The Westin Pune Koregaon Park Blog: Wear the Coppola, Eat the Cannoli

View of Corleone, Sicily

Be it the Coppola cap, Cannoli pastry, city of Corleone, The Godfather made many such lifestyle and folklore of Sicilia as famously etched in our memory as its iconic characters. This weekend team Prego gears up to bring to its venue the traditional values and culture of Sicily, the largest island of Italy from the era when it was under the rule of Arab and transformed into Arab Emirate Sicilia during 965 AD - 1072 AD. Prego will hosts many theatrical frames of Sicilia like the movie Godfather, Sicilian puppetry, Sagre or food fair on Mar 31 - Apr 1, 2012.

For reservations at the Prego Weekend Carnival - Sicilia call Pritam Rai +91 9673991106
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Palermo Cathedral - This photo of Sicily is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Sicily - In this blog lets take the many views of this beautiful island through the kaleidoscope of time and lifestyle. Sicily has roughly triangular shape, which earned it the name Trinacria. It is separated to the east from the Italian region of Calabria through theStrait of Messina. Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean whose capital is Palermo. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, which is the tallest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world. The family is at the heart of Sicilian culture as it has always been for generations. Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature, cuisine, architecture and language.

Messina - Clock Tower -
This photo of Sicily is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Emirate of Sicily - The Arabs initiated land reforms which in turn, increased productivity. The Arabs further improved irrigation systems. A description of Palermo was given by Ibn Hawqal, an Arab merchant who visited Sicily in 950. Agricultural items such as oranges, lemons, pistachio and sugar cane were brought to Sicily under the Arab rule. The Emirate of Sicily began to fragment as intra-dynastic quarreling fractured the Muslim regime.

Culture & Folklore - Sicily has long been associated with the arts; many poets, writers, philosophers, intellectuals, architects and painters have roots on the island.

“	To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is to not have seen Italy at all, for Sicily is the clue to everything	”
—Goethe

Sicilians also enjoy outdoor festivals, held in the local square or piazza where live music and dancing are performed on stage, and food fairs or sagre are set up in booths lining the square. These offer various local specialties, as well as typical Sicilian food. Normally these events are concluded with fireworks. A noted sagra is theSagra del Carciofo or Artichoke Festival, which is held annually in Ramacca in April. The most important laic event in Sicily is the carnival. The coppola is a traditional kind of flat cap typically worn in Sicily. The coppola has now become a worldwide fashion statement.

Sicilian Puppet Theatre

In Sicily, the sides of donkey carts are decorated with intricate, painted scenes from the Frankish romantic poems. These same tales are enacted in traditional puppet theatres featuring hand-made marionettes of wood. In Sicilian this is called "Opira dî pupi", or "Opera of the puppets". The opera of the puppets and the Sicilian tradition of cantastorî, or "sing stories", are rooted in the Provençal troubadour tradition.

Cannoli at Prego

Cuisine - The island has a long history of producing a variety of noted cuisines and wines, to the extent that Sicily is sometimes nicknamed God's Kitchen. Every part of Sicily has its speciality, a true Cassata is only made in Palermo. The ingredients are typically rich in taste while remaining affordable to the general public. The savory dishes of Sicily are viewed to be healthy, using fresh vegetables and fruits, such as tomatoes, artichokes, olives (including olive oil), citrus, apricots,aubergines, onions, beans, raisins commonly coupled with sea food, freshly caught from the surrounding coastlines.

Perhaps the most well-known part of Sicilian cuisine is the rich sweet dishes including ice creams and pastries. Cannoli, a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough filled with a sweet filling usually containing ricotta cheese, is in particular strongly associated with Sicily. Biancomangiare, biscotti ennesi - cookies native to Enna, braccilatte a Sicilian version of doughnuts, buccellato, ciarduna, pignoli, bruccellati, frutta martorana, cassata, pignolata, granita, cuccidati (a variety of fig cookie; also known as buccellati) andcuccìa are amongst some of the most notable sweet dishes.

Like the cuisine of the rest of southern Italy, pasta plays an important part in Sicilian cuisine, as does rice; for example with arancini. As well as using some other cheeses, Sicily has spawned some of its own, using both cow's and sheep's milk, such as pecorino and caciocavallo. Spices used include saffron, nutmeg, clove,pepper, and cinnamon, which were introduced by the Arabs. Parsley is used abundantly in many dishes. Although Sicilian cuisine is commonly associated with sea food, meat dishes, including goose, lamb, goat, rabbit, and turkey, are also found in Sicily. It was the Normans and Swabians who first introduced a fondness for meat dishes to the island. Some varieties of wine are produced from vines that are relatively unique to the island, such as the Nero d'Avola made near the baroque of town of Noto.

Landmarks & Tourism -