What it means to be Sicilian

Though I always write posts in English, I was not born in any of Anglophone country you may think. I am Italian. But I am not just Italian. I am also Sicilian. You know that island in South Italy that has a triangle shape. Yes, that’s it Sicily. I am writing this post because since it’s two weeks I came back from Venice, and honestly in these days I felt very sad (now not anymore), so I reflected a lot about what being Sicilian, to be born in this land actually means. I may sound a bit drama queen, but I truly believe that it is not the same as being born in Rome or Milan.

              

Being Sicilian means to be an islander. It means to take the airplane every time you want to go to the other part of Italy, because you live in the far South. It means that when you speak with someone from another region, especially from North, they can recognize you are Sicilian because you’ve got an accent. It also mean that when you go abroad and when someone asks where you from are, they reply: “Oh, I know Sicily, the mafia island”. Being Sicilian is basically wanting to go out from that fucking island because you think people have small minds, but when you’re actually out from hell, you start being nostalgic because you belong psychologically to its traditions, way to live. It means to gesture animatedly. Or it means to find inside your car a piece of paper full of bad words because you are considered the “good loser guy who respects rules”. I could make an endless list. I am honest. It is very hard for me to be Sicilian. Sometimes I think that do not belong to this island, sometimes I do not see myself in this island.

However, I must also say that it’s not all that bad. Being Sicilian means to have a very long summer, to go to the beach, have fun with friends. Being Sicilian is going every Sunday to the grandma and eating her homemade cookies. It means to capture the best moment to take a nice photo at the sunset. It also means to have secular traditions, to eat fresh food from the greengrocer. It means to breathe unpolluted air. It means to live in a land full of history, which has been a crossroads of peoples for years.

I am still working on it. It is still a very heavy weight. Nevertheless, I am learning to appreciate who I am, and especially my origins because it is important to see the world, but not less to be pride from where you come from.

I hope you liked this post, I really felt I needed to write about this before talking about other amazing places around the world. Thank you if you read till here.

See you Wednesday with a new #TravelNote and Friday with a new video on YouTube. Here there is my first one, in case you missed it!