Shopping, and the Wild West

In addition to supermarkets and mini-marts, Catania has great open air markets, which, unfortunately, occur from about 9-1, when the library's open. So today I took the day off and went to the Museo Civico and did some shopping.

One market takes place in the newer part of town (i.e. ugly fascist architecture) and when I went there to look at an apartment last week, which was really lovely, all I saw of the open market were stalls filled with cheap clothes, shoes, and general knick-knacks. The other market, called "la pescheria" or the fish shop I think because it was originally just that - is almost entirely made up of food stalls. It's in the older part of town, and takes up several "blocks" of windy streets near the Piazza Duomo. Each block has a different theme - fruit and vegetables, meat, cheese, fish, bread, etc., and behind some stalls are some mini-marts.



It's an incredible sight to see - so much food and color! Also, the prices are incredible: I bought 3 plums and 2 peaches for 50 cents (that's 62.6 cents US).



Yesterday, I also did a bit of shopping, but of a different variety. In July, many, many stores in Italy have "i saldi" - something similar to Labor Day sales or Presidents' Day sales in the US, but lastly most of the month. I walked around via Etnea with my roommate, Teresa, and found a gorgeous pair of heels - something I had been looking for since realizing how uncomfortable my stiff metallic flats were, and also realizing that, although Italians are on the shorter side, the women usually go out in some sort of heel. Fortunately, these gorgeous shoes were "in saldo," so I gave in.



After that, I met up with Daniele, who told me that a shooting had taken place in Piazza Dante - where many humanities-esque departments are located. There was a protest against this "far-west" American-style shooting - with speakers saying that Catania was a civilized place and this would not be tolerated. Many people were there - including the chief of police, who Daniele knew (of course) and introduced me to - but no politicians showed up, and many people kept saying how terrible it was that there weren't there to support this "manifestazione" (protest).

I looked up the shooting the next day, and it turns out that two relatives had been fighting all day in the piazza, with one taunting the other by making the "corni" gesture at him - where your hands in a fist with the pinky and index finger extended towards someone. It's basically a non-verbal way of saying "go to hell." Around 1 pm, the man became so sick of his relative, that he pulled a pistol on him and fired several shots. Neither of the men were hurt, but he wounded a female university student who was walking through the piazza. The police arrested him later, who defended his actions by saying he was provoked.

At the protest, Daniele also introduced me to an archeology professor from Palermo who studied ancient Rome and Jerusalem. He told me that the 18th century church in Piazza Dante was never finished because the Vatican didn't want any church to be taller than Saint Peter's. That may have been true, but I went in this morning, and there was only a pamphlet saying they ran out of funds. Either way, it's interesting to see because it looks so strange - half finished with half columns and the upper brickwork exposed. The inside is bare and mostly under construction - with the most interesting part being the "Meridiana" - a line that runs through the majority of the transept and reveals the date due to the direction of the sunlight. Unfortunately due to the construction, you can only see the southern part of this - where July, August, and September are.