E-VITA

When I started my work at the university I met a girl from Italy. Her name was Nadia. She came to Poland as a beneficiary of one of the first student exchange programmes Poland participated. She felt lonely and lost in Poland and we became friends as I helped her with all everyday issues, flat renting, shopping, etc. The English language is not widely spoken in Poland and she sometimes found it quite difficult to communicate. We got on very well together, spent wonderful time, visited Cracow together etc.
After she came back to Italy, actually to Sicily where her family home was, she invited me for summer holidays. I arranged everything, packed my suitcase and very excited went to Italy. I travelled to Rome by coach. The journey was long and tiring, but finally I arrived at the railway station in Rome. It was huge, very busy station with many people crowding in front of a big information board. I badly needed to find the number of the platform from which my train was supposed to go to Sicily, but it seemed impossible as I could not find any readable timetable. A bit scared and feeling lost I looked for an information office, I found one after a while and I stood in a queue. After 40 minutes I asked the man about my train, I wanted to know details on its departure time and platform so I could take my big suitcase and find my way. The man looked at some papers then at me and he appeared extremely surprised and he said I should stand in front of the electronic display board and wait for the information which would come in a due time. Fortunately he spoke English and could communicate! So tired and desperate I joined the crowd of noisy people and waited for my train info. The good thing was everybody was smoking not paying attention to the signs forbidding smoking and I took a cigarette too. It chilled me out a bit. After some time waiting I got on the train and found my compartment, there were some other passengers and immediately they started to talk to me. They asked me if I was Italiana or Siciliana; ‘I am Polaca’ I replied, not knowing if it is the right word, but they nodded their heads and most probably assumed I knew Italian, because the rest of the time we spent together they talked Italian to me and did not mind me repeating: ‘non comprendo’.
After some time the train got onto the ferry so we travelled directly to Sicily without having to leave the train. It was very well organised! Finally in the middle of the night I arrived at the station in Millazzo, a small town. There my friend Nadia and her mother met me and took me to a cafeteria which was still open and we ate some hot cookies and drank some coffee. It was strange to me, because it was full of people even though it was about 3 a.m. Everybody was sitting, talking, enjoying their meals… I was extremely tired after a very long journey and I was happy to go home and go to sleep.
The next morning the family (two families actually, because my friend’s parents’ house was directly next to their cousin’s or uncle’s family house) all met in a big dining room. There was a lot of food on the table, really great variety of pasta, bread, salads, tomatoes, meats etc. I felt appreciated and a bit confused – I was just the family daughter’s friend and I was so much honoured by all of them. I felt a bit uncertain and discouraged… we sat and then I heard the word for the first time. The family father said to me ‘[manczi]’ and that word became my curse for the rest of the visit. It turned out that on the first day of my visit it was not a special meal given to honour me, but simply they have a similar every single day – lots of food and drink which had to be first prepared and then eaten by the people. I am small and I do not normally eat a lot, so for me it was almost a torture. I was full with food and swollen with heat and humidity of the climate of Sicily.
Except for preparing and eating we spent lazy time in the garden and in the town. My hosts said that it was not good idea to go to see Etna (it had erupted at that time) or go to the beach or anywhere else because it was too hot – it was the most common excuse: it was too hot to do anything almost. Time passed slowly, everything was like slow-motion movie, the heat was unbearable and for me who is not accustomed to such extreme temperature it was really difficult.
From time to time we had a visitor in the garden – serpentino, a venomous viper. Everybody went inside the house and it was the only time the people moved fast! It was as if they suddenly got animated – quick and dynamic facing the situation of evil and danger…
One day we went to the Aeolian islands – volcanic land with wonderful unusual black sand on the beach and hot bubbling water. It was really extraordinary, beautiful view, very exotic to me, but even hotter than everywhere else. I could not breath, we in Poland are not used to such weather really.
The town of Millazzo is famous for some film productions by Antonioni and other directors and local people were proud to show me the Cafe Paradiso in the centre. It was charming also for many very well preserved buildings from Roman era. I loved it there on the whole…
I tasted aubergine (egg plant) for the first time in Sicily. I loved the vegetable. There was a festival of aubergine – all house wives came to the stands along the streets of Millazzo and they presented different specialities, home made food with the leading role of aubergine. Oh God, it was heavenly – grilled, cooked, stewed, salads, pasta, macaroni – everything with the smooth previously unknown exquisite taste of the vegetable. I use it since then in my kitchen often…
 

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