Author: gigisimeone

Here are the three things my father told me about Easter in Gaeta, Italy: 1. At 11 a.m. on Easter Saturday, the worms come out of the cream puffs. I can only surmise that this was a little fib told to keep children from swiping the special Easter pastry too soon. Not to generalize about … Continue reading 66. Pasqua

I saw a sign a few weeks ago in a South Philly bakery for an upcoming Red Gravy Cook-Off to benefit the East Passyunk Community Organization. "We're in," I said to Ben, my good sport husband. And sure enough, two weeks later, we were there, with our friends Nanette and Rick. The event was held … Continue reading 65. Pastabilities

Really, New York Times? Two full pages? The occasion of the assassination of Mafia boss John Calli was irresistible to the New York Times, which printed a two-page detailed listing of mob killings going back to Albert Anatastia in 1957, with all of the particulars of each of the "whacks." In the general culture, and … Continue reading 64. The Mob

Anyone who has ever known me would assume I was lying if I said I went to a nightclub for Valentine's Day. I don't know which they would find more unbelievable: the "night" or the "club." But Maria Rossi, the nice young woman who periodically joins our Italian conversation group to try to nudge us … Continue reading 63. Cantare (to sing)

Super Bowl Sunday is so close to being a national holiday that I actually wondered for a minute if the supermarkets would be open. But if not an actual holiday, at the every least, it's a national festival, with its own special foods, traditions with family and friends, and shopping opportunities to buy big-screen TVs … Continue reading 62. La Festa di Super Bowl

I feel awash in stereotypes of my people. Not actual Italians, but Italian-Americans. On Sunday, I saw Green Book, a movie based on the true story of an Italian-American man from the Bronx who drives an African-American pianist through the Deep South for a concert tour in the early 1960s. I loved the movie, but … Continue reading 61. Stereotypes

Tombola is a Southern Italian game, played especially around Christmas. Invented in Naples in the 18th century, it looks like Bingo to American eyes, the object being to fill the squares on one's card as numbers are called out. But here's what's special about it. Each of the numbers is associated with a person or … Continue reading 60. Tombola

People are surprised to hear that I didn't grow up with the custom of the "Seven Fishes" on Christmas Eve. In the old days, when being Catholic meant no meat on Christmas Eve, Italians, especially in the South, made their meal of "sacrifice" into a feast. No surprise there. The traditional dinner includes fried smelts, … Continue reading 59. The Feast of the Seven Fishes

There's something about Christmas that makes us nostalgic, weepy even, about Christmases past. My father, a world-class weeper, was certainly not immune from that. I came across this Christmas memory in a 1981 letter he wrote to me while he was listening to Italian Christmas songs, more than 40 years after leaving Gaeta. (An article … Continue reading 58. Zampognari

Is it better to live in an apartment with light, heat and a toilet? Or to live in a cave with your extended family, your chickens and a donkey? This was the question that the government of Italy asked itself in the 1950s when faced with the "shame of Italy": people living in these primitive … Continue reading 57. Matera Immaginata