I just took this shot from behind the plant between us: https://drive.google.com/a/vanderbilt.edu/file/d/0B-HkeMGjP_PWZ2Y4NjJpWWtqTTA/view?usp=sharing

Finally, I noticed an Italian family pushing a wheelchair through the piazza. I am pretty certain they were tourists from some other part of Italy. I was watching them struggle to maneuver the wheels over the bumpy street, and wondering about accessibility in Italy. How difficult is it to navigate cities and towns designed hundreds or thousands of years ago? How advanced is the medical care for handicapped people in Italy?

Here’s the family attempting to move their wheelchair: https://drive.google.com/a/vanderbilt.edu/file/d/0B-HkeMGjP_PWTmlsb19sckFVMEE/view?usp=sharing

Ultimately, I was left with the impression that life is lived quite differently here in Cefalù than it is in Nashville – especially on a Monday morning. The pace is more relaxed, people make a living in some odd ways, and just getting around can be more difficult. But the biggest difference I noticed was that nobody was sluggish or loudly complaining, which is a pleasant change from Mondays on an American college campus. Of course, it may be a different story inside all of the high schools…

Finally, this is a 40-sec video of some of the things I observed in Piazza Garibaldi: