Guilt……Sicilian Style!
2007 September 11
Capo San Vito.
Ever hear of it?
Neither did I until Manfredi Barbera, our olive oil producer, told us that is where he was putting us up after our meeting in Palermo last week.
“Alfred”, he said “It is a beautiful beach resort. Bring you bathing suit. It is a 4 star wonder.”
Really psyched at the prospect of spending a night at a 4 star beach hotel , Massimo, Joe Zang and myself headed to Palermo for a series of meetings, knowing that after the meetings we would be able to spend an hour or two on a great Mediterranean beach.
Wrong.
After a 2 and a half hour drive through the west coast of Sicily, and after passing some of the most breath-taking scenery that I have seen in a long long time, we hit town.
Massimo had been careful to tell Manfredi that there were three of us, and Manfredi told him that he had reserved a 3 bed suite at the hotel.
Wrong.
After arriving dead tired,hot and in desperate need of a dip in the sea, we looked at the room.
One child’s bed, and one double bed there for 3 grown men.
When we told the clerk the problem, the clerk told us that that’s it; that the hotel was completely sold out, and that is all he had.
No apology, nothing. Take it or leave it, Sicilian style.
Knowing that it was Manfredi’s problem and not ours since we were his guest,and the last thing a Sicilian wants is to lose face….especially in front of very good customers….I decided to let him fix the problem.
Which he did.
Massimo ended up in a nearby hotel, and Joe Zang and I ended up in the room.
Joe, a dear friend, was on his first trip to Sicily with us. Joe had suffered a few mishaps along the way though. First, he had stubbed his toe the day before and his big toe was three times its normal size, then he had stepped into fresh concrete that the workers had poured, giving him an authentic pair of “Sicilian shoes”, but most important was he was already stressed out about what his wife would say to him on his return.
You see, Joe’s wife, fearful that Joe was loosing his svelte figure, has sent him to a nutritionist in June, and had admonished him to eat carefully while on this trip.
Ya,right.
The gelato sellers had declared a national holiday because of Joe. He had gobbled up cornetti,brioche and granittia, pizza, pasta, risotto,and half the island of Sicily. The economy was practically humming because of him.
I actually saw him eat a little fruit and salad too, mentioning his wife’s name and telling us how proud she would be seeing him eat greens and fruit.
Ya, right.
Anyway, since he was carrying a heavy load of nutritionist-guilt with him to Capo San Vito, I decided to give him the double bed and I slept on the cot.
That night, Manfredi treated us to dinner, and then Joe and Massimo disappeared again. They had found Caldo-Freddo…the best gelato joint in town and had given it a work out.
Anyway, we returned to Catania, content on a job well done. We had experienced another adventure,and our pal Joe Zang had fallen in love with Sicilia.
Joe left Sicily three days later and I am sure that Fern (his beautiful and lovely wife) has him conting calories and munching on carrots again. But I think in the back of Joe’s mind it will be a long long time before he forgets the delicious foods that our island offered him.
Joe is a great guy and I dear friend, and I am very happy that he had such a wonderful trip, and maybe next year we will go on another “business” (wink,wink) trip together.
As Joe said to me “Alfred, this dinner was so good I can’t wait to get hungry again!”
