This article and accompanying Bertoon appear in today’s edition of The Malta Independent on Sunday.
One of the top selling books in Italian bookshops this August is called “Scusami ma ti voglio sposare” (I’m sorry but I wish to marry you). An apology before a request to marry would seem unusual unless one is of the idea that marriage as an institution is more of a punishment than an ideal situation. Again, the question of “marriage” is dealt with from the point of view of current Italian legislation on the matter and not in abstract.
The title is funny in itself and of itself – even if one fails to agree or disagree with the basic import of its statement. It’s a bit like saying, “I’m sorry we’re going to have to fly abroad” – a weird statement until one learns that flying abroad involves low-cost carriers that force you into an immediate heightened sense of consciousness as to each and every gram contributed to your inflight baggage (hand or checked-in). You see, normally you would not be sorry to have to fly or go abroad, but flying with low-cost carriers can have the abnormal effect of removing part of the fun of travel.
All this gripe because as I type during my last few minutes in the rented villa on the outskirts of Mazara del Vallo I still have on my mind a bottle of cinnamon grappa that is surplus to the overall weight limit of the group of six who will be boarding the plane from Trapani to Malta in a few hours. It kills me to have to leave it behind and I can only thank god that the ridiculous suggestion of charging passengers according to their weight has not already been taken up for I fear that the copious amounts of delicious food consumed here would have had an adverse effect on the excess bill charged by the unobliging ground staff employed at arms length by the kings of consumer dissatisfaction.
Mazara
Mr Manzo, the architect whose family own the magnificent rented villa (and who suspects that the Knights of Malta had something to do with the management thereof at some point) had suggested a quaint shop in town to buy home made artisan ceramics to take to Malta as a souvenir. When we did find the shop in Via Itria in Mazara it was immediately clear that the architect’s suggestion was not a frivolous one. The couple who ran the shop and who hand-made all the goods had an impressive range of products on display. Even the least interested of ceramic non-enthusiasts could get lost in a whole new world of designs and historic patterns brought back to life by this artisan couple.
Punters interested in the ceramics could even avoid being ridiculously overcharged for extra in-flight weight by shipping packages from the Mazara post office straight to their doorstep. Anyways, I mentioned Mr Manzo with the owners and they confirmed that he was one of their prime patrons who never missed an opportunity to buy his wedding gifts from their establishment. There we go again. Weddings and wedding gifts. I couldn’t help but wonder about the recurring theme -from the bookshops in the various towns, to the wedding gifts in shops to the weddings being celebrated in the boiling heat in churches – marriages seemed to be an underlying theme on the holiday.
