Howdy’all, I’m lucky enough to be holidaying in Europe (Malta) but I managed to sneak in a week in Sicily recently to visit some relatives. As this was planned for a while, I learnt a few Italian tunes with vocals (I don’t speak Italian) and managed to make it sound passable. One evening we were sitting around the family table with about 12 of us chatting and drinking wine and eating fruit and the Italian tunes were requested again. It was 11pm and my mandolin was close by. I struck up the song called Tango Della Rosa (Tango of the Roses) and before I knew it, the neighbours had stuck their heads in the door to see & hear the action. By the end of the song, the neighbours were cordially invited in with much laughing and back slapping and I was asked to “do it again”. I couldn’t understand what they said exactly, but the vibe was good and they were all smiling. The conversation went into the wee hours of the morning and it was a night to be remembered.
The other recent musical event worth noting was my special trip to the Musikalia Mandolin Factory in Catania Sicily. The workshop closes for all of August as it is summer and holiday time. They arranged for a luthier to come in and work whilst I visited to see someone in action! I got the royal tour, sampled some instruments, took photos and asked plenty of questions. Of interest was the fact that in years gone by when they were churning out lots of mandolins worldwide on a daily basis from this location, many families in Catania used to specialise in working on various parts of instruments for their living. For example, one family might specialise in preparing the designs for headstocks, others might work on rib bending etc. They were all employed by Dr Leone who then arranged his team to finish and complete the Musikalia product. Of course, quantity is not such an issue these days as numbers are far lower with worldwide competition and cheaper products. As I had pre-arranged this meeting, I had a page full of instructions on how to get from my hotel to the workshop. After arriving the night before driving a 9-seater van (thanks AVIS!) with no child seats (thanks again AVIS), it was clearly going to be easier to get a cab and save the stress. Funnily enough, the lady cab driver got lost and she was being guided over the radio by GPS tracking from base. I don’t speak the language but knew enough to know that we had diverted a few times. When we arrived, the ‘lady’ suggested that I owed her 25 Euro instead of the agreed 20 Euro at the start of the trip. She started getting edgy and I was in unknown Sicilian territory, but I held my ground and was politely told Arrivaderci before she sped off the wrong way down a one way street! Luckily it was the right address and the kind lady at Musikalia gave me a lift back whilst filling my head with Sicilian ‘stories’ in downtown Catania. All in all, a great experience and many stories to tell Ciao...Holstein -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Taterbugmando" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/taterbugmando?hl=en.
