Our Man in Europe, dave Delacroix...….LICATA STREET....Sciacca, Sicily.
*dedicato Acussio.
Rest after TOIL, Death after Life, PORT after Storm...doth greatly please.... And in SCIACCA-Sicily, where NOW, 2018, I live, a town famed for the Italian CINEMA brouhaha, Pietro Germi-s Classic movie, Seduced and Abandoned, 1964, where-in every Sciacca-native takes pride, Lenny Amedeo, GREASE BARBER-SHOP, my OWN-this day Barber, a child in a crowd scene, and many more AMICI including Antonio Segreto, Maestro Dude at MURPHYS IRISH PUB in the Palazzo Inveges from where some movie scenes were shot, BAR SANTANGELO, also featuring in several Scenes, still thriving, vecchio-patroni Guys with Mega-Stories from whence to hence! Ancient Sciacca families, the Montalbanos, Segretos, the Cima, Bovina, many more...and the LICATA!
There are TWO main thoroughfares in Sciacca-old town. Via V. Emanuele...POSH!... and Via LICATA. The latter, traditionally used for Produce-conveyance into the town market, atypical medieval scene. Donkeys, carts, dogs barking, Ragazzi-crowds, jugglers, Priests, STUDENTS cajoling, the latter like today... and honest Folks, the families of the Fishermen who pioneered this ancient Magna-Greco locale, founded upon natural SPA ground waters and the bounty of the Sea.
I ran into fellow SHAKATERRO Accusio L. We drank a few this and a few that. And maybe figuring, has I had sojourned in Sciacca these last few years, told me of his great-uncle ANTONELLO LICATA, a King amongst the Sciacca Fishing fleet who, back in the twilight of the last Century SAILED to SWEDEN and returned to Sciacca with a Fishing vessel powered NOT by SAIL but by an oil-fired engine....!!! Yet ALL Sciacca fishing vessels were SAILING crafts so the COMMUNITY descended on the harbour-porta, demonstrated, throwing ROCKS, detritus at this Cultural affront! There was a GREAT brouhahas! Yet Antonello...LICATA...won the day! He discharged a SHOTGUN...into the air!...momentarily quietened the ragazzi down...and convinced the Sciacca-fishing-fleet Community that with this new boat-powered-ENGINE, in a hurricane, violent storm, etc., UNLIKE with SAIL, the Fishermen, Community loved-ones, would return to Port SAFELY.
There was a lot of CHATTER, naturally... And now, almost a Century later, Antonello-s great Nephew Accusio, promises to come by the next days for lunch with an old family Photo Album of those grand days of change!... My Goodness!!!!
I LIVE in Sciacca just off the via LICATA.... Death after Life. Rest after toil. PORT after Storm....doth greatly please. And SO it seems!
c2018.davedelacroix,murphys,sciacca,sicily.
Rest after TOIL, DEATH after Life, PORT after Storm...
