L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 4 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS and leaves us all besotted and in love. And then, there is Palermo. Even we Italians forget about Palermo, sometimes, and only think of her when news about organised criminality get on the front page, or after yet another emotional, sorrowful commemo- ration of the heroic men and women who lost their lives fight- ing it.Of course, we have Paler- mo in mind when reading about Sicilian food, and some of us may even know something about its architecture, but the truth is we Italians are a bit unfair to her, constantly underestimating her, thinking of other cities when imagining the perfect icon of Ital- ian artistic and cultural excel- lence. Just over a year ago, however, on the 31st of January 2017, il Bel Paese paid, finally and will- ingly, its respects to this often forgotten gem of its regal, breath- taking crown, nominating it Cap- ital of Culture for 2018. Compe- tition was strong, with locations such as Alghero, Aquileia, Ercolano and even Leopardi's Recanati among the contenders, yet Palermo rose above them all, proud and feisty, baroque and strong, with the inebriating scent of jasmine and almond flowers trailing behind her lusciously golden silk and velvet mantle. This is the image I have of Palermo, that of a countess well versed in the arts, whose wealth lies in lashings and lashings of gold and enamels, whose feet walk on oriental velvets and damask and whose skin has the subtle taste of honey, cinnamon and cardamom. A countess, last descendant of a long forgotten noble family that, once upon a time, ruled over the Mediter- ranean, but had to kneel in front of new rulers and new powers. A countess who may appear to have lost her place in Italian aristocra- cy, but that everyone still recog- nizes as the noblest and most mesmerizing, the only all others still curtsy to, when she walks by. Indeed, Palermo won her bat- tle to be Capital of Culture because she deserved it: it is a city that holds within Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Norman and Arabic heritage, and managed throughout the centuries to make of each one of them an essential part of her own appeal, all dis- cernible yet Palermitan, belong- ing to the city. It is a city that always fought, her history - also contemporary - a memento to all the evil Man can do, but also to the pride, strength and sense of honor that can turn a common person into a great one. The official reasons Palermo was chosen as Capital of Culture are, of course, related to her cul- tural and artistic relevance in the history of the country and to the ongoing renaissance she's been experiencing of late, which can only be supported and helped by holding such an important role for the next 12 months. Indeed, it has been declared that Palermo's new role this year should be seen as "a further opportunity to trans- form the city's complexities and contradictions in reviving ele- ments, through which a process of urban, social and cultural regeneration, founded on the respects of rights and legality, can be accomplished." The aim, it is clear, is that to use culture, art and heritage as a means not only to bring back Palermo to the Elysium of Italy's East meets West in Italy's 2018 Capital of Culture most beautiful and important cities, but also to do so by demonstrating that, in spite of its difficult, often heart-breaking past, Palermo should be and can be a wholesome place, which made of its endless suffering and, in many cases, national neglect, an instrument to be stronger and better. But the choice of Palermo as Italy's own Capital of Culture is very significant also in another way, and to understand it, I'll leave word once more to the City of Palermo's official statement for candidature: "For its history and its present, Palermo is expression of many and varied European cultures, in perennial dialogue with the Arab world, and it is also a Middle Eastern capital, laid within Europe's complex cultural reality." In a time when, as never before, understanding and respecting cultures and, even more impor- tantly, learning how all can cohabit in a meaningful, peaceful way with one another is central to our civil growth and safety, Palermo incarnates an example of how it could truly work, if only time and good will were put into it: there is no place in Italy as profoundly and proudly Italian as this city, with its Baroque churches and faithful devotion to Santa Rosalia, with its temple to opera, the Teatro Massimo, and the old tradition of silversmiths entrenched in her alleys like an centennial tree to the rich soil of a forest. Yet, her streets have the pungent and aromatic fragrance of Jerusalem's souks, with the same charming chaos and oddly pleasant cacophony of voices, the food she's known for rooted in distant oriental traditions, magi- cally close when you walk along her streets. Palermo deserves to be a capi- tal of culture for all these rea- sons, not last because she is beautiful, albeit a bit run down here and there, but not less mag- nificent because of it. She deserves to be a capital of culture because it's also here, and not only in Tuscany, that Italy's lan- guage was born, and because so many representatives of our artis- tic panorama, one that the world envy us, were born here or some- where close: think of Alessandro Scarlatti, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Natalia Ginzburg, who so much influenced our cul- ture and aesthetics. Last but not least, Palermo deserves to be a capital of culture for her immense strength and courage in fighting and standing up to the very disease that for so many decades kept her under its yoke: organized crime. In a world made of injustice, Paler- mo's example of redemption means fighting back and suc- ceeding is possible. It is still an ongoing process, but with the selfless, honorable and coura- geous example of - among others - two of her sons, Giovanni Fal- cone and Paolo Borsellino and, well, also with the much needed injection of positivity her posi- tion as Italian Capital of Culture brings, we may start hoping the battle may be soon won. Continued from page 1 The breathtaking opulence of Palermo's Cappella Palatina is only one of the city's many things to discover Of course, Palermo is a fantastic place for all good food lovers The city of Palermo, Capital of Culture this year, is an amazing example of Baroque architecture

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