Panoram Italia Luxury Edition 2003

I TA L I A

PANORAM

www.panoramitalia.com 2003

The New Emerging Italians

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Publisher’s note

W

e are pleased to dedicate this second edition of Panoramitalia to Italians, emerging Italians and Italophiles.

To the first generation, who came to Canada in search of America and ended up literally building America, playing an integral part in its physical, cultural and historical evolution; who started their families and passed on to their children an intrinsic sense of survival, a capacity to adapt, as well as their pride and ambition.

To their children, who, like all children of immigrants, grew up juggling two identities, paying homage to their parents and ancestry, while fulfilling their desire to integrate a different world and to step into their new roles as Canadians.

To their children’s children, perhaps now a little more Canadian than Italian, who are beginning to discover their roots, observing their parents’ culture from the outside in.

Finally, we dedicate this issue of Panoramitalia to the Italophiles, whose ever-growing love affair with Italian culture, art, fashion and gastronomy continues to inspire the Italian community.

Thanks to the Italophiles, Italian restaurants abound, Italian wine is at arm’s reach, and art and culture are just around the corner.

Thank you for your letters following publication of the first issue.

We wish you a happy reading and look forward to receiving more of your insights, commentary and I-wish-you’d-done-thisses.

Tony Zara, Publisher

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S

iamo onorati di dedicare questa seconda edizione di Panoramitalia agli Italiani, ai nuovi Italiani, agli Italofili.

Alla prima generazione che arrivo’ in Canada alla ricerca dell’America, e fini’ per costruirla davvero, l’America; uomini e donne che hanno giocato un ruolo determinante nell’evoluzione culturale, economica e produttiva di una grande nazione, che hanno fondato famiglie e trasmesso ai loro figli quell’intrinseco senso di sopravvivenza, la capacita’ di adattamento e la fierezza di essere noi stessi, forti delle nostre ambizioni.

Ai loro figli, che, come tutti i figli di immigrati, sono cresciuti nella ricerca di un equilibrio fra due identita’, nel rispetto dei genitori e delle loro tradizioni, nel quotidiano desiderio di integrarsi nel loro nuovo ruolo di Canadesi.

Ai figli dei loro figli, forse piu’ Canadesi che Italiani, che stanno cominciando a scoprire le loro origini, osservando ed interpretando la cultura italiana dei genitori da una realta’ diversa (dall’esterno).

Vogliamo dedicare questa edizione primaverile agli Italofili, il cui amore per la cultura italiana, per l’arte, la moda, la gastronomia continua ad inspirare con entusiasmo la comunita’ italiana. Grazie a loro, i ristoranti Italiani abbondano, il nostro vino ha raggiunto eccellenti livelli di popolarita’, l’arte e la cultura italiana si diffondono con somma gioia ed interesse di tutti.

Un grazie di cuore per le Vostre lettere e per l’interesse dimostrato per la prima edizione.

L’augurio adesso e’ nostro, che possiate Voi passare una fantastica primavera intenti alla lettura di Panoramitalia, auspicando di battere il successo di lettere, commenti, e consigli dell’anno passato.

Le seul restaurant panoramique tournant de Montréal Montreal’s only revolving rooftop restaurant

Un périple culinaire aux saveurs du monde !

Buffets thématiques L’Italie méridionale et insulaire Du 10 janvier au 5 avril 2003 Merveilles du Languedoc-Roussillon Du 8 avril au 14 juin 2003 Le Canada, d’un océan à l’autre Du 17 juin au 30 août 2003

A Grand Culinary World Tour!

Theme Buffets Southern Italy and the Islands January 10 to April 5, 2003 The Languedoc-Roussillon - Sunny and exquisite April 8 to June 14, 2003 Canada, From Coast to Coast June 17 to August 30, 2003

Octoberfest (Allemagne et Belgique) Du 2 septembre au 8 novembre 2003

Octoberfest (Germany and Belgium) September 2 to November 8, 2003

La magie des petits santons Du 11 novembre au 31 décembre 2003

The Marvellous World of santons November 11 to December 31, 2003

Fête caribéenne au pays des flibustiers Du 9 janvier au 3 avril 2004

Caribbean Festival in Buccaneers’ Haven January 9 to April 3, 2004

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Empire of the Rising Sun April 6 to June 19, 2004

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Réservations (514) 879-4777

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Spring

2003 16 Sicily

30 Parasuco, Story of the man

42

30

42 The land of Wine, Enotria

50 Sajo, Profile

62 Capitol Butchers

68 Pier 21 Remembering the SATURNIA

86 16

74 The letter

78 Sons & Mammas

82 The Italian Traditions of Befana & The Epiphany

86

50 62

Lasagna in bianco / Recipe

88 Torrone / Recipe

94 The Price of Victory /Grand Prix

104 Le Sommet des LĂŠgendes

94 8

ESTETICA S A LO N D E CO I F F U R E

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514.849.9231

2003

Contributors

Founding Editor / Publisher: Tony Zara Editor: Nadia Signorino Graphic design : CASSI DESIGN (514) 327-4404 Printer : Accent Impression Inc. (514) 337-7870

PANORAMITALIA 9300 Henri-Bourassa West, Suite 100 Ville St. Laurent (Qc) H4S 1L5 Tel.: 514-337-7870 / Fax: 514-337-6180 or by e-mail at : info@pamoramitalia.com We look forward to hearing from you!

Tony Zara publisher of Panoramitalia, was born in Guglionesi, Campobasso in 1954.

He immigrated to Canada in 1962 along with his parents, Adamo and Giulia, and his younger brother, Peter. A graduate of Concordia University (1977), he worked in industry for Xerox Canada and Kodak Canada before starting his own commercial printing company in 1989.

While being president of Accent Impression Inc. is a truly rewarding experience, his true passion is flying the Italian flag as high as possible through PANORAMITALIA. Writer: Pietro Raffaelli Mr. Raffaelli has three "magda cum laude" degrees from the universities of Florence and Rome. In the past fifty years, ever since he set foot on Canadian soil, more specifically in Montreal, Mr. Pietro Raffaelli has been a witness to the life of Italian immigrants and their struggle and has been actively involved in the Italian-Canadian community. He was Pastor of Madonna della Difesa Church for many years. Ever since he retired from his religious duties, Mr. Raffaelli has spent part of his time writing articles for local papers and magazines.

Writer: Filippo Salvatore Associate professor of Italian Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, Filippo Salvatore received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is a specialist of Italian cinema, which he taught for ten years at the University of Montreal. He is the author of many books, four of which are Antichi e Moderni in Italia nel 600 (1987), Le cinéma de Paul Tana (1997) in collaboration with Anna Gural-Migdal, Fascism and the Italians of Montreal (1998), and Ancient Memories, Modern Identities, Italian Roots in Contemporary Canadian Authors (1999), and editor of the volume I, Protagonisti Italiani di Montreal (2000).

Born in Parma in 1969, Ignazio Blanco, author of Pronto Mamma (p.78), holds a Doctorate degree in Economy and a Master’s in Marketing. After having worked in the industrial sector in Europe, he was transferred to Canada in 1998, to manage operations for an Italian-based company. Since 2000, he is the General Director of Alfagomma Canada.

Pino Asaro has been a contributor to such high profile auto racing and sports publications as Autosprint, Guerino Sportivo, Rombo, La Gazzetta dello Sporto, and The Gazette since 1976.

Pino was also the host of TeleItalia’s ‘‘SportSette’’ and a soccer analyst at TQS. Born in Montreal Nadia Signorino studied literature and creative writing, she loves books and movies, singing pretend opera off-key and dancing while doing housework, baking, cooking – and especially eating – multi-course dinners with loved ones, and everything about being part of Montreal’s rich, multicultural community.

Founded in 1995, Cassi Design, maintains a small studio culture while offering the capabilities of a full-service agency. We handle both small projects and large, from brand identity to print communication a well as web design.

Julie Siciliano & Flano Castelli as well as each of our talented staff bring a unique set of design & marketing experience, our common goal is to preserve a high level quality and attention to detail in the work we do. We are thankful to our prestigious clients for their continued support. At Cassi design, what we’re crafting is communications!

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www.cheminsdor.com • info@cheminsdor.com

G E R A L D O

P A C E

Conceptual Photographer TĂŠl.: 514.335.1013 www.geraldo-pace.com

About the Cover Pace shot the cover. He chose to take the tomato out of the vegetable garden and plant it inside the egg, breathing new life into it to represent a new idea, a distinct identity. The resulting image, organic, yet re-hatched, captures the idea of emerging Italians, visually conveying its multiple layers of meaning.

about bottling and preserving them. They had heard about the tomato passoir and that Italians used it to prepare tomato conserva for the winter. They were French Canadians. At that moment, the visual on this cover appeared to me:The New Emerging Italians.

“Recently, I have been socializing more and “This cover was not supposed to be. I had more within the Italian community, attending another idea planned but an incident forced more functions and rediscovering my heritage. me to change concept. It was again Just working on this magazine has made me September, and it was tomato season, the more aware and very proud to be Italian. I sinsame period that inspired the previous cover. cerely hope you enjoy this issue as I have I was in a local Italian hardware store and enjoyed working on it. It has allowed me to while I was browsing, an older couple entered. meet some very remarkable people and to return to character porThey told the shop “I have concluded that The New traits – one of my pasowner that they had just Emerging Italians can apply to all of us. sions – as well as make bought several bushels The Italian culture is a rich and one or two personal of tomatoes and that wonderful one, filled with many discoveries. they wanted to know treasures. It is alive and well – and it keeps evolving. Let us take what we have learned from our ancestors, and embrace the Italian traditions and zest for living. Salute!”

— Geraldo Pace

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Sicily Panoramitalia has chosen to include in this issue a feature on Sicily, the largest and most populated island in the Mediterranean Sea. Separated from mainland Italy by the Strait of Messina, Sicily is an island abundant with natural beauty. Thousands of Italian Canadians have origins in Sicily. Many still speak the rich Sicilian dialect comprising words originating from the Arabic, Greek and Italian languages. 444

Italian island By: Filippo Salvatore

4 Sicily is the largest island of the Mediterranean Sea and the largest geographic region of the Italian Republic. The surface of Sicily is 25 707 km2 (8.5% of Italy) .85% of Sicily is hilly or mountainous. Only 14% is flat. The biggest plain in Sicily is found near Catania in the eastern part of the island and near Gela. The Peloritani, the Madonie and the Nebrodi are the three most important chains of mountains.

They constitute a continuation of the Appennini ridge that goes North-South along the Italian peninsula. The highest and most active volcano of Europe, Etna (3323 m) is situated on the eastern coast between the cities of Messina and Catania.

Before the Arabic presence, Sicily was divided geographically into three valleys: The Val di Maraza in the west, the Val di Noto in the South East and the Val Demone in the North East. Sicily is surrounded by other small islands: the Eolie or Lipari in the North, the Egadi in the west and the Pelagie in the South.

The islands of Pantelleria, Linosa and Lampedusa are closer to Tunisia than to Sicily. On Stromboli one of the Eolie islands, there is an active volcano with the same name. The total coastline of Sicily is 1039 kilometers long. It harbors both wonderful, sandy white beaches and craggy cliffs. Tourism is one of the main and growing industries of the island. The tertiary and commerce are the two sectors of the economy that provide the highest percentage of employment.

Sicily’s population is 5.2 million, (1995 estimate) almost 10% of the total Italian population of 58 million.

Unfortunately, this geographical and

demographic importance of Sicily does not translate into a corresponding economic importance. Why? Because the strange destiny of Sicily for the last three thousand years has been determined by its geography.

Sicily has flourished when the Mediterranean Sea was the centre of expanding civilizations, from the time of the Phoenicians and Greeks to the Age of Transoceanic discoveries, and has languished when the centre of political and economic power has moved Northwards, from the 16th century to the present. Sicily has been both centre and periphery of world history and its destiny, importance and prosperity have been in the past and continue to be directly proportionate to the role the Mediterranean Sea plays in world affairs. Sicilia, terra di contraddizioni, is the traditional definition given to this triangular shaped island also known as Trinacria. Agriculture, especially the production of grapefruits, olive oil, wine and wheat used to make pasta, occupies an important place in the economy of Sicily.

Fishing for tuna in particular, as well the production of silk, also play an important role. Sicily also produces sulphur and refines petroleum near Gela, Augusta and Ragusa.

Industralization has been spotty and has not produced the expected economic development. Near Palermo at Termini Imerese there is a big FIAT car manufacturer. The construction industry is undergoing a major crisis. Nowadays, the federalist model being pushed forward in Italy by the Lega Nord, find their

counterpart in the resurgent idea of separation of the island that was quite strong at the end of the Second World War. Sicily is already one of the five regions of Italy that enjoys a “statuto autonomo,” a status similar to the one of the provinces vis-à-vis the federal government.

In Canada, the Sicilian soul is characterized, as the great writers Luigi Pirandello, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and Leonardo Sciascia have so well explained, by a latent form of insularità, a belief that both geographically and otherwise Sicilians are self-sufficient. “Their vanity,” writes Lampedusa in a famous passage of his novel, Il Gattopardo (the Leopard), “is greater than their misery and they will never want to change because they believe they are gods.” This feeling of insularity, the torrid climate of the central part of the territory and a form of ancestral fatalism, as well as the presence of organized crime, permeate unconsciously the soul of every Sicilian and explain to an extent the relative economic backwardness of the island which has a higher unemployment and a lower income rate than the Italian national average.

But the future of Sicily might drastically change once again if it becomes - as it is becoming - the entry point, the focus of the growing phenomenon of both legal and illegal immigration from North Africa and the Middle East. This recent but emerging and important process will 444 17

4 propose or impose to the rest of Europe a new economic, demographic and religious equilibrium.

Because of its central position in the Mediterranean, Sicily is destined to play in the coming decades a pivotal role in the meeting and clashing of the Christian and the Islamic worlds, of North and South, of rich and poor.

Sicily’s role in the 21st century seems to be going back to what it has been several times in the last three millennia: a crossroad for many civilizations. Sicily’s insularity might be partially eliminated if the projected one arch three kilometer bridge between Messina and Reggio di Calabria is built in the not too distant future.

Trade and tourism and economic development will be eased and increase and thus Palermo will truly be, with Naples, one of the two metropolises of Southern Italy.

The history of Sicily has to be viewed, in fact, as a synthesis of the Orient and the Occident. Starting with the Sicani or Siculi who gave the name to the Island, and the earliest invaders, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Normans, the Germans, the French, the Spaniards, the Bourbons

PALERMO

18

MESSINA

ARGENTO

and the Piedmontese, Sicily has been the meeting ground of disparate and diverging civilizations.

Among the earliest invaders were the Greeks, in the eighth century B.C. Notable remnants of the civilization of Magna Grecia can be found in Agrigento, Gela, Tindari, Taormina and Siracusa. The Romans conquered the island in the third century, after defeating the Carthaginians, making it their first province. Significant Roman ruins can be seen in Palermo and Monreale. Sicily was later controlled by the Byzantine empire and for over two centuries, the 9th to the 11th centuries A.D. by North African Muslims. Under their rule, Palermo became with Cordoba in Spain, Alexandria in Egypt and Baghdad in Iraq, one of the richest and culturally most flourishing cities of the time.

Architectural traces of the Muslim presence can still be found in Palermo and Monreale.

The Muslim presence and the Christian “reconquista” is still today part of the popular folklore of Sicly.

The wars between the Christian paladins and the Muslim warriors are re-enacted by the Pupi in public squares and are brightly represented

CALTANISSETTA

CATANIA

SIRACUSA

on the carretti (carts). In the 13th century under the rule of the Swabian Frederick II, Palermo was still a multicultural and multireligious capital. It is there that the poetic school referred to as the Scuola Siciliana was founded, which later on led to the formation of a national language in the rest of Italy.

The cathedral of Palermo, where Frederick II is buried, is a magnificent synthesis of many architectural styles. After a brief French presence on the Island, it was Spain that established its rule in Sicily. The Spanish domination lasted four centuries and has had a lasting influence. The enormously heightened senso dell’ onore, a form of high performance virility called gallismo, religious celebrations as baroque spectacles, as well as latifundia, a tardo-feudal system of land ownership, are clear signs of the Spanish heritage in Sicily.

The baroque style in religious architecture has resulted in cities like Noto an Ragusa the true masterpieces. The island of Sicily is divided into nine administrative districts, referred to as provinces: Palermo, the regional capital, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Catania, Enna, Messina, Ragusa, Siracusa and Trapani.

444

ENNA

RAGUSA

TRAPANI

4 The Phoenicians, who named it ZIZ (flower), in the 7th century B.C., founded Palermo. It lies along a wonderful bay at the feet of Monte Pellegrino. Later, it became Panormus, or port, was conquered by different invaders, and chosen as the capital by the Normans for its strategic position. Under the Arabs, it became the artistic and economic meeting point for both Europe and the Near East.

Frederick II of Swabia beautified the city and founded the renowned school of poetry “Scuola Siciliana”.

The French Angevin domination ended with a revolt known as Vespri Siciliani. After that, Palermo was under the Aragonese, Spanish and Bourbon domination. Giuseppe Garibaldi liberated Palermo in 1860 and annexed it to the Kingdom of Italy.

Arabic-Norman, Renaissance and baroque are the three main styles of Palermo’s historical architecture.

Most important art works: Cathedral, Palazzo dei Normanni, San Giovanni degli Eremiti Church, Palazzo Abatelli, Giardino Botanico, Steri or Palazzo Chiaromonte, Museo dei Pupi, Chiesa di San Domenico, Oratorio di santa Zita, Teatro Massimo, Parco della Favorita, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Chiesa di Santo Spirito.

Excursions: Monreale, Mondello, Monte Pellegrino, Cefalù, Gibilmanna.

Gastronomy: Pasta con le sarde, sfinciuni ed arancine, involtini, caponata di melanzane, babbaluci a picchi pacchiu, Cassata alla siciliana, cannoli, frutti di martorana,(marzipan).

444

Palermo (population:689.000), 1,240.000 greater me trolitan area.

4 Messina was founded by the Greeks in 730 B.C and named Zancle (the fake one). It was later called Messana. It enjoyed prosperity under Roman, Byzantine and Norman Domination. In 1282 it rebelled against the French and was besieged by Charles d’ Anjou.

Through the centuries, it remained an important cultural centre. Guido Delle Colonne, a 13th XIII century poet, the renaissance painter Antonello da and the the baroque baroque architecte architect Messina and Filippo Juvara are the most important. In Inthe the17th 17thand and18th 18thcenturies, century, it underwent a period of decadence and in 1908, it was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake.

Today Messina remains the “port of Sicily”. It has an Art Nouveau flavor in its architecture.

The Cathedral, the Fontana d’Orione, the Saint Francis Church, and National the National Museum are its the Museum are its tourist tourist attractions. attraction.

Stoccu fissu a la missina, pasta with eggplants and pignolata bianca e nera (a dessert), are its typical gastronomic products.

Excursions: Tindari, Taormina, Islands. 444

Messina (population 262.000)

the

Eolie

4 Agrigento was founded by the Greeks in 582 B.C., and referred to

by Pyndarus as “the most beautiful town of mortals�. Akragas was destroyed by the Carthaginians and renamed Agrigentum by the Romans. In 827, under Arab domination, it came to be known as Girgenti. Under the Normans, it was one of the most important dioceses of the island. The Valle dei Templi has an enormous archeological interest.

Famous people born in Agrigento are: Empedocles (5th century B.C. philosopher) and Luigi Pirandello (20th century writer and playwright).

Cavateddi, cuddiruni, cuscusu and mostaccioli are special products of the local cuisine. 444

Agrigento (population 55.000)

Caltanissetta

(population 62.000)

4 Its name comes from the Arabic Kalat and Nissa, its original name. It remained a feudal town during the middle ages, and at the end of 1200 became a possession of the Moncada family who ruled for four centuries. It grew during the 19th century as a result of the sulphur mines nearby. Gerion, tyrant of Syracuse in the 5th century B.C. and Paolo Emiliano Giudici, a 19th century poet and patriot, were born in Caltanissetta. The cathedral and the Mocada palace, as well as the “sulphur museum,� are worthy visiting.

Various religious celebrations take place during the Holy Week.

Gastronomy: roasted goat meat and nougat.

444

4 Katane, was founded by the Chalcidians from near-by Naxos in 729 B.C. at the feet of the Etna volcano. It became a major cultural centre during the Greek and Roman periods. Its importance declined during the Middle Ages, but under the Aragonese it flourished again and in 1434 became the first university city of Sicily. The eruption of the volcano in 1969 and the earthquake of 1693 almost completely destroyed Catania. The architect Giovanni Battista Vaccarini contributed to its reconstruction in the 18th century.

Important momuments: The great romantic musician Vincenzo Bellini was born in Catania. Its historical centre is dominated by the baroque style.

Gastronomy: Pasta with squids and anchovies, spaghetti alla Norma, olive alla Sant�Agata, nougat. 444

Catania

(population 341.000)

4 Siracusa was one of the most powerful and known cities of ancient times and the greatest of the Greek colonies. Its tyrant Dyonisius, or the scientist Archimedes, belong to the history of humanity. It was founded in 743 by Archias and took its name from a swamp referred to as syrake.

At one point in the 5th century, it rivaled Athens in importance. After the Roman conquest, Syracuse slowly declined. Arabs, Normans,

Aragonese, and Spaniards have ruled the city. Because of its strategic position, Frederick II built the Castle of Maniace, a unique example of military architecture. Plagues, earthquakes and bad governments have impoverished Syracuse. Today, Syracuse is both an important commercial and industrial centre and remains one of the most beautiful and original towns of Sicily.

Importants monuments: The cathedral, Greek Theatre, The Ear of Dyonisius, Fontana Aretusa, Castello Maniace, Tempio di Apollo.

Excursions: Castello Eurialo, Necropolis of Pantalica.

Gastronomy: Pasta fritta, tonno alle cipolle, stuffed artichokes, dolci al miele.

Handicrafts: reproductions of ancient vases, papyrus paper. 444

Siracusa (population 127.000)

4 Enna is referred to as the “belly button� of Sicily, because of its central position. The name Henna was changed later to Castrogiovanni and went back to the ancient name only in 1927. Enna is located at 931 meters above sea level, the highest provincial capital in Italy. Frederick II of Swabia had a special liking for Enna and King Frederick II of Aragon, who took the title of king of Trinacria, convened the first Sicilian Parliament at Enna in 1324.

Today the town is an important agricultural centre, with rich and interesting historical monuments, such as the Castello di Lombardia, from where, on a clear day, almost all of Sicily can be seen.

Important monuments: Cathedral, Castello di Lombardia, Torre di Federico II, Palazzo Pollicarini,Fontana del bernini.

Excursions: Pergusa lake, Morgantina, Piazza Armerina.

Gastronomy: Ravioli with ricotta and honey, sausage with fennel seeds, coniglio agro-dolce. 444

Enna (population 28.000)

earthquake in 1693 and rebuilt in the course of the 18th century.

Ragusa Ibla still maintains a medieval structure, whereas Ragusa superiore has a typical 18th century look with baroque buildings and churches.

4 The modern town of Ragusa is the combination of two separate towns, Ragusa Superiore and Ragusa Ibla. It became a provincial capital in 1927. The original Byzantyne castle Ibla was occupied by the Arabs in 848 and during the Norman domination,Godfrey, son of Roger, raised it to the rank of county. The Chiaromonte family administered it with the town of Modica during the Aragonese rule. The Spanish family Heriquez ruled over Ragusa for a long time. It was destroyed by an

Important momuments: Cathedral, Chiesa di San Domenico, Chiesa dei Vacchi Cappuccini, Museo Archeologico Ibleo, Palazzo Donnafugata, Palazzo Cosentini and Palazzo Bertini.

Gastronomy: Lasagne in foglia with meat and ricotta cheese, oven baked goat, Caciocavallo cheese, Scauarati biscuits of Ragusa.

Excursions: Castello di Donnafugata, Camarina, Comiso, Grotte delle Trabacche.

Crafts: Reproductions of Sicilian carts, embroideries, ceramics 444

Ragusa (population 70.000)

Excursions: Erice, Egadi Islands, Pantelleria Island, Segesta, Selinunte, Marsala, Gibellina.

Gastronomy: Fish Cuscus, Cotolette alla Siciliana, sfinciunu, tonno alla marinara, amaretti e cannoli.

Crafts: Terracotta vases, reproduction of Sicilian pupi. g

( population 70.000)

Today, Trapani is made up of an ancient core, built along a small peninsula and a more modern part built at the feet of Monte Erice. The surroundings and the outskirts are covered with “saline,” vast stretches where the seawater is evaporated and converted into salt. The coastline near Marsala is dotted with windmills.

Important Monuments: Cathedral, Palazzo della Giudecca, Fantona di Saturno, Museo Nazionale Pepoli.

Trapani

4 Trapani is located on the west coast of Sicily. The Carthaginians founded it in 260 B.C. In the year 241 B.C., it became a Roman colony and at the fall of the Roman Empire, Trapani became the beachhead for the Vandals’ occupation of the island. During the Arabic, Norman and Angevin domination, Ragusa remained an important town. Frederick II of Aragon allowed Ragusa to flourish. Its prosperity lasted throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, thanks to fishing, the production of salt and the coral industry.

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S A LVA T O R E P A R A S U C O

Story of the man I was born in Sicily, a small mountain top village called “Capizzi,” from “Capo dei Pizzi” or capital of the peaks. I call Sicily the garden of Italy.

My father came to Montreal in 1956 to meet his sister. My mother was twenty-five, my brother Giuseppe was two, and I was three-and-a-half when we arrived by boat to join my father on January 17, 1957.

On January 17, 1958, our sister Antonia (our first Canadian) was born. Future Canadian siblings were Domenico, Tina and Giacomo. By the time I was ten, we were a family of eight. When I was seven years old, I complained to my mother, “Why are you pregnant again if we can’t afford to feed ourselves?”

“How can we refuse this gift from God?” She replied.

“It seems that from an early age, I had common sense and it told me to understand my environment, make the best of it and work at improving it”.

We arrived in 1957; we got our first refrigerator in 1961 and our first TV in 1964. Let’s face it, we were poor!

I was always looking for ways to help out, whether it was cleaning the house, cooking, babysitting, delivering newspapers or picking-up rags and scraps of metal during garbage days to sell to the scrap dealer.

Every Sunday, my mother would cook a great meal from very simple things.

Once a month we’d be lucky to have roast chicken - I loved it so much that I always said, “When I grow up we’ll eat chicken every day.”

When I was ten, I was anxious to get a job. I was too young to get a work permit, so I told my mother to get a summer job and I took care of my brothers and sisters, two of whom were in diapers.

This would help supplement my father’s thirty-dollar-a-week salary and help us through the winter with our heating and clothing expenses. Like many Italians, we waited for spring and summer, not only for the warm weather we Italians crave, but also for the free food such as cicoria, (dandelion weeds), and the vegetable garden we grew ourselves, which was another way to save money!

I grew up in the Hochelaga district of Montreal, specifically, on Montgomery and Ontario Streets. It was a rough, predominantly French neighborhood.

In 1965, we bought a small duplex from my aunt for $7,200.00. We crammed ourselves on the ground floor - eight people in one bedroom, one bathroom, and a hide-away bed in our small living room. We rented the upstairs to help pay the mortgage.

Today, I sometimes ask my parents, “How did we do it - to live in such a small place with roaches?” 444

Conceptual Photographer : Geraldo Pace

4 Their reply is always, “We were happy, healthy and together, and that’s what was important.” Growing up, my mind was always racing, thinking of ways I could help my family live better!

I went to St. Anselm elementary on Hogan and Rouen. We had a mix of Polish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Italian and Irish kids. Our teachers were also immigrants and our principal was a nun. The first year was difficult; I spoke Italian and French, but no English. I put on a brave face and pushed myself to learn in school or suffer the teaching hand of my father!

By grade two, I was into my English and finished top male of the class. I was very good and fast in Math.

The school emphasized Religion, which was boring, although today I realize it was the subject that gave me a conscience, teaching me right from wrong.

I’m pretty sure all my elementary teachers helped me form my outlook on life and what’s in store. I became the top male student, but one day, we were given a general knowledge test out of the blue, and I probably got the lowest mark! It was a big wake-up call!

Any test where the questions resulted from studying books, I did very well in, but there was no book to study for general knowledge.

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My parents could not teach me who was the mayor of Montreal or the prime minister of Canada or which TV program was popular (we still didn’t have a TV). With that one test, I knew I was nothing if I didn’t also learn about the world around me. As well as studying my books, I trained myself to observe what was going on outside of school.

We finally got a TV and the Beatles appeared on the screen. I wanted their records. I wanted their clothes. I wanted to be like the other kids in school.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have the money. My father and my mother came from a farming background herding sheep. They didn’t speak French or English and my father was always stuck with dirty jobs that didn’t pay much. His health also suffered on and off due to his time spent in World War II. Some weeks we’d have no money! So thinking of luxuries such as fashion was out of the question. My mother, like most Italian women of that time, knew how to knit and sew.

She used to make some of our clothes out of scraps of fabric she’d find here and there. With the introduction of the Beatles, I liked and kept long hair.

The girls in school started to notice me. I was a shy kid and easily embarrassed because I didn’t have nice clothes and we lived in such a small house. So I kept to myself.

One of our Italian neighbors was a very good seamstress who used to visit my mother regularly. She saw me in a pensive mood; my mother explained I wanted clothes like the Beatles.

She offered to sew them up if we bought her the fabric. I was twelve years old; I had $1.50 and shopped for three days to find fabric to make a shirt and jacket! We made a shirt and jacket – I felt like the coolest kid in school, especially when the girls said hello! Without knowing it, I was thinking about fashion, clothes, hair, the way to walk and talk – and to get more into fashion required money! I couldn’t ask my parents for any, they had five other kids to feed and dress as well. I kept dreaming that one day our whole family would live much better.

High school came around and I had to bus it half an hour to Monsignor Harold Doran High. Luckily, Manuel Viera, my friend and next-door neighbor, went to the same school; he was in grade nine so we bussed together.

Grade eight was split up into four classes: A, B, C, and D. I was put in the “A” class along with the other brains from different elementary schools. They all sounded more intelligent than I was, and they were all friends. I was always somewhat of a shy loner, I wasn’t into sports, and we lived in a dump! I was too embarrassed to invite anyone over. I had been the top male student in grade school all those years, and now I was with guys who used bigger words I had never heard before. I studied harder and asked more questions, even if it was a stupid question that made everyone laugh. When the first term report card came around, the principal called out my name, and to everyone’s surprise, I was in the top three of the class. 444

4 In grade nine the hot fashion item was a duffle coat, a “Canadienne” as it is known here. Like many immigrant families, we had an account at Brown’s Department Store on St. Laurent Blvd. They extended credit to anyone and visited you to pick up a payment against your account on a weekly basis.

I noticed that Brown’s prices were higher than elsewhere. I had accumulated twenty dollars and wanted a duffle coat and a pair of high heel Beatle boots. I was fourteen; I wanted to be cool. I talked my father into shopping with me. I knew what I wanted and my father was in a good mood that day. We bussed all day, looking here and there. We ended up in this old shoe store on St. Laurent and Ontario that specialized in slightly damaged shoes or end-of-line stuff. The trick was you had to find both shoes in a pile ten feet high lying in the middle of the floor.

I was afraid my father would run out of patience and whack me on the head, as he usually did when he had had enough. After one hour of searching, I found the perfect shoe and it fit!

It took another half an hour to find the other one. They wanted fifteen dollars for the pair. My father saw the sadness come over me; we couldn’t afford the shoes. It was one of those days when he felt close to me; he offered the store owner two dollars for the pair. I was totally caught off guard and embarrassed. Within half an hour, I was walking out with my Beatle boots and a big smile; my father had negotiated the shoes down to $3.50! All of a sudden, I saw my

father in a new light and I learned a lesson: not to give up.

We ended up in a small store in front of Place des Arts called Jean’s Discounts.

There was the duffle coat of my dreams in the window. It was a beautiful charcoal grey; all the cool kids in school wore the famous camel color. I would be the only one with a charcoal grey.

We went in, tried it on and it was perfect until we got the bomb - the price was thirty-five dollars. I had $16.50 left. My father, in his broken mixture of English and French, offered ten dollars to the shop owner! I thought we would be thrown out! After two hours of negotiating back and forth, as well as sharing our life story, we gave up and walked out – only to be called back for a final deal of $17.50, tax included. I took out my $16.50 and my father pulled out four quarters! The owner of the store said, “You’re a good kid. I like the way you talk and listen to your papa. Give me your phone number; I may need a kid like you to work here ” I was so excited to be offered a job and felt so lucky that we had gotten our first telephone just ten days before. That was November 1967.

In late March 1968, when I got home from school, my mother told me some man called to offer me a job in a store and to go there Thursday at 4:30 pm. I could not ask for more information because my mother’s knowledge of French and English was more limited than my father’s was. I put two and two together, and decided it had to be the store where I had bought the duffle coat.

When I showed up for work after school, the store owner said he never called for me and didn’t remember me!

I tried to remind him that I was the one who had bought the coat I was wearing together with my father, the Italian man who spoke very little English. He sent me away, but as I got to the door I turned to him in a last effort to make him an offer, “Since I’m here, let me work tonight. You don’t have to pay me and if you don’t like my work I won’t bother you again.” This was a chance for me to bring more income to our growing family – we needed the money. After washing the floors, windows and cleaning up everywhere, closing time came around. I got dressed to leave and as my hand was on the door, I turned around to say goodnight and asked if I needed to come back tomorrow. He turned up his head, looked at me and said, “OK, come back tomorrow.” It took me forty minutes to walk home, which I did to save the bus ticket. I now had a job washing floors in a store but I watched and listened to everything and decided I could learn something here and earn fifty cents per hour.

Within six months, the competitor next door, Fred-Mart, recruited me at fifty-five dollars for sixty-five hours per week.

“Within three months, I was running Fred-Mart and had set up a store in my school locker, selling jeans to make extra money for our family and college”. 444

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4 I asked my teachers to please allow me to sell jeans, they were not stolen; I showed them my receipts and explained that our family needed the money. “Isn’t it better I sell jeans than drugs?” I asked them. After hearing that, they gave me carte blanche.

By the time I was fifteen, I was the store manager, buying consultant and janitor. I worked weekends and summers. High school wasn’t important anymore, I didn’t have time to study and I wanted to help our family more and more. By this time, we were on welfare. Nevertheless, I made sure to complete high school, my grades suffering to the low 80’s. My dream was to become a doctor because as a kid I had been told that doctors make big money.

After high school, I continued to work full time in the same store, learning and loving it. I started advising my boss to have certain clothes made which my generation wanted.

Without knowing it, I was indirectly designing; I knew what kids were looking for. I got excited and encouraged watching my ideas sell.

When I was nineteen, I had a yearning to visit Italy, to see where I was born; it was like a spiritual calling. I left with no plan, spent a week in Rome and two weeks with my mother’s family in the mountains of Sicily.

They were all simple, hard working people accepting their lot in life; but they were happy and loving. I was intoxicated by Italy’s architecture, art, history and culture. I felt this is who I am, I felt proud to be Italian!

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PIAZZA Di SPAGNA ROME It was there that my daydreaming told me it was time to start my own business, my own store. I was nineteen; even if I lost two years trying to build my own business, I was still young enough to return to university and become a doctor.

On my return to Montreal, I found a store location on St. Catherine street east near Papineau. I looked so young; no one took me seriously enough to sign a lease. I made a deal with my boss, Isaac Friedman, to become a 50% partner; we would invest $7,500 each. I promised to do all the work. He could be a silent partner. I just needed his name on the lease! He finally agreed! I had five thousand dollars and borrowed $2,500 from my brother Joe, who was saving up for college. With fifteen thousand dollars, we opened Pour Les Deux, a unisex store. I built the store with the help of my brothers, parents, uncle, and five hundred dollars.

My mother kept crying, “How could you leave your beautiful eighty-dollar a week job and risk it all on your own business!” My father’s biggest salary was sixty dollars a week, so eighty dollars for a nineteen-year old was big bucks to my parents. Finally, they gave me their blessings with the words, “We can’t help you with money; we can only help you with our love.” For me it was enough.

In October 1972, Pour Les Deux became a reality. I had a two-thousand-square-foot store, and after opening expenses, was left with thirteen thousand dollars for merchandise. I found ways to make the store look full. But I still had to find a way to attract customers. I was selling U.F.O. jeans, but customers did not trust them to fade to the right blue as the popular Lee & Wrangler jeans did.

I couldn’t get those brands; mine was too small a business. To convince my few customers, I created a window display with my personal faded old U.F.O’s next to a brand new pair - sort of a before and after idea. People kept asking me for the old jeans. After the fifth request and loss of five sales, I picked up the yellow pages and called laundries and factories to see if they could wash jeans. Everyone thought I was crazy, such an industry didn’t exist. Out of frustration and necessity, I started washing jeans at home with my parents in October 1972. By springtime, word had spread that mine was the store that sold bleachedout jeans, and soon, the business grew.

My parents washed two hundred pairs a week in that small house which we finally moved out of in 1974.

In 1975, my brother Joseph, Angelo Cordisco and Nicky Cavalieri were part of my sales staff. 444

4 They returned from a three-week holiday in Italy with the idea of starting a jeans company called Santana Jeans. It was mostly Angelo’s idea; he felt the fashion jeans era happening in Italy and it inspired him. I had two stores by then, with a third on the way. They finally invited me to join as a silent partner.

“With five thousand dollars each, we launched Santana Jeans on October 17, 1975”.

Our first year of business brought in $72,000. Angelo was frustrated and wanted out. We were going nowhere. I got more involved in designing and producing. During this time I hired a young girl named Rosie Salcito to manage Pour Les Deux, the St. Catherine & Bleury store. Today, she is my ever patient, ever loving wife and mother of our two daughters. In 1978, I gave up Pour Les Deux. Isaac Friedman kept the St. Catherine & Bleury store, and I wound down the St.Catherine East store to dedicate myself fulltime to Santana Jeans. I had to give people a reason to buy our jeans! We were always searching, trying new ideas, some were very successful, and many were not. I traveled the world for inspiration and production.

By 1986, I was frustrated. I wanted to do more, and I was willing to risk everything to become an international brand, the first Canadian jean brand to go global.

My partners were married and weren’t as crazy as me. I didn’t want to put them at risk; therefore, I offered to sell them my shares worth $700,000, payable over five years, so I could be free to do my own thing.

We were a bunch of kids with no contract, no formal business education.

No one ever made denim dresses - we had denim dresses.

There’s a saying that goes: “when business is bad, partners argue, when business is good, they argue more.” To make a long story short, I had to buy them out for $1.5 million each in 1987! I had a Mercedes and a house, which our family moved into. My accountant and I presented my plan to the bank that agreed to loan me the three million to buy out my partners.

Luckily, my brother stayed an extra year to help me out and my other expartner was on a mission to destroy me once he got his cheque. I prayed to God to keep me healthy. As long as I didn’t get sick I was confident I could make the company grow and realize my dream. I repaid the bank within three years; they could not believe it.

“Japanese designers were hot, and the Americans thought Parasuco was Japanese, so we were a hit! They really like my designs! Wow!”

In 1989, I decided to step into the American market. Some American had copied our name Santana Jeans so we couldn’t use the Santana name. We had already agreed to take part in a trade show in New York and we were stuck without a name. My staff encouraged me to use my family name, Parasuco. I was like, “Are you kidding, kids laughed at my name in school.” Because of the trade show coming up and no better idea for a name, we presented Parasuco at the “New York Pret” in a 10 x 10 booth in 1989. In Montreal, most buyers would not accept my designs and always wanted me to copy something they saw in Europe. This frustration led me to explore the USA and all of a sudden, the Americans loved our designs, our washes, and our fits.

I wanted more business in Canada; my friend is the consumer, I never wanted to cater to store buyers. But if the buyers wouldn’t buy, how could the consumer know my product, how could the market know Parasuco?

Advertising was the answer. Most brands advertise the brand name, and that requires lots of money and a good marketing plan. I had little money and no patience! Since 1976, I had been selling stretch jeans and I was involved in the evolution of a stretch denim fabric that could stand up to all the aggressive new washes. Bingo! I will advertise with a focus on our stretch jeans and push the Parasuco name at the same time. I wanted to advertise in a way that would ensure quick results.

I had hoped of working with a famous American photographer named Lance Staedler. Even though I felt I could not afford him, I went after him and hammered a deal that included a TV commercial shot on 35mm film. I got the deal by convincing him that it would be good for his career. He had been approached to try out this film with Propaganda Studios in Los Angeles.

We shot the stretch jeans commercial on the beach in Santa Monica with a crew of twenty. It was like shooting a movie. 444

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4 It cost twenty thousand dollars, and many people worked for free to help promote the photographer. No matter the budget, it had to be great quality because the photographer’s career relied on it! I remember being in the editing room with Madonna next door editing her new video, Rain.

Once I was in Montreal, I watched the commercial over and over, and knew something was missing. When the name Parasuco came out at the end I worried people would mispronounce the name. I looked for a girl with a heavy Italian accent and added her voice at the end to create a sensuous, slow, thickly pronounced;

“p-a-r-a-s-u-c-o s-t-r-e-t-c-h jeans”.

I worked out a deal with CFCF Television, the commercial went on the air, and my stretch jeans sales went from 35,000 pieces per year to 380,000 pieces in the first year of the commercial.

In clubs and bars, guys mimicking the Italian accent, “Are those P-A-R-A-SU-C-O S-T-R-E-T-C-H jeans”, would hit on girls. Without knowing it, Parasuco was the first label in the world to advertise the word “STRETCH”! Today, everyone is doing it. Nevertheless, even with all this local success and excitement, I knew Parasuco was nothing until we hit the European market.

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During our spring season of 1994, we were selling sweatshirts with a reflective orange and silver tape on the sleeve. I asked my trimmings woman to order another one thousand meters of this tape. To my surprise, ten thousand meters came in. She had accidentally put an extra “0”. I take pride in keeping my promises, and that is why many people I deal with are happy to deal on a handshake. We had made the mistake of ordering ten thousand meters, not our suppliers; therefore, we paid the bill and lived with our mistake.

The menswear show in Las Vegas was coming up, and as usual before a show, we were all stressed. Stress can be good, it can help you focus on what’s important, you can learn to make stress work for you. Walking through the warehouse, I kept seeing those ten thousand meters of reflective tapes. The kids were buying those Adidas sweatpants with the three stripes down the side. The popularity of those sweatpants was taking business away from jeans. All of a sudden, I got an idea to kill two birds with one stone. I made a very baggy jean using the reflective tapes on the side. We went to Las Vegas and sold 2,000 pairs of those jeans. Once we shipped those jeans, the hip-hop kids ate them up and I revved up my production to meet the eighty thousand pairs a month demand in the USA, which grew for five years.

Those jeans got so hot that the Parasuco name ended up in about eleven hip-hop songs to this date! I gave the American kids a reason to notice, to respect, and to want Parasuco fashions!

In 1996, we opened our flagship store in Montreal on Crescent and St Catherine. Even with our success in the USA and Japan, we had a hard time getting the retailers in Canada to take us seriously. It frustrated me to know that my answer was to open a store of Parasuco fashions to act as a showroom for the public. As I always said and believed, “the consumer is my friend;” the buyers will buy what the consumer wants, and with my own store, I can get the consumer’s attention!

Our beautiful store opened, the competitors laughed at me. Today it has the most successful retail sales per square foot in Montreal, and it has helped make the Parasuco brand a very important and respected one in Canada. Designers from all parts of the world shop at our stores and many copy our designs, which Canadian retail buyers once upon a time would not even look at! No matter what the retail buyers once thought of Parasuco, I respect them and thank them for forcing me to give them a reason to buy Parasuco. I never complained, I tried to understand, they have their job to do, I must do mine.

We had to give them a reason to spend their budget at Parasuco. 444

4 In 1999, our New York office called. This crazy guy from Italy was insisting on speaking with me.

Fortunately, I speak Italian; he wanted to be our distributor in Italy. He said he had the top 120 accounts, all the best stores in Italy, which sold Prada, Gucci, Cavalli, Armani, etc. I said, “Thank you for the compliment, but I don’t feel like I’m on the same level with those brands.”

His final push was to buy two hundred units as a retailer and our assurance that we would deliver. I said, “Send your money and we’ll deliver”.

The week after, he called from Milan and pleaded for the collection again. I was on my way to Europe the following week and made a commitment to visit his showroom. A week later, I was in his showroom. I was impressed; this was a very serious guy with a serious set-up. Again, I said we weren’t ready for Italy, and again he insisted we were! I told him that maybe this season we had something he liked, but I didn’t know if we would the following seasons. He said his nose never failed him. I pulled out one pair of jeans from my backpack, which his model tried on. They were so impressed with our fit, our wash and our design that we are now in our fourth year of doing business together.

He has positioned Parasuco in the most prestigious Italian stores, which is opening up markets all over the world for us.

This Italian success has flourished a new business, I Parasuco, which we launched at a show in Milan on February 28, 2003. It features our women’s high-end ready-to-wear collection, which we designed and produced in Italy for distribution around the world. Already we have orders from Italy, London, Hong Kong, Kuwait and Russia.

I continue working hard everyday like I’ve always done, and all of a sudden, after thirty years in this industry, I’m receiving awards such as last year’s “Fondation de la Mode de Montréal”. I have interviews left and right, and am invited to galas and parties all over the world. It’s nice and I appreciate it.

However, what I really enjoy is listening to our customers and being with my sample sewers and factories developing new designs and new techniques. I especially enjoy breaking into new markets in Italy, which is the Mecca of fashion.

Most of all, I enjoy my family.

“It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice!”

I’m lucky I have great parents. They did not have money, but they taught me the important things in life, and I am very lucky to have a beautiful, understanding and supportive wife and two beautiful children. I thank God everyday for what I have, especially for giving me good health and the energy to fulfil my dream of making Parasuco the first international brand from Montreal, Canada! I even thank the people who tried to hurt me throughout my career. Every experience, good or bad, has made me stronger! Parasuco will expand to include many product lines! g

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E N O T R I A By: Filippo Salvatore

The land of wine Growing grapes and fermenting their sweet juice into wine is a yearly ritual that takes place at the beginning of the fall season. Italy with its two million hectares is, in terms of quantity, the most important wine producing country in the world. In terms of quality Italy shares again, with France, the first place. Spain, California, Portugal, Australia, South Africa and Chile are also important wine producing countries.

Wine consumption has increased exponentially in the last generation. Besides being a tasty and natural product, wine, red in particular, as recent medical research has demonstrated, also possesses therapeutic properties if consumed in moderate quantity (between two and three glasses per day).

Wine is an ancient product which is enjoying a glorious present and has a glowing future. Let us take a trip through Italy and learn about the peculiarities of its wines from the North to the Center to the South to the Islands. Hidden treasures are waiting to be discovered.

There are at least 5,000 varieties of wine grapes in the world, several of which have been grown at least since Roman times.

All are the progeny of the wild grape Vitis Vinifera. The cepages vitis hellenica and vitis apiana were used for producing the historical falernum, the wine Roman emperors loved to drink. They came from the region around Naples. The full-bodied red known today as aglianico is the descendant of the vitis hellenica or falernum. This is but an example of the way in which growers have learned to adapt in the last two millennia the production of grapes to varieties of climate, altitude and geological composition of the soil.

Wine production and libations for both social and religious events have been an integral part of Mediterranean civilizations. Jews, Egyptians, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, and later, Gauls have attached

great importance to wine. Trade in wine and wheat was of crucial importance for the Roman imperial economy.

When ancient Greeks settled along the lower part of the Italian peninsula and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica and formed what historians refer to as Magna Graecia (greater Greece), they referred to

the new lands they were settling in as Enotria, or the land of wine. Wine growing has an ancient and illustrious tradition on Italian soil. Nowadays, all of the twenty administrative regions of Italy are involved in the process of producing and transforming both white and red grapes into wine.

Although the surface of the Italian peninsula is small, there are profound variations in climate and topography. The vitigni (cepages) grown are different and vary from region to region and take into account the geological

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takes a tour of the historic sites in Italy, he can enjoy not only the rich artistic patrimony but also discover and appreciate a new itinerary, that of the great wine districts that surround the great artistic centres.

4 When ancient Greeks settled along the lower part of the Italian peninsula and the

islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica and formed what historians refer to as Magna Graecia (greater Greece), they referred to the new lands they were settling in as Enotria, or the land of wine. Wine growing has an ancient and illustrious tradition on Italian soil. Nowadays, all of the twenty administrative regions of Italy are involved in the process of producing and transforming both white and red grapes into wine. peculiarities of the terrain. Moreover, the techniques of wine making are adapted to the specificity of the grapes and the climate. There are terraced vineyards on the slopes of mountains in the Northern regions of Valle d’ Aosta and Trentino, vines along terraced cliffs overlooking the sea in Liguria, vineyards on the calcareous terrain of the hills in Tuscany, Abruzzo, Sicily, Marches, Romagna, Calabria, Sardinia, and in the sandy soil of the plains of Apulia, or smaller islands surrounding Sicily, like Pantelleria. This variety of climate and quality of soil explains why one can find a wide spectrum of wines in Italy, from light bubbly whites, to full-bodied reds.

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Classification of Italian wines Level 4 : DOCG wines (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita / Certification of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin)

Level 3 : DOC wines (Denominazione di Origine Controllata / Certification of Controlled Origin)

Wine making, keeping and drinking has been for almost three thousand years an integral part of the life-style and culture of the peoples living in Italy. Scenes depicting libations are found in Etruscan tombs, in painted Greek amphorae and in many decorations and public monuments all over the country. Local customs almost always include wine-drinking, and wine is a recurring theme in Italian music, a famous aria being Libiamo from the Traviata.

Nowadays, wine producers constitute a great human and economic resource of the country. There are a few large and highly qualified industries, especially in Tuscany, Piedmont and Veneto. There are, on the contrary, many wine producing co-operatives and numerous individual producers, some of whom have created, for many generations, wines known and appreciated worldwide. A handful of Italian wines such as Chianti, Valpolicella and Barolo have established themselves as brand names.The majority of producers are still modest craftsmen and sell their produce directly in demijohns or gallons. If a tourist

In terms of vinification technique and quality, the bulk of production relies on vini da tavola (around 40%), followed by vini di indicazione geografica tipica (30%), by vini DOC – denominazione di origine controllata (25%) and vini DOCG (denominazione di origine controllata garantita)(see chart). This classification guarantees consistency in quality as an expression of the environment and peculiarity of vitigno.

As an oenologist or sommelier, or even just a non-professional wine-drinker can attest, the characteristics of a truly great wine are colour, limpidity, nuances in smell, degree of tannin, texture in body, and richness of taste. When a wine possesses most of these traits, when there is harmony among the various components, it may de defined as a truly great wine. It is a combination between pride in the sense of place, a celebration of

Level 2 : IGT wines (Indicazione Geografica Tipica/Typical Geographic Indication)

Level 1 : Vini da tavola (Table wines)

Classification of Italian wines according to the regulations of the European Community : V.Q.P.R.D. table wines 2005 market forecast and segmentation of the production of Italian wines based on the classification forecast of the 164/92 Law.

• DOCG wines • DOC wines • IGT wines • Table wines Source: Association of Italian Enotechnical Enologists

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5% 25% 30% 40%

4 the flavours of native grapes and the subtle alchemy between the natural product and the personal touch during the vinification process, as well as the ideal conditions for keeping and aging the must, that make a particular vintage. Italian wines have undergone in the last generation a quality revolution, and although there has been an increase in prices, they are competing very successfully with French and California wines. The success of the dieta mediterranea or Mediterranean cuisine ( olive oil, sundried tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and basil, so typical of Italian domestic cuisine) inevitably will lead, and this is happening already, to the rediscovery of old wines.

This renaissance in quality of Italian wines is due to a large extent to trademarks of the Consorzi di Tutela. When a customer sees on the label the inscription Consorzio di Tutela, he can be sure that besides the DOC or DOCG denomination, the bottle contains a wine with an added guarantee: that of the quality which strictly follows the laws and regulations the producers have accepted and abide by strictly to protect both their own reputation and provide a supplemental guarantee for the consumer.

Is it better to drink “old” or “new” wines?

This difference can be misleading because each wine has its own life cycle. The best time for its consumption is determined by wisdom acquired through experience reflected in the laws and regulations. These are the rules to follow if one wants to have in one’s glass not only the zest of a “young” wine, but also harmony, elegance and style.

White wines: The demand for white wines has been growing. The surprising thing to know is that not all whites come from white grapes.They are often the result of a special vinification technique of red grapes, as is the case of several sparkling spumanti.

It is important to remember that white wines have a shorter life cycle and their perfume and taste are generally better during the first or second year. Vini passiti, or vin santo (whites made out of ripened grapes with a higher sugar content) improve with time and have a longer life.

Rosé wines: Rosé o rosati wines are produced from specific types of grapes or from a shorter fer-

mentation of red grapes. They are delicate, light and aromatic, with a lighter alcoholic content.Their life cycle being short, it is best to taste them during the first or second year after bottling.

Red wines: The true renaissance of Italian wines is taking place in the production of reds.

Contemporary, more sophisticated vinification techniques enable producers to offer a lighter king of reds, much more satisfying and subtle in taste than the traditional fullbodied ones that accompanied meat dishes or strongly flavoured foods. In today’s production there is an exceptional range which corresponds to the kind of vitigno, geological properties of the soil and vinification techniques. After years of trail and error Italian wine producers can be proud of their results. Each great wine has, like in the fashion industry, its own signature.

Sangiovese, montepulciano, aglianico and other traditional vitigni have been combined with other varieties.The result is a highly refined product for a discerning clientele that can afford the higher cost.

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5 7 1

4

8

DOC Wines by Region

2 3

6 10

9 11

13 12

14 17

15 16 19

18

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Cellatica Colli Morenici Mantovani del Garda Franciacorta Pinot Franciacorta Rosso Lugana Oltrepo’ Pavese (Barbacarlo, Barbera, Bonarda, Buttafuoco, Cortese, Moscato, Pinot rouge, rosé, et blanc, Riesling, Sangue di Guida) Riviera del Garda Bresciano Chiaretto et Rosso San Colombano ou San Colombano al Lambro Tocai di S. Martino della Battaglia Valcalepio Valtellina Valtellina Superiore (Inferno, Grumello, Sassella, Sfursat, Valgella)

5. Trentino-Alto Adige

Northern Italy 1. Valle d’Aosta Donnaz Enfer d’Arvier

2. Piedmont Asti Spumante Barbaresco (DOCG) Barbera d’Alba Barbera d’Asti Barbera del Monferrato Barolo (DOCG) Boca Brachetto d’Acqui Bramaterra Caluso Passito Caluso Passito Liquoroso Carema Colli Tortonesi (Barbera, Cortese) Cortese dell’Alto Monferrato Dolcetto d’Acqui Dolcetto d’Alba Dolcetto d’Asti Dolcetto delle Langhe Monregalesi Dolcetto di Diano d’Alba Dolcetto di Dogliani Dolcetto di Ovada Erbaluce di Caluso Fara

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Freisa d’Asti Freisa di Chieri Gabiano Gattinara Gavi ou Cortese di Gavi Ghemme Grignolino d’Asti Grignolino del Monferrato Casalese Lessona Malvasia di Casorzo d’Asti Malvasia di Castelnuovo Don Bosco Moscato d’Asti Moscato Naturale d’Asti Nebbiolo d’Asti Nebbiolo d’Alba Roero Rubino di Cantavenna Sizzano

3. Liguria Cinqueterre Cinqueterre Sciacchetra Rossesse di Dolceacqua ou Dolceacqua

4. Lombardy Botticino Capriano del Colle

Alto Adige (Cabernet, Lagrein, Malvasia, Merlot, Moscato, Giallo, Moscato Rosa, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Nero, Riesling Italico, Riesling Renano, Sauvignon, Schiava, Sylvaner, Traminer Aromatico) Caldaro ou Lago di Caldaro Casteller Colli di Bolzano Sorni Meranese ou Meranese di Collina Santa Maddalena Terlano (Pinot Bianco, Riesling Italico, Riesling Renano, Sauvignon, Sylvaner Müeller-Thurgau) Teroldego Rotaliano Valdadige Bianco et Rosso Valle Isarco (Müeller-Thurgau, Pinot Grigio, Sylvaner, Traminer, Veltiner) Vini del Trentino (Cabernet, Lagrein, Marzemino, Merlot, Moscato, Pinot, Pinot Nero, Riesling, Traminer, Aromatico di Termeno, Vin Santo)

6. Emiglia-Romagna Albana di Romagna Bianco di Scandiano Colli Bolognesi Monte San Pietro Colli di Parma Gutturnio dei Colli Piacentini

Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro Lambrusco Reggiano Lambrusco Salmino di S. Croce Lambrusco di Sorbara Monterosso Val d’Arda Sangiovese di Romagna Trebbianino Valtrebbia Trebbiano di Romagna

7. Friuli Venezia Giulia Aquileia (Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Refosco, Riesling Renano, Tocai Friulano) Collio Goriziano ou Collio (Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malvasia, Merlot, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Nero, Riesling Italico, Tocai, Traminer) Colli Orientali del Friuli (Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Picolit, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Nero, Ribolla, Riesling Renano, Refosco Nostano, Tocai, Verduzzo, Sauvignon) Grave del Friuli (Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Refosco Notrano ou Penduncolo Rosso, Tocai, Verduzzo) Isonzo (Cabernet, Malvasia Istriana, Merlot, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Riesling Renano, Sauvignon, Tocai, Traminer Aromatico, Verduzzo) Latisana (Cabernet, Merlot, Refosco, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Tocai Friulano, Verduzzo Friulano)

8. Veneto Bardolino Bianco di Custoza Breganze (Bianco, Rosso, Cabernet, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Nero, Vespaiolo) Cabernet di Pramaggiore Colli Berici (Cabernet, Garganega, Merlot, Pinot Bianco, Sauvignon, Tocai Bianco, Tocai Rosso) Colli Euganei (Bianco, Moscato, Rosso, Spumante) Gamberella (Recioto, Vin Santo)

Merlot di Pramaggiore Montello e Colli Asolani Prosecco di ConeglianoValdobbiadene Soave Recioto di Soave Tocai di Lison Valpolicella Recioto della Valpolicella Amarone Vini del Piave (Cabernet, Merlot, Tocai, Verduzzo)

Central Italy 9. Tuscany Bianco della Valdinievole Bianco di Pitigliano Bianco Pisano di San Torpe Bianco Vergine Valdichiana Bolgheri Brunello di Montalcino (DOCG) Candia dei Colli Apuani Carmignano Chianti (DOCG) Elba Bianco et Rosso Montecarlo Bianco Montescudaio Bianco et Rosso Morellino di Scansano Moscadello di Montalcino Parrina Bianco et Rosso Pomino Rosso delle Colline Lucchesi Rosso di Montalcino Val d’Arbia Vernaccia di S. Gimignano Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (DOCG)

10. The Marche Bianchello del Metauro Bianco dei Colli Maceratesi Falerio dei Colli Ascolani Lacrima di Morro Rosso Conero Rosso Piceno Sangiovese dei Colli Pesaresi Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio di Matelica Vernaccia di Serrapetrona Spumante

11. Umbria Colli Altotiberini Colli Perugini Colli del Trasimeno Bianco et Rosso Montefalco Bianco et Sagrantino

Orvieto Torgiano Bianco et Rosso

12. Latium Aleatico di Gradoli Bianco Capena Cerveteri Cesanese del Piglio ou Piglio Cesanese di Affile ou Affile Cesanese di Olevano Romano ou Olevano Romano Colli Albani Colli Lanuvini Cori Bianco et Rosso Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone Frascati Marino Merlot di Aprilia Montecompatri Colonna Sangiovese di Aprilia Trebbiano di Aprilia Velletri Bianco et Rosso Zagarolo

Martina ou Martina Franca Matino Rosso et Rosato Moscato di Trani Ortanova Ostuni Primitivo di Manduria Rosso Canosa Rosso di Cerignola Salice Salentino San Severo Bianco, Rosso, et Rosato Rosso Barletta Squinzano

18. Calabria Cirò Bianco, Rosso, et Rosato Donnici Greco di Bianco Lamezia Melissa Pollino Savuto Santa Anna di Isola Capo Ruzzuto

13. Anbruzzi

19. Sardinia

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Rosso et Cerasuolo Trebbiano d’Abruzzo

Campidano di Terralba ou Terralba Cannonau di Sardegna Carignano del Sulcis Giro di Cagliari Malvasia di Bosa Malvasia di Cagliari Mandrolisai Monica di Cagliari Monica di Sardegna Moscato di Sorso-Sennòri Moscato di Sardegna Nasco di Cagliari Nuragus du Cagliari Vermentino di Gallura Vernaccia di Oristano

14. Molise Biferno Pentro di Isernia ou Pentro

Southern Italy 15. Campania Capri Fiano di Avellino Greco di Tufo Ischia Bianco, Bianco Superiore, et Rosso Solopaca Bianco et Rosso Taurasi Vesuvio

16. Basilicata Aglianico del Vulture

17. Apulia Aleatico di Puglia Alezio Rosso et Rosato Brindisi Cacc’e Mmitte di Lucera Castel del Monte Copertino Gravina Locorotondo Leverano

20. Sicily Bianco Alcamo ou Alcamo Cerasuolo di Vittoria Etna Bianco, Rosso, et Rosato Faro Malvasia delle Lipari Marsala (Fine, Superiore, Vergine) Moscato di Noto Moscato di Pantelleria, Naturale Moscato Passito di Pantelleria Moscato di Siracusa g

Salvatore Founder of Sajo Guerrera We met Salvatore Guerrera at the Sajo Inc. headquarters, in Town of Mont Royal. President of Sajo, Mr. Guerrera founded what would become a large company that today handles project management, general contracting and rollout management.

knowing the language was a barrier for them. Until my father became fluent in French. So the bond was very strong between my parents and I. It wasn’t a choice; it was a situation. And this definitely had an impact on my childhood.”

Mr. Guerrera was born in Montreal shortly after his parents, Anna and Giovanni, immigrated to Canada in 1952 from Pontelandolfo, province of Benevento, in the Campania region. Like many children of immigrants, he understood at a very young age that his parents were not privileged and were, in fact, quite limited. “Because of that realization, as a child I had a bond with them that was really different from the kind of bond I would have had had I been born in Italy.”

Mr. Guerrera’s upbringing was a modest one; he became acutely aware of this fact when meeting some of his friends’ parents, who were white-collar workers. Although he acknowledged that materialistically, he could not afford many things, he said, “When I was young, my parents gave me so much love, I never felt poor or that I missed out on anything. As a matter of fact, I always used to ask my mother ‘Will I be able to do for my kids what you did for me?’”

What he remembers most about his early childhood years is the fact that when he started the first grade, he did not speak English. Looking back, he does not even recall having learned the language, but that once he had become fluent in English, he felt responsible for his parents. “At the age of eight or nine years old, although I did not realize it then because I was too young, they had already created a dependence on me.

So, although I was unaware of it, responsibility for me came very early. I started to feel the extent of this responsibility toward my parents when I went to high school.

Things like to go out and have fun.

I never felt I could leave for a week and go somewhere because I felt they needed me. At the time, not

As a teenager, Salvatore Guerrera did not consider himself either studious or very popular. Like many high school kids, he hung out at parks and dance halls, and dreamt of his future.

Perhaps because he enjoyed painting and drawing, he vaguely envisioned doing something where he could express his ideas, never imagining that he would end up president of a large company. He did, however, show traits of an entrepreneurial spirit when he started a magazine in grade school, which he continued for several years into high school and sold for three cents a copy, donating one penny per copy sold to Our Lady of Consolata Church.

P R O F I L E By: Nadia Signorino

After high school, he met the girl who would become his wife, Diane. Diane’s charisma and support of Mr. Guerrera’s endeavors gave him lots of inspiration and fuel with which he could express his dreams about the future. Although he considered various career alternatives, he did not make any decisions until several years later, when he was enrolled in university.

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a r e r r e SalvatoreGu

Conceptual Photographer : Geraldo Pace

4 While attending Sir George Williams University, pursuing a Major in History/Minor in Psychology, Mr. Guerrera worked part time for The Villager, a trendy retail shoe store located on the corner of Peel and de Maisonneuve, a walking distance from the University. He worked at the Villager between the ages of nineteen and twenty-two, developing friendships with other staff members (among them his business partner, Nick Tedeschi), that would, in many ways, play a part in shaping his future. To this day, he maintains the relationships that began during his Villager days.

After working at The Villager, he worked briefly for an equipment rental company, where, by handling different responsibilities at many levels, he learned the fundamentals of business.

After he left Sir George Williams University, Mr. Guerrera decided to start working for himself. He started getting some contracts doing commercial painting. This was an important stepping-stone in his life because he became more knowledgeable about the construction of a building. From there came the desire to build. He knew that the experience of creating and of building would give him a sense of accomplishment, so he took courses in plan reading and estimation.

The evolution of his business was not planned or strategic. It all began as a simple idea, a desire to do something for himself. In 1977, Salvatore Guerrera started the business with

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his cousin Joe Guerrera. His sister thought of the name SAJO. The partnership was short-lived but he found another partner, Nick Tedeschi. Mr. Tedeschi was still working at the Villager, but often talked to Mr. Guerrera about working together. At the time, Mr. Guerrera’s business brought in little revenue. Mr. Tedeschi was already married and Mr. Guerrera was concerned about his friend’s financial welfare. He told his friend that if they became partners, he would not be able to afford to pay him for a period of a year, certain that this condition would dissuade him.

needed a bond. To get a bond, they needed equity, which was either in the form of assets or cash. Not having either assets or cash at the time, the bank drew up a joint and several guarantee, which their respective fathers willingly signed for to help them get started.

They began experimenting with different types of jobs, painting, drywall and renovations. However, not having yet discovered their niche, nothing they did was particularly appealing to them. “The only thing that was interesting for us back then was the process of business. You get a contract, you build it, and you get resources. We were still getting to know ourselves, not knowing exactly what we wanted to do. We were waiting to hit on something that we

Instead, Nick Tedeschi quit his job as a store manager and joined Salvatore Guerrera, forming a partnership and friendship that today is stronger than ever.

Mr. Guerrera’s parents were not pleased with his decision to leave university and work for himself.

They were worried that he would not make it. He understood that they were uneasy about how he would earn his livelihood, but were not judging him. He did not want to disappoint them but he was determined to try to do what he wanted to.

At the time, Sajo was getting some commercial contracts. “Thank God I didn’t know what I was getting into. Because when you’re young and you start something new, the less you know the better – or you might let your lack of knowledge stop you from pushing forward.”

One year later, the two young partners started bidding on public works. To bid on public works, they

felt passionate about and that we had not encountered yet. We were basically working to generate revenue, doing whatever we could.”

The turning point in the young company of two occurred when they got the opportunity to do some interior construction in 1980. They had done some renovation work for The Villager and Alti shoes, as well as for the National Trust, where Mrs. Guerrera worked back then. They discovered that there was an interior construction business and set about figuring out this market.

Meanwhile, one of the former Villager staff members started working for Aldo Shoes. Back in the early eighties, the Aldo Shoes line was in a transition period. The Aldo sections of all Le Chateau stores were moving

to new locations in several shopping malls in and outside the province.

Mr. Guerrera, who had his heart set on doing the interior construction of some of the new Aldo Shoes locations and had been trying to go to tender for Aldo for eight months, finally got the opportunity to quote on two stores, one in Trois Rivières and the other in Edmonton, Alberta. Although he was hoping his bid would be accepted for the local store, he instead was offered the Alberta job.

He had to think fast. The only person he knew in Edmonton was his cousin Joe, who’d moved there with his wife. But he had no professional contacts and knew no contractors.

He was young and bold and had been trying for eight months to make a bid for Aldo Shoes. This could be opportunity knocking. He accepted the contract.

“I took the plane to Edmonton. I went to the shopping center. I picked up the Yellow Pages. I had a set of drawings. I made myself a bench in the store. I called everybody. They came to see me. They priced the job. I awarded it. I gave everything out. I stayed there seven weeks, away from my wife and three-week old daughter. I returned home.

Everybody was happy with the job.”

Salvatore Guerrera did not know it then, but Sajo had done its first of numerous Aldo stores. Several months later, back in Montreal, Aldo Shoes had signed sixteen leases

in various shopping centers. A very young Salvatore Guerrera got to sit in on a meeting between Aldo shoes and the designing firm who had done some preliminary drawings for the new store locations. Mr. Aldo Bensadoun owner of Aldo Shoes, was worried. He had no time for the bidding process. He needed to create a new concept and image distinct from those that Aldo had had as part of Le Chateau, and had to do so with very tight time restraints.

Salvatore Guerrera, who was relatively new to the industry and found himself in a roomful of established professionals, suggested to Mr. Bensadoun that he “fast track.” This implied for the Aldo chain that they go against the norm. Back then, the retailers depended on the designers to go out on tender for them.

Nobody worked directly with the construction companies. While he was well aware of this trend, Mr. Guerrera offered to start pricing the jobs with the suppliers using the available sketches and to give Mr. Bensadoun a base cost, which he would adjust with a mark-up when the design firm would submit the final drawings. Salvatore Guerrera was asking Aldo shoes to take a potentially risky chance and break the trend of hiring contractors through a design firm.

Last year, Salvatore Guerrera and Nick Tedeschi celebrated twenty-five years of partnership. Together, they run four manufacturing plants and employ seven hundred people. They are also partners in real estate and in a property management company.

Sajo, whose head office is in Montreal, does business in Canada, the US, and the UK. It also has plans to open two offices in Chicago and New York.

Mr. Guerrera believes the main ingredients for running a successful enterprise are strong values to live and make decisions by; the ability to think beyond fixed dimensions in order to have access to a world of possibility; always having the right people and resources in place before putting a plan together.

“Running a successful business is like running a marathon race. You keep getting closer to the finish line and someone moves the finish line another two hundred feet and you keep running and the finish line keeps moving and you never stop running. There is never a real sense of security because the bigger you get, the bigger the risk.”

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Mr. Bensadoun, partly because of the time restraints and partly because he had taken a liking to Salvatore Guerrera and felt he could trust him, gave him the sixteen stores to redo. This was a pivotal point in Sajo’s evolution. The year was 1981. The partners had found their niche, creative interior construction. To this day, Sajo has done five hundred eighty of the six hundred Aldo stores.

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Bring your dreams to life sajoinc.com FIXTURES • ROLLOUT PROGRAMS • PROJECT MANAGEMENT • GENERAL CONTRACTING

1212, rue de Louvain Ouest, Montréal (Québec) Canada H4N 1G5 (514) 385-0333

p r e s e n t s

NAIO T NAL DENIMDAY

PHOTOGRAPHED BY: CARLO HINDIAN

BREAST CANCER CO NCERNS US ALL This family was diagnosed in 1996

1-888-592www.curefoundation.com

4 He acknowledges that Sajo’s evolution and success is a collaborative effort, a result of the good people who have been working with him through the years. His partner, Nick Tedeschi and all his senior management: Tony Luciano, VP, Operations, Thierry Cohen, VP, Finance, Franca Tedeschi, Director of Finance, François Leclair, Director of IT, Jean-Louis Propinator, Director of Quality, Rocco Raco, Director of Business Development, Richard Proulx, Robert Presta, Sam Rinaldi, Valentino Rinaldi and Emilio Nini, Directors of Operations and Gilles Thompson V.P., Strategic Partnerships.

His formula for success has been a combination of timing, luck, strong values, persistence, hard work, love and passion. Long ago, he decided that in business, one must always be truthful, transparent, giving and caring – while also being a tough negotiator. He also set out to change the negative stereotype of the construction industry.

He knew he could do that by always standing by his values and integrating his value system in his corporation. For him, business is a process, building a culture based on values.

To work successfully alongside the retail industry, Sajo must be aware of the ever-changing trends. Its profile must be up-to-date with the evolution of the retail industry and the evolution of its numerous images.

This profile must also inspire trust in the client.

“People need to trust you.

People will do things for a person, not for a ‘cause.’ This is applicable in politics, in social environments, in business and within your family.”

“My parents were not takers. They were, and still are, givers. And they also taught me how to give.”

Both Salvatore Guerrera and Nick Tedeschi have always supported charitable organizations. Through the years, Mr. Guerrera was invited to sit on various boards of charitable foundations, in addition to the Cure Foundation, which he started with Diane.

The Cure Foundation “In 1996, my wife Diane was diagnosed with breast cancer. When she became cancer-free, we wanted to make sure that the research and support that was there for us would be there for others who would follow.

This gave my wife and I the possibility to take a life-threatening challenge and transform it into an opportunity to improve the outcome for others who would face this disease”.

Cure solicits the voluntary participation of corporations, financial and educational institutions, retailers and health care establishments to take part in National Denim Day across Canada. Participants wear

56

jeans on the Tuesday following Mother’s Day and encourage others to make a suggested donation of $5 to the CURE Foundation. On May 13, 2003, hundreds of thousands of Canadians took part in Denim Day. Since its inception in October 1996, CURE has raised $5.4 million. This money has gone toward the establishment of a Chair in Cancer Genetics at McGill University, the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment for several hospitals, the financing of research in Canada through the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative, as well as support for other Canadian organizations in the field of breast cancer.

“CURE invites Canadians to take part in the fight against breast cancer by participating in National Denim Day on Tuesday, May 11, 2004.

Canadian corporations are encouraged to match their employees’ donations. Wearing jeans has never been so important!

“It is very gratifying to see the responses we have received from Canadians who support our efforts to improve the outcome of breast cancer research and treatments. My wife and I are very pleased with the role we have been able to play in providing hope and encouragement to anyone in the Canadian population who has had to deal with breast cancer.

“The CURE Foundation hopes to continue its role as a force that can help generate the necessary funding to one day find a cure for breast cancer”. g

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80, de Callières Duvernay • Laval (Québec) H7E 3N1 Tél: (450) 661-6800

Capitol Butchers By: Nadia Signorino

A Success Story Mr. Antonio Le Donne, self-made man, entrepreneur, salami and prosciutto connoisseur, sits across me in the large conference room of Capitol’s headquarters in Laval, which he founded in 1957. An easy smile and affable disposition plainly reveal the earthy, hardworking nature of a man who is relishing the fruits of his labor. Not quite ready to retire, he works on the tables next to his staff in the factory. “Each salami and prosciutto that goes on the market must pass by me first for approval.”

Though approaching seventy, he admits there is still so much to learn about the art and craft of curing meats, and he is always exploring ways to make his superior line of products even better.

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To fully appreciate the success story behind Capitol Butchers, we must first trace Mr. Antonio’s evolution from his humble beginnings in Foggia to his departure from Italy at age twenty-three.

He was born in 1934 in a small town called Roseto Valfortore. When he was a mere one year-old, his father left the family temporarily to go work in North Africa, as did many southern Italians at the time. While there, World War II broke out, forcing his father to serve in the military and remain in Africa significantly longer than he had intended.

Eleven years would pass before Mr. Antonio would see his father again.

“When he returned from Africa”, Mr. Antonio recalled, “My father brought home nothing but fleas, which my mother had to scrub out of him. Back home in the small agricultural town of three thousand inhabitants, there were not many options available to a man looking for a means to support his family. The use of tractors not being common practice in Southern Italy in 1945, my father’s only option would have been to work the land by hand.”

However, he felt sure that having acquired experience working abroad could help his family make a fresh start in the city. One day he sat down with his wife and two sons. “‘My dears’, he said, ‘I have lived in misery for the last eleven years. We have to get out of here. We have to leave this small town and go live in the Province.’”

Postwar Italy was undergoing a period of extensive agricultural development.

After having transferred the family to

the Province of Foggia, everybody got to work. His parents were hired as general laborers in the vineyard of an agrarian station. His brother, in spite of being a war child, looked after a few goats and chickens, which they used in exchange for provisions. Gradually, his father would move up in the agrarian station and become head of the division of experimental research.

Nonetheless, in the meantime, times were difficult. Mr. Antonio, then a growing twelve-year-old boy, found a job keeping horses. He remembers how he would often cry of hunger because there was never enough to eat. To stave off his hunger pangs, he would run out and pick whatever vegetable or fruit he could find. “Sometimes,” he says, almost as a confession, “I even stole the fruits off my neighbor’s trees. But only because I was very hungry.”

By the time Mr. Antonio was eighteen years old, he, too had become an employee of the agrarian station and was sent to work as a buckaroo on a cattle ranch in the Province of Bari. For three years, until it was time to do his military service, he tended to cattle, assisting the veterinarian with the vaccination of the cows and weaning of the calves.

CROSSING THE ATLANTIC In his early twenties, Mr. Antonio left his native country for good and came to join his long-time fiancée, who had immigrated to Canada with her brother. They married three months later and moved into – with their few belongings – a small apartment in

444

Conceptual Photographer : Geraldo Pace

4 Montreal’s Little Italy. “Here is where it all began,” he says to me.

“I know each and every one of my prosciuttos,” ... ...“They are like my children.”

His first job working on the railroad track paid eighty cents an hour and was barely enough to make ends meet. His wife, to help him, asked the owner of the butcher shop where she bought the meat, whether he might have a part time job for her husband. Mr. Antonio began working weekends, at first sweeping and tidying up, supplementing his income from his job on the railroad tracks. His wife, who by then was expecting their first child, started working as well.

“We were both young, far away from our parents, trying to survive in a new country,” Mr. Antonio said, thinking back and laughing. “Inevitably, like any other young couple alone in a new country and living on limited means, we had our little quarrels. Then we would make up, hold onto other, and cry into each other’s arms. She was my pearl. Without her, I had nothing. She was the only one I had. Together, on a daily basis, we had to decide what we could afford to buy. ‘If today we buy a bottle of Pepsi’, we would say, ‘tomorrow we will do without and buy something else.’”

For years, he worked as a butcher part time. When his boss finally offered him a full-time position, Mr. Antonio instead decided to find two partners and they went into business for themselves.

The first butcher shop was called Tony Benito on St. Lawrence Street. A few years later, they relocated to the Jean Talon market area and renamed the business La Charcuterie Capitol. By this time, Mr. Antonio was sole owner, and his two sons, at five and six years old, were coming to the store after

64

school, giving their father a hand and learning his line of work.

As the family business grew, Mr. Antonio added two new locations, one in Duvernay and another in SaintVincent-de-Paul (the head office).

They also set up another business, Papille Imports, which distributes Italian goods such as pasta, canned tomatoes and olives, across Canada.

“My son, Tony, who runs Papille and to whom I have handed over the direction of the Capitol enterprise,” Mr. Antonio tells me, “is my partner, my friend and my son. In fact, he is becoming my father too, looking after me the way I used to look after him.

“My son Michele works hands-on in the production of our cured meats,” Mr. Antonio leans forward and tells me emphatically, evidently proud of the paths his sons have chosen to lead. “His hands can do anything and everything,” he says. “Michele’s hands are magic, capable of making not only prosciuttos and salamis - but bread, pastries and anything else you can think of.”

HISTORY OF PROSCIUTTO Although Christopher Columbus introduced it to North America in 1493, Prosciutto, that famed, Italian ham, has a history older than the Greeks and the Romans.

Like other salamis and cured meats, the invention of prosciutto can be attributed to man’s relentless gift for beating the odds when the going gets tough.

Many centuries ago, during times of famine and scarcity, man developed a complex process of curing pork in order to preserve it for months at a time.

Although prosciutto was at first a peasant food used mainly as a means for survival, it has since become a refined culinary delicacy, served in hundreds of Italian dishes, as part of an antipasto or main dish.

months, rinsed, and hung in a dry,

he spreads on the leaner ,skinless part of

cool environment.

the meat to keep it from drying.

Making prosciutto at home can be

Newer, faster machines are being introduced all the time, but for now, he is sticking to his age-old tradition. Not that he isn’t open to experimentation.

In addition to attending food fairs in the U.S. and Europe, Mr. Antonio has many contacts in the food industry, all of whom have added to his vast knowledge of cured meat processing. Capitol Butchers has recently introduced Spanish prosciutto and is always thinking of new types of salamis and cured meats to add to its line.

risky. Weather conditions vary and can alter the temperature of the cellar, where one would normally make pro-

Fifteen years ago, Mr. Antonio started making prosciutto at home, hanging each ham in the cellar where he also kept his house wine. The first year he made fifteen prosciuttos and brought them to the store to sell, along with his other cured meats. Word got around, and soon, customers started making special requests. Not yet having enough space in his store, he turned his basement into a makeshift prosciutto factory, experimenting with different techniques in order to keep up with the number of orders. increasing Eventually, the prosciutto was in such high demand that the main office was expanded to make room for a factory.

Today, Capitol makes hundreds of prosciuttos every year and sells them both retail and wholesale.

“I know each and every one of my prosciuttos,” Mr. Antonio told me, “They are like my children.” Meanwhile, he continues to explore new methods as he discovers them, and experiments with his own ideas. He and his son Tony regularly attend international food fairs to keep up with new techniques.

sciutto. This can have a detrimental effect on the aging process, resulting in a less-than-perfect ham.

Capitol’s factory has a controlled setting designed for making excellent prosciuttos, which Mr. Antonio nevertheless inspects throughout the different stages of processing.

When I asked him to tell me what ingredients were needed to make his trademark prosciutto, he replied, “The first and foremost ingredient is passion.

You need to be passionate about making prosciutto. You also need good meat, experience and the willingness to keep learning. You can never say ‘I am the master of prosciutto’, because there is always so much to learn.”

Capitol uses only the top grade Quebec pork, which is also subject to regular scrutiny by provincial inspectors.

Prosciutto is ready to eat after three, ten and sixteen months. The longer it takes to age, and in an environment as close to natural as possible, the better the taste. Prosciutto is at its best if aged

RECIPE FOR MAKING PROSCIUTTO

slowly in an area that is neither too humid nor too warm.

Commercial pigs are normally slaugh-

After the meat has been salted, some

tered at six months, while the meat is

makers add hot peppers and other spices.

still tender. Prosciutto is the cured leg

Mr. Antonio, however, came up with his

of a recently slaughtered pig. After the

own special mixture, made with raw lard,

leg has been drained clean of blood, it

garlic, pepper, and wine vinegar, which

HEADQUARTERS The main office and factory in SaintVincent-de-Paul take up an area of 25,000 square feet and plans for another expansion are already under way. Mr. Antonio takes me for a tour of the factory. Several employees are working the machines in the different departments of the factory, making salami, cooked ham, patés and blood puddings. Various rooms are reserved for the different stages of curing meats.

In one of the rooms, looking up at the hundreds of hanging prosciuttos, I turn to Mr. Antonio. “So these are all your children. What a huge family you’ve got.”

Mr. Antonio laughs his hearty laugh and gives me a token of his love affair with cured meats, an Italian sausage that I started eating as soon as I walked out the door, and a French one made with hazelnuts, both of which turned out to be simply delicious. g

is covered with salt for a period of two

65

“It was very eerie for me when I walked through Pier 21. I was overcome with goosebumps. I felt that I was again a child standing where my family had stood when our ship docked after arriving from Napoli, Italia.”

—Tarcisio Filippelli

Pier 21–a must-see National Historic site located along Halifax’s scenic waterfront

From 1928–1971, Pier 21 was Canada's front door to over a million immigrants, wartime evacuees, refugees, troops, war brides and their children. Today, it is more than just a tourist attraction; Pier 21’s state of the art technical and interactive design tells the real life stories of these first time Canadians that enriched our social and cultural landscape. A favourite feature is Oceans of Hope, a 4-D film presentation that reveals the stories of faith, hope and courage of those who passed through what is now a distinctive yearround facility.

National Winner Best new Attraction in Canada 2001

1055 Marginal Rd Halifax, NS Canada Tel: 902-425-7770 info@pier21.ns.ca

Take a 10-minute train ride across Canada

www.pier21.ns.ca

PIER 21 There is a romance about ships and trains that few things can rival. Those who suffer from motion sickness would disagree but for most of us the sound of a foghorn or a train whistle signal adventure and a new beginning. When Italian immigration to Canada peaked during the 1950s, ships and trains were calling at Pier 21 daily and taking the newcomers to destinations all over the country. By the mid-1950s the Italian Line's Saturnia was over twenty-five years old but it didn't slow her down. Calling almost once a month throughout that busy decade and into the next, hers is the name close to the heart of many a reflective Italian-Canadian.

Angelo Maletta was only five years old in April of 1954, but he well remembers sneaking up to first class, watching the dolphins play from the deck of the Saturnia, and the day that he made his first English friend.

"I remember on one of these departures I encountered another boy about my age who spoke this very strange language (English) that I did not understand. Anyway he had this purple cloth bag full of little metal toy cars. I for one had never seen or played with such toys and my first push resulted in it rolling off the deck and into the ocean. The boy who didn't know how to speak Italian began to laugh and took a toy car out of his bag and rolled it off the deck and into the ocean. He was roaring with laughter, what a fun game we had invented. He gave me another car, and he took another car and as they both went over the edge, we both spoke the common language of laughter until the purple bag was empty. Our laughter slowly quieted down until the only language we now understood was our

own. We smiled at each other, stood up, and went our separate ways."

In 1961 it was young Luigi Antonio Pagano's turn to leave behind the familiar and join his family on a great adventure to Canada on board the Saturnia, "I was seven years old at the time and I remember the excitement of getting on the ship and the sadness of leaving my grandmother behind. My uncle bought me my first coke at the port in Naples while we were waiting to board the ship. I recall how excited everyone was leaving the port and the cheering and waving going on around me on the deck of the ship.

Luigi and his sister with their mother in her passport photograph

I remember the boat as being very big with a huge dining room, a theatre and even a chapel. I remember that just about everyone on the boat seemed to be seasick. For some rea-

son, I did not get seasick. My mother and sister spent a lot of time sick in bed until we arrived in Halifax.

Fortunately, there was an older boy from my hometown who was also on the boat. He, his mother and sisters were going to Montreal to join his father, so I chummed around with him, otherwise my mother would not have let me leave our cabin alone.

Our cabin was below water level and away from the outer hull of the ship, so we had no window to look out of.

Being used to living out in the country, I remember feeling cramped in the cabin, which we shared with an older lady from my home town who was immigrating to Montreal to be with her children there. Upon arriving in Halifax, we were all glad to get off the ship. The journey lasted 11 days, I believe. After getting off the ship in Halifax, we were brought to Pier 21. I remember there being lots of suitcases, trunks, and other 444 69

4 luggage in the warehouse. We had to find our luggage, call a Customs Officer to have him check and mark it. Once we had our luggage checked

by Customs, we proceeded to the Customs Office and were sent to the train station. I remember there being a long table in the warehouse and the table was full of items that the new immigrants were not supposed to bring to Canada, such as prosciuttos, sausages, cheese, salamis and liquor bottles. I remember telling my mother that I had never seen so many prosciuttos before. We spoke no English and the customs officers did not speak Italian, but they were very helpful, made us feel welcome and made sure that we got onto the right train.

One of the men travelling with us on the boat kept saying that he was bringing with him a beautiful prosciutto that he made himself and could not wait to eat it with his family when he got to Toronto. Sure enough, it was confiscated at Customs in Halifax and I remember some of the other men teasing him about it.

My mother went to

The Pagano family in 1996

that we refused to eat it. At that point my mother was worried that we would get sick if we did not eat.

Luckily, she had some biscuits that she made in Italy and we munched on them until we got to Toronto.

Our train was going from Halifax to Montreal and in Montreal we would change trains and take one for Toronto. Along the way, there was a lot of snow. In some places, the snow was quite high and it was very cold.

Having been used to a mild climate, the winter clothes that we brought did not keep us very warm.

The Pagano family in 1958

the store in the train station to buy some bread and bologna to make us some sandwiches. My sister and I found the bread and bologna so sweet that we refused to eat it. It was the first time we had Canadian bread and processed meat. Since we would not eat sandwiches, once we boarded the train my mother brought us to the restaurant car and ordered each of us a plate of spaghetti. Again, my sister and I found the food so sweet 70

My mother kept looking out the window and saying, "Where have we come to, Siberia?"

For Angelo and Luigi the crossing was a great adventure, but for their parents who had made that difficult decision it was much more. No matter how much they had heard about Canada or been assured that employment awaited them, the adults knew that it was a risk, one that they had bravely taken for their children's futures.

Poggi family documentation

The Poggi family in Italy

For Emilio Poggi, his wife Zolanda, and their children Allessandro and Laura, crossing on the Saturnia was not their original plan. It was the sinking of the Andrea Doria that necessitated their leaving from Naples aboard the Saturnia.

"The departure was one of the most horrid and disorganized experiences we have ever had to endure. It truly seemed as though they were embarking animals onto the ship and not passengers that had paid the full amount for their voyage. I am telling you all this because when we landed in Halifax the welcome was most kind and wonderful from the Canadian Authorities. They even had gifts ready for all the children on board. A paradise after having come from the Hell of Naples! Thank you from the bottom of my heart and I knew immediately that we had found our Home Land!"

444

Emilio's memories are of a rocky start, a turbulent crossing, and a warm reception, 71

His daughter Guiditta wrote, "The dream to make a good life for himself and his family was very much alive and strong and even though he was a cobbler by trade, he accepted any kind of work."

Times were hard but in July of 1952, Mr. Panetta was finally able to buy passage for his wife and daughters on the Saturnia.

Michele Panetta

4 The Panetta family arrived in two waves; Mr. Panetta came to find employment and settle in, and then his wife and children were to follow.

Sponsored by his aunt, Michele Panetta left Florence and arrived in Canada in May of 1951.

They arrived in Halifax and then travelled by train to Montreal where they were reunited with their husband and father, Michele.

Guiditta ends her family's story on behalf of her parents.

"They wish to say that Canada is a great country who gave the Panetta Family the good life they dreamed

Michele Panetta working on an asphalt truck

72

His wife Liliana, and his three daughters, Teresa, Guiditta, and Nadia

of. They are proud of being Canadian and have maintained their roots and Italian culture.

They would like to thank their Aunt Teresa and cousins for welcoming them and helping them get started in their new life.

The Panetta Family would like to say "Thank you Canada for giving us a good life."

Ending an arrival account with such beautiful sentiments is common among the stories generously donated to the Pier 21 Society by ItalianCanadians. More than arriving on the fair Saturnia binds the authors of this small sample. Each story illustrates that bravery, imagination and hard work were what it took to arrive and thrive in Canada. In a story called A Little Stroll into My Past, Giuseppe Martino describes his life in Italy, decision to emmigrate, crossing on the Saturnia and his experiences in Toronto. Reading even a short excerpt from his account reinforces that it is Canada that has had the better end of the bargain. Mr. Martino's passion and masterful use of a language that was once foreign to him reminds us how much better Canada is because he is here. Thank you to the Martinos family, the

Malettas, the Poggis, the Paganos and the Panettas, not just for sharing your stories, but for coming.

Giuseppe Martino writes, "Now I would like to go back in time to Italy, August 1953. It was a wonderful night. The air was warm and pleasant. A full silver moon up above was looking down on my hometown. The stars studded the bright sky of San Nicola Da Crissa; the town where I was born. I must confess that the sky of Calabria is one of the most beautiful skies in the whole world.

“I have touched the four corners of the earth and yet, I haven't seen a sky full of bright stars like that. They seem so close that you want to stretch your arms and take one, especially the Orsa major. What can I say about the Milky Way? It's divinely beautiful. So that beautiful night, I said to my wife, ‘I'm taking a stroll with our son Mauro’.

She looked at me and said, ‘Be careful and come home soon.’

“We left our home and I took the road toward the River Fella. I had my son in my arms. He was sucking his thumb and sleeping. He was five months old. When I went near the bridge, the Due Mari, I stopped. The sound of a small natural stream of fresh water was going down to merge with the River Fella. On my right, up the hill, was the town cemetery.

“The light of the bright moon illuminated the cemetery walls. At this point my eyes were dimmed with tears. I kissed my son on the forehead and I whispered. Son, I promise you that in Canada I'll do my best to help my family. I'll work hard to bring a piece of bread to our table and some day, we'll have our own home.

His wife Liliana, and his three daughters, Teresa, Guiditta, and Nadia on the Saturnia

Well I'm sure that I did my best. I did it with great love. Without ever asking for anything back.

My family is my life. This is my reward.

I know that God helped me. He was with me all along. He still is.

God, take my hand, and walk with me." g

Saturnia Postcard 1928-1965

Courtesy of Pier 21

The Letters

By: Tony Zara

When my father left the old country in pursuit of a new life in 1962, he was old enough to remember everything. His small town of Guglionesi, Campobasso, with five thousand inhabitants, most of whom he knew directly or indirectly, the little stone house on the hill, its property adorned with olive trees and vineyards that yielded countless bottles of homemade olive oil and wine, and the acres of fields that served as his and his brother’s playground as a young boy.

Adamo Zara, 1948

Most importantly, there was his close-knit family of grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, and numerous, year-round celebrations. Besides the big feasts – Christmas and Easter – a birthday here, a wedding there, and a whole slew of festivities organized by the local parish, gave the family plenty of occasions to eat, drink and be merry. The moment my father bid farewell to his native Italy, all his relatives, childhood home and landscape– deeply rooted in his heart and memory– emigrated with him, took the boat to Canada and have never gone away.

What came as a revelation to him many years later was the fact that while he defined himself by those he left behind, those very people who made up his history and his past would adjust to the void and distance created by the departure of family mem-

74

bers, and move on. With the passing of the years, they forgot, or, at best, vaguely remembered their Canadian relatives, albeit with fondness, but nothing more.

Among all his Italian cousins, my father had one who was special.

Peppino was a few years older than my father, who for some reason, had always been in awe of him.

As I was growing up he told me many stories of Peppino, and of his wish to visit him in Italy one day. Peppino had no idea how much his young cousin had looked up to him. My father, who now resides mostly in Italy, had been carrying around his memories of Peppino for forty years, until one day, something drove him to dig up the old man’s phone number and give him a call.

Peppino was so pleased to learn that my father was 444

Quando mio padre nel 1962 lascio’ la madrepatria alla ricerca di “fortuna”, era cresciuto abbastanza per ricordare tutto. La sua Guglionesi, Campobasso, era una piccola cittadina di cinquemila abitanti dove tutti si conoscevano. La casa che stava lasciando era di pietra sulla collina. Il vasto terreno era adornato da olivi e vigneti che davano vino e olio d’oliva frutto dell’orgoglio famigliare; ed in quei campi pieni di sole, i ricordi delle corse con il fratello, ancora ragazzi.

La famiglia era il fulcro di ogni cosa. C’erano i nonni, gli zii, cugini, c’era festa tutto l’anno. Natale e Pasqua erano gli avvenimenti piu’ importanti, poi i compleanni, i matrimoni in cui alla fine o si era invitati come amici o come parenti, e non si potevano certo mancare gli inviti del parroco, buone scuse per sedersi a tavola e divertirsi tutti insieme. E tutti insieme, nell’attimo in cui mio padre si imbarco’ sulla nave lasciando l’Italia, la famiglia, le tradizioni …e i suoi vigneti, sono emigrati con lui sulla nave per il Canada, sono rimasti nel suo cuore senza mai lasciarlo solo.

Gli anni passati nel distacco e nella lontananza hanno portato in mio padre la coscienza di avere vissuto identificandosi nel ricordo di quelle persone che appartenevano alla sua storia, ma anche l’amara scoperta di una differente realta’ in cui quegli stessi membri della sua famiglia avevano invece aggiustato la loro vita nella consapevolezza e nel dolore di un vuoto troppo grande da colmare.

Chi resta, dimentica. Il sentimento e l’intensita’ sono presenti solo nei momenti in cui si ricorda, niente di piu’. Fra i cugini italiani, per mio padre uno era speciale.

Peppino, di qualche anno piu’ vecchio, per qualche 444

Sestri Levanti, 4 September 2002 Dear Pietro, I was pleased to receive your letter and photos; they renewed the pleasure of our meeting. Of course, I did not know you, or your wife; but even of your father, I retained a faded memory.

As boys, we saw each other rarely. I lived in Larino and then in Foggia and Bari. I went to Guglionesi only during summer vacation. I stayed with my maternal grandparents, while your father lived in the country, where I went rather infrequently. Then there was our difference in age. A few years between us, when we are young, seem like many. When your father came to visit my family in Bari, I worked in Perugia. From time to time, I returned to Bari, but I do not recall having seen him.

For this reason I do not recall Giuseppe (the cousin who appears in one of the photos), who was also a guest of my family in Bari. If we did meet, I have forgotten, and many years have passed since. I was not even aware that your father had left for Canada. I do, however, remember having once again seen Giuseppe in Rome in 1954 when I was able to secure a position for him with the agency where he worked until his retirement. During that period, with the help of Giuseppe, I helped secure the position of another cousin who died several years ago.

This is why I was astonished when your father called me and expressed a desire to see me.

I was even more astonished when he showed me the picture of himself as a young boy.

When he was a guest at my parents’ he must have been struck by the faith and hope they had in me. Fortunately, it was possible for me not to let them down, at least in regards to my work: I found a position for every one of my brothers and sisters, as each turned 18.

Giuseppe De Sanctis Circa, 1950

Now I see that during all these years your father held onto his admiration for me. I like to think that it may have helped him and spurred him to face all the obstacles he must have had to overcome. With all the sacrifices he made he can be justly proud of his progresses and of the path he opened for his children. As we sat at the table I listened to him, admiring him very much, thinking that compared to his, my efforts were not a big deal. I had a much easier life, and therefore did not speak of it; just listening to him was well worth it.

I found employment in a government office in 1944, before graduating in 1945. A few years later, I became a director, and managed three offices in three different cities.

Forty-five years later, when I stopped working, I had been General Director of the Port of Genoa for several years.

I had four children: Cinzia, my eldest, is an engineer, works in Genoa and has two children. Sylvia had a calling and became a “focolarina.� She is like a lay nun; she made a vow of chastity and poverty. She lives near Florence. My third, Nicola, is also an engineer; he lives and works in Milan and has three children. Even Andrea has three children; he is a broker, responsible for the transport of fuel. He lives in Rome.

I wanted to tell you all this so you could feel closer to me. How kind of you to tell me you would like to see me again. I am afraid that given my close to 80 years, it may be a little difficult.

I have a wonderful memory of you and Josie and I thank you for all your kindnesses.

Please send my regards to your father and his wife, whom I hug dearly, as I do yourself and Josie.

My regards as well to your brother, whom I spoke to on the phone.

75

4 living on a farm six hours away, that he hopped on a train and went to visit him. Finally, they met, two grown men whose lives had taken different directions, but whose roots had brought together. The letter that follows relates the reunion between Peppino and my father from Peppino’s perspective. Although I have never met my father’s cousin, I sent him a few copies of the first edition

of Panoramitalia, and reprinted his e-mail to me.

Both the letter and the email perfectly illustrate my father’s revelation.

Although those of us who chose to leave Italy will have to keep reaching out to the ones who stayed behind, our loyalty and desire to keep our Italian heritage alive can still stir up plenty of affection and nostalgia.

4 ragione lo aveva sempre tenuto con una considerazione speciale.

Crescendo, mio padre mi ha raccontato spesso le loro storie e il desiderio non celato di, un giorno, poterlo incontrare di nuovo. Peppino non avrebbe mai pensato quale incredibile ricordo e stima

Dear Tony, Rediscovering a nephew after forty years is a moment in one’s life, a moment that is morally enriching and gives one much pleasure. If, in addition, this nephew became successful, affirming himself and honoring his family and country of origin, he has doubled the satisfaction and the pleasure.

I am grateful to your father, who called me, getting in touch after so long, making it possible for us to reacquaint ourselves. A few days ago, in Guglionesi, I met and got to know Pietro, and I hope I will also have the gratification of knowing you and your family.

I looked through Panorama again and again. I have nothing but praise for such a lovely magazine.

I really liked the idea that inspired it: keeping in high regard everything Italian.

I was amazed to learn of the many Italian associations and initiatives of Italians living in Canada.

Your childhood letter moved me; I can imagine your emotions and your state of mind at the time.

I am grateful for the gift that you gave me and will give a copy to my children. My compliments as well to the typography and the public recognition you received.

My warm regards to you and your family.

Affectionately,

76

Uncle Peppino

aveva lasciato nel cugino piu’ giovane. Un giorno, dopo quarant’anni di memorie e racconti, dopo essere finalmente ritornato a vivere in Italia, mio padre decise di scavare nei cassetti per fare quella tanto attesa telefonata ad un uomo ormai anziano.

La reazione di Peppino fu di una gioia immensa e sapendolo ora vicino, decise di prendere il primo treno per andarlo ad incontrare. Due uomini che avevano vissuto vite lontane e diverse, ricongiunti dalle loro stesse radici rimaste nel tempo solide e forti. La lettera che segue, racconta il momento dell’incontro con mio padre dalle parole di Peppino. Anche se colpevole di non averlo mai incontrato, gli mandai alcune copie della prima edizione di Panorama Italia, e mi conservai la sua importante email di risposta.

La lettera e l’email sono la testimonianza di sentimenti ed emozioni senza pari. Anche se quelli fra noi che hanno deciso di lasciare l’Italia hanno adesso il dovere implicito di mantenere i rapporti da chi si sono allontanati, il desiderio e la forza di mantenere le nostre tradizioni italiane ci riempiono il cuore di gioia e nostalgia.

AVER E

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by Ignazio Blanco

Pronto, Mamma...

(Sons and Mammas)

78

For translation, see page 80

444

Sons and Mammas (Pronto, Mamma...)

4 When I arrived in Montreal a few years ago, I was not exactly in shorts - like the first batch of immigrants who got off the boat forty years earlier wearing their summer clothing, regardless of the time of year. Not that there was any snow yet. It only started falling a few months later, and by the time it stopped, after spring had settled in completely, my warm enthusiasm for this beautiful country had also taken a chillier turn...

I am still here. I belong to that community of new immigrants who have replaced the suitcase with a designer suit; who had never heard of a “poutine” before; who could not have known all the damage a “tourtière” could do to the digestive system. I was amazed to learn that I have become a cliché, represented by that stereotypical image of large plates of pasta and massive portions of food.

Beyond the stereotypes, we, the newly immigrated, are in fact distinguishable by our proud demeanor, the huge knots in our ties, the reddish tint of our shoes - although by the end of the first winter even our shoes change color.

Here in this country far away from home, the telephone is all-powerful, able to dictate our mood from day to day, making it fair or foul. I will never admit to Mamma the separation anxiety I suffer from being away from her. She who had advised me to marry the girl next door (who now, Mamma tells me in passing in one of our daily conversations, does not get along well with her husband). Mamma, who would have been ready to take me back to Italy on a rowboat, with my father working the paddles, in an attempt to save me from the conjugal consequences of a Canadian wedding.

And what do I do almost every day? I call her.

Even after five years, the frequency of my calls has not changed much. My English-FrenchCanadian wife, now partly Italian as well, had almost persuaded me that my obsession with the phone was a curable disease. The truth is, my love affair with food, my love of pure, immaterial beauty, all of it can be traced back to Mamma. Although I will not venture to say that my theory can be scientifically proven, I know what I remember. I do not remember the cold, poverty-stricken winters, nor do I recall the humble jobs. I remember the taste of my mother’s homemade cappelletti. Which Italian would not attest that his Mamma is the most beautiful mother in the world? (When one is married, one has to be extra careful with such bold declarations).

80

My first few years, cold and lonely in this country, I was beginning to think my wife was right.

Once I even found myself trying to justify a phone call I made from a romantic hotel room in New York City to my mom, whom I had, just minutes before, said good-bye to at a hotel in New Jersey, where I left her with my dad.

Perhaps at times I went a little overboard, although I insist I am driven by an impulse which is completely natural (not natural, primitive, my wife corrects me).

In any event, I had to find a rational explanation for my actions for my North-American Sweetheart. Up until a few months ago, trying to “cure” myself of this illness proved futile.

Then I found myself in one of those delectable restaurants in Montreal, which serves quality fare that vaguely approaches the quality of my mother’s cooking, and I met some of my own people. I learned by speaking to other immigrants like myself that we are all linked by the same psychological condition and that its severity varies, depending on the number of one’s family members.

For instance, the fact that my brother, beyond thirty years old, has no intention of leaving the familial nest, just reinforces my wife’s theory.

Taking on no domestic responsibility other than assuring his presence during holidays and special occasions, he’s a perfect example of today’s fine, spoiled Italian lifestyle. And yet, having my brother at home does alleviate my mother’s heavy heart at having her other son living across the Atlantic. Imagine if she had only one son! How many times would this lonely son feel compelled to reach Mamma by phone every day!

Through the years, I was also able to establish that the ailment rendered one oblivious to propriety and the emancipation of women. It is typical for a newly immigrated wife to receive a phone call from her mother-in-law across the ocean and for this mother-in-law, cutting short the perfunctory small talk, and quickly begin inquiring after the health of her son, and asking whether he is eating enough food.

It seems clear that the umbilical cord has been replaced by the antenna, which, now that I think of it, was invented by an Italian.

Probably so he could call his Mamma! g

Translated by: Nadia Signorino

E P I P H A N Y By: Pietro Raffaelli

The Italian tradition behind Befana and the

Epiphany Befana comes at night Shoes tattered by her plight Down from the mountains With Night Time her companion Through snow, frost and flurry She is here… Hurry! Hurry!

On the eve of the Epiphany, while the whole world is sound asleep, a character both feared and loved by children roams the sky, travelling over rooftops, bearing a shabby cloth bag full of treats.

Her name is Befana and legend has always portrayed her as a homely old woman with dry, withered skin and dressed as a peasant, a sharp contrast to the rosy-cheeked Santa Claus. On the night of January 6, Italian children dream of Befana, catching glimpses of her as she makes her way down their actual or imagined chimney, filling their socks and shoes with every imaginable sort of sweet – as well as the occasional bit of coal thrown in.

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Our childhood accounts of Befana, as were told to us by our parents, have left us with memories tinged with nostalgia. A fearsome character, she wearily wanders the earth between the fifth and sixth of January, magically transforming – at the end of her voyage – the whole world, which becomes abundant and prodigious: trees heavy with fruit, animals bestowed the gift of speech, spring and river waters transmuted into gold.

Children eagerly await their gifts.

Young girls cast the horoscopes of future nuptials by the fireplace, tossing olive leaves on hot ashes. Young and old alike get together, going from village to village, singing the befanata chant, amid sounds and clamour of all sorts.

I remember the befanata of my childhood home in Viareggio as if it had just taken place yesterday! The village kids would fashion a dummy out of rags and sturdy plant fibres, making her out to look like an old shrew.

Then they laid her out on a cart and carried her about on their shoulders.

At the beginning of the night, in the midst of rowdy whistling and hollering, they made the rounds of the neighbourhood streets before arriving at the Piazza Grande, where they then lit up the firewood and set the Befana ablaze.

For the young, it was a night of terror; for the older folk, it marked the conclusion of the Christmas celebrations. As the Tuscan proverb goes, “so with the Epiphany, the holiday comes to an end.”

The myth of the old woman with the broom, who brings cakes and sweets to children, originated with the Christian tradition of the Epiphany and the gifts brought by the Magi to Jesus’ manger. The Magi came from the Orient to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the new King of the Jews? We beheld His star in the Orient and came to worship Him.’ The Epiphany remains today one of the most solemn celebrations of the Church, preceding the celebration of Christmas. The Latin and Greek churches have always celebrated it on January 6. The Greeks call it Theophania, the Feast of all feasts.

For the French it is La Fête des Rois.

For a time in Italy, for pragmatic reasons, the feast of the Epiphany was moved to the Sunday after January 6, in observance with the new liturgical calendar of the Church.

However, uprooting a religious and secular tradition as deeply rooted as that of the Befana was a harsh blow for Italians. Public outrage erupted immediately; and as per Vox populo vox dei, the feast of the Epiphany resumed its original place in the calendar. g

This simple and glorious story of the Magi has held its place in our memory since childhood. The God who drew the non-Israeli Magi, subjects of a pagan nation, to the child in Bethlehem, wanted it to be known that salvation and redemption were not restricted to one people but possible for all the peoples on earth.

The Epiphany gave rise to this movement of human, spiritual and social redemption.

By: Carolina Buscemi

Translated by Nadia Signorino

“La Befana vien di notte con le scarpe tutte rotte vien dai monti a notte fonda ed il buio la circonda neve, gelo e tramontana viene viene la Befana..”

S o u t h e r n I ta l i a n R e c i p e

Lasagna i n t u r ke y b ro t h

Homemade dough If you choose to go the traditional route and make the lasagna from scratch, you will need three basic ingredients: eggs, flour and a dash of salt. A guideline is to use one egg per person and enough flour (between 1/2 and 5/8 of a cup) to absorb each egg. The quantity of flour will vary, depending on the size of the eggs. Start with a basic number of eggs and a proportionate quantity of flour. If you need to, you will be able to adjust the number of eggs or quantity of flour as you prepare the dough. *The secret to making homemade pasta is to prepare the dough the night before or early in the morning and refrigerate for 12-24 hours so it is firm and easy to work with.

Pour the flour into a large, stainless steel bowl or on a large surface and make a well. Break the eggs into the center of the well.

Slowly start incorporating the flour into the center.

You can use a fork at first, and as the dough becomes more solid, you will have to knead it several times by hand. Once the dough is smooth and malleable, 86

form it into a ball. Brush it with a thin film of oil, place it into a plastic container, cover it with Saran Wrap (to keep air out) and shut the lid. Refrigerate.

After 12-24 hours, take the dough out of the refrigerator and cut it into several sections, flattening each section. It is now ready to pass through your pasta machine.

Pass each section three times through the widest level of the machine, twice through the next level and twice through the secondto-last level. (It is not recommended to pass the dough through the narrowest level because it makes the dough too difficult to cut).

Once you have passed the dough through all the levels of the machine, lay the strips on a clean tablecloth for ten minutes or so and allow them to dry. (They should be neither too wet nor too dry). Cut the wide strips into lasagna strands and lay on a tablecloth.

When you have cut the lasagna, place several strands at a time in a large pot of salted, boiling water, stirring occasionally

until they rise to the surface. Then remove them immediately (to avoid overcooking) and place them in a deep pan with a little cold water (to prevent them from sticking).

Turkey stock To make the turkey stock, you can use the whole turkey or parts of it, with or without the skin. You can also skin all but one or two pieces, for a lean, but still tasty, stock. While the turkey is boiling, skim off the froth that rises to the surface. When the turkey meat is cooked, remove all the pieces and set them aside. Strain the stock to make sure no small bones remain. Then pour the stock back into the pot. Add a pinch of crushed nutmeg, chopped parsley, salt or chicken cube to taste, and continue cooking.

Meatballs For turkey meatballs, bone the turkey, cut the meat into small pieces and grind in a food processor, adding one to several eggs (depending on the quantity of meat), Parmesan cheese, chopped parsley, a little milk if desired, and salt and pepper to taste.

For veal meatballs, mix together ground veal, egg, Parmesan cheese, parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Form into little balls and drop them into the boiling turkey stock, cooking for thirty minutes or until the meatballs are well done. When they are fully cooked, remove them from the stock and place them in a bowl.

Putting it all together In a large rectangular pan, add one or two ladles full of stock. Then start adding a layer of lasagna strips, one or two ladles of stock, several meatballs, a layer of thickly grated mozzarella and a layer of grated Parmesan. Cover with a layer of lasagna strips and repeat until you have five or six layers, pouring a ladle full of stock on the last layer and sprinkling generously with grated Parmesan. Heat in the oven at 325 Ëš F for 20-25 minutes and serve hot. g

BuonAppetito!

As with many regional classics, there are a few variations for this recipe. You can make it with or without meatballs, using ground veal or turkey, with homemade or bought lasagna noodles.

Conceptual Photographer : Geraldo Pace

Recipe

T

he roots of the Torrone history are based in ancient Rome. This delicacy made of honey, almonds and albumen was reserved for formal functions or as offerings to the gods. Various other cultures have versions of Torrone, such as the Arabs, who are said to have introduced it to the Spanish. Italy has its own well-documented version of Torrone, born on October 25, 1441. At the wedding of Bianca Maria

Torrone

Visconti and Francesco Sforza, the bride not only had many jewels, money and riches of every kind as part of her dowry, but her father also offered the city of Cremona itself. To commemorate this, the court's pastry chefs decided to make a new confection in the shape of the city's tower named the Torione, in order to represent the city. By mixing almonds, honey and beaten egg whites and cooking them for long hours over low heat, they precisely

reproduced the large tower that dominated the city. Needless-to-say, the sweet was a great success with the guests who came from Europe, and soon, requests for the city's special delicacy were received from all over the world.

Today, modern production techniques make Torrone easily available to everyone, and many new versions have been developed. Among the regional variations is a more tender Torrone from the Abruzzi region, or the variety fla-

Classic torrone 500 grams creamed pure honey 3 lbs roasted almonds (8 cups) (For chocolate-flavored, reduce almonds to 7cups and add 2 cups chocolate chips at the end) 2 10 x 16-inch wafers

vored with aromatic Strega liqueur from the city of Benevento in Campania. Torrone with hazelnuts, pistachios and chocolate is also made in addition to the classic almonds and honey. No longer eaten just during Christmas, but also as small snacks during the day and after dinner, Torrone is now also available in the practical single serving packages known as torroncini. g *Courtesy of Italian Trade Commission-New York

Wafer is an important ingredient in this recipe; you can find it in any italian bakery.....

• Line cookie sheet with wax paper and place one wafer on the cookie sheet (trimming the sides to make it fit) • Roast almonds in the oven at 275˚F, turning every 10 minutes for 45 minutes and set aside • Cook the honey in a double-boiler for about 1 1/2 hours, until caramelized • Beat sugar and egg whites until stiff (about 5-10 minutes) • Pour honey in sugar and egg white mixture and beat for another 5 minutes • Pour into stainless steel pot and cook over very low heat for 45 minutes, stirring constantly, using a wooden spoon (being careful not to overheat) • Stir roasted almonds into mixture • Quickly pour mixture onto wafer (in cookie sheet) • Cover with top wafer and wax paper and press until flat (1 1/2 hours) • Refrigerate at least 1/2 hour before cutting into slices

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Almond Nougat Conceptual Photographer : Geraldo Pace

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Gilles Villeneuve

GRAND PRIX

The Price of Victory

by Pino Asaro

The Preface

Questa e’ la storia di uno di noi, anche lui nato per caso in Via Gluck” …as Adriano Celentano would sing in “Il Ragazzo della Via Gluck” This is the story of one of us, born in Busto Arsizio, in the hinterland of Milano. It is the story of someone who grew up on the outskirts of the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza and never felt the attraction nor the interest to attend a race. When I finally did make it to the Monza racetrack in 1972, I witnessed Emerson Fittipaldi win his first of two World Championship titles at the wheel of the wedge-shaped John Players Lotus 72. By this time, Formula One racing had become my one true passion, with heroes that legends are made of.

One could argue about which of the greats have been the people’s choice over the decades. By the time you read this historical account, there is a good chance Michael Schumacher will be on his way to his sixth world championship, breaking the tie he now shares with Juan Manuel Fangio. The German champion will most probably be remembered as the greatest of all time.

And with plenty of merit. Well, right or wrong, my analytical nature has always pushed me beyond the obvious. To this day, the three heroes who for me stand tall above all of the rest are Jim Clark, Gilles Villeneuve and Ayrton Senna.

These legends sadly perished in action, ending their careers prematurely. In the next pages I would like to take you from my family’s origins through some of the events that marked my life, and demonstrate how “sometimes life gets in the way,” to quote Sports Illustrated famous sports writer, Michael Farber.

Il Continente Soon after the war ended, my parents, Carmelo and Concettina, married and decided to leave their beloved town of Canicatti in Sicily. The plan was to seek a brighter future in “O continente” (mainland). The year was 1945 and Italy was left in ruins by the retreat of the Germans and the advance of the Allied Forces. The North, focus of the Italian industrial revolution, represented an economic ray of hope at a time when most southern Italians chose to immigrate to the Americas, Australia or other parts of Europe, such as Switzerland, France or Belgium.

My father loved Italy…and despite hard times, that’s where he wanted to continue living. For my dad, moving to Milan, the nerve center of Italy, and a city he knew fairly well, made a lot of sense. Living in Milan turned out not to be so easy. With very few jobs available, he settled for the only job he could find, in a barbershop. The very difficult employment situation, the lodging crisis, the fog, and the Milan winters were all obstacles my parents had to overcome. Thankfully, they could leave behind their day-to-day concerns by treating themselves to a night at the opera at La Scala.

A new window of opportunity finally opened for my parents when my dad found employment at City Hall of Busto Arsizio in 1949 – a job that provided the security and stability they required to settle down. And that they did. After years of being on a waiting list, an apartment finally became available in a new housing project.

Gilles Gilles Villeneuve Villeneuve & & the the author author in in 1976 1976

Soon after, my mother also found employment, as a stiratrice (presser), a subtle change from her trade as a sarta (seamstress). Tintoria Rossi was at the time the most upscale, one stop laundry shop. It was located between two major piazzas, Garibaldi and San Giovanni, in Via Milano, today, part of Busto’s historical center. Among its clientele, Rossi had the most affluent families.

Here, “La Terona” as my mother was affectionately called, as are all those with southern origins, was surrounded by a fun loving group of women such as Iride, Guelfa, Marisa, Liliana, Piera, Ada, Ernesta, Fausta. What chemistry they had. They sang, laughed or argued.

All day long.

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From the age of seven years old, I got to spend a lot of my free time at the laundry shop after school. I would eventually deliver parcels by bike, and in my free time I would flip through the sports pages of the local papers. In fact, while reading the Gazzetta dello Sport, I became captivated by the tragic accident that occurred at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix The date was September 10, 1961.

This accident was the result of a collision

by Von Trips and Jim Clark. The German’s Ferrari and the Scot’s Lotus Climax touched wheels under braking prior to engaging the famous Parabolica.

Von Trips and his Ferrari flew into the stands, killing him and thirteen spectators. American Phil Hill in another Ferrari went on to win the race and beat von Trips by one point, 34 to 33 to become 1961 World Drivers Champion.

“This tragic event sparked in me an interest for the sport of motor racing, which would only grow over the years.”

Unfortunately, any thoughts I may have had of attending a race at the famous Autodromo with my dad were erased when he passed away in December of 1961.

My father’s death motivated my mother’s decision to come to Canada in 1965, to be reunited with her sister Pina and closer to her brother Andrea, who lived in New York. She last saw him when he left Sicily in 1925 at the age of thirteen. A new destiny awaited us in Montreal where we landed on a cool and cloudy Tuesday July 20, 1965 at Dorval, aboard an Alitalia DC 8 flight.

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To greet us after we cleared immigration and customs, was all of my mom’s sister’s family, Zia Pina and Zio Antonio, my cousins Enzo and Stino, his wife Gianna, and their two daughters Josie and Mary.

We lived on Versailles Street, which is a block from the Bell Center. Back then, it was a typical Italian neighborhood.

Thanks to my cousins, I soon got to know the Italian kids in the neighborhood and the paesani from Canicatti.

However, I missed the friends and soccer teammates I had left behind in Italy.

I did manage to find a few neighbors who played, like Bruno Valella and Vincenzo Galati, with whom I soon tagged along. The closest soccer field was Fletcher’s Field on Parc Avenue, where we would walk to and from most Sunday mornings until the snow came.

Much too early, I remember. It was my first winter experience that made me withdraw to my room and spend much of my time reading.

I often walked to the International Press newsstand at the corner of Peel and St. Catherine to buy sports papers and magazines. My favorites were La Gazzetta dello Sport, Auto Italiana, L’Automobile from France, Road & Track and Autoweek. However, it was Auto Italiana and the penmanship of Franco Lini, one of the best journalists ever, who gave me the inspiration to continue learning about the sport of auto racing with complete details of the events, venues, the teams and the drivers.

Welcome Race Fans The legendary Jim Clark dominated the world drivers’ championship of 1965.

This was his second title in three years.

He earned both the 1963 and 1965 titles while at the wheel of the same Lotus 25, powered by a 1500cc. Climax engine.

On both occasions, the former Scottish farmer won the titles by beating Graham Hill, with the maximum fiftyfour points, despite the seven wins out of ten races, when only the six best results would count for scoring purposes. Clark became my hero because his driving style was so dominant. I still consider him the best driver of all time.

In fact, he should have won the ’62 and ’64 Championships, which instead went to Graham Hill in a BRM and John Surtees in a Ferrari. Clark lost both titles when betrayed by a mechanical failure in the last race of both seasons.

“Clark and Colin Chapman, the genius behind the Team Lotus, formed to this day the most successful driver/owner combination in auto racing history.”

The duo shook the American establishment, when at the 1963 Indianapolis 500; Clark took his tiny Lotus 25 to a second place behind Parnelli Jones. The following year, Clark was forced to retire due do suspension failure. However, in 1965, he went on to set a record winning the Indianapolis 500 where he led 190 of the 200 laps. Again, in 1966 he would leave an everlasting impression by finishing second to teammate Graham Hill.

Back then, cars had no wings and the tires were tall and skinny. There was neither traction control, nor inboard computers.

Jim Clark

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The tracks were often regular roads like the Nurburgring in Germany’s Heidelberg region or Belgium’s Spa Francorchamps in the Ardennes Mountains. In general, tracks offered little protection for the driver in the event of an accident.

The best example was the Mille Miglia, a race run on regular roads from Brescia to Rome and back. Or the legendary Targa Florio, staged on a closed circuit carved through some of the hairiest roads of the Madonie Mountains and villages. For decades the greatest names in the sport, such as Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Abarth, and Porsche would spare no expense in order to field the best possible line up of drivers and often at the wheel of new cars build purposely for the event. The same cars would then be entered in the European Hill Climb Championship which was very popular.

Back then, the racers were daredevils, much like today’s World Rally drivers.

By 1966, engine sizes were increased to 3000cc for normally aspirated engines or 1500cc for compressed (turbo) ones. And tires got wider. Australian superstar Sir Jack Brabham won his third championship at the wheel of his Brabham, powered by Repco, an Australian engine supplier making its’ debut in F.1. This would be the first and the last driver-builder to be crowned World Champion. His previous titles were recorded in 1959 and 1960, both while driving a Cooper/Climax.

The end of the 1966 season also marked the retirement in a competitive role for the Climax engine. Although this engine was undersized and underpowered, Clark managed to obtain two poles at Monaco and Nurburgring.

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In all, the Climax power-plant contributed to 4 World Titles, 45 poles, and 40 wins in 97 Grand Prix. For the Scuderia Ferrari, the 1966 season will be remembered for the one-two finish of Lodovico Scarfiotti and Mike Parkes, in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, and a respectable second place in the manufacturer standings.

During this summer, I joined my first soccer team, the NDG Fiorentina, who played its’ games at Oxford Park. There were mostly Italian kids on the team and my hangout was Momesso.

A Canadian First Newly crowned triple champion Jack Brabham and Denis Hulme from New Zealand sat in the front row on the grid of the South African Grand Prix at Kyalami for the curtain raiser of the 1967 season. Both were at the wheel of a Brabham/Repco, and despite the fact that the eventual winner of this race turned out to be Mexican Pedro Rodriguez at the wheel of the CooperMaserati, it was clear that we were about to witness another Brabham monologue.

At the following race in Montecarlo for the Monaco Grand Prix, Hulme finished in first place. Sadly, this race was marred by the tragic accident involving pole sitter Lorenzo Bandini, who crashed at the chicane driving the 12cylinder Ferrari and died three days later. His death shocked Italy as racing fans grieved this tragic loss.

“Bandini’s death changed forever Enzo Ferrari’s hiring policy of Italian drivers.”

His teammate Chris Amon went on to finish third.

For the third race of the season, the circus moved on to Zandvoort, home of the Dutch Grand Prix, which will always be remembered for the introduction of the much anticipated Lotus 49, powered by the equally new V8 Ford Cosworth engine. Important to note, this power plant became the benchmark of all engines, with a record 155 Grand Prix wins and 11 World Championships.

Chapman had created a masterpiece.

In fact, right out of the box, the Lotus 49 won pole with Graham Hill and helped Jim Clark run away with the race with a convincing victory. Clark would win wire-to-wire four more times while posting six pole positions. One of these poles, as well as the fastest lap during the race, was achieved at Mosport Park, outside of Toronto, site of the first ever Grand Prix of Canada.

Shortchanged by his Lotus’ lack of reliability, Clark finished third in the Championship with forty-one points.

The new champion, Denis Hulme, had fifty-one, followed by team boss Brabham, with forty-six.

During the off-season, Jim Clark had accepted the invitation to be a Head Table Guest at the Tiny Tim Fund Raising Gala held annually at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. To this day, I regret having missed the opportunity to meet my idol in person. I was too busy watching the movie Grand Prix, by far the best ever made on F1, starring James Garner, Yves Montand, Eva Marie Saint, and Adolfo Celi, who played the part of Enzo Ferrari. It was shown at the old Cinerama on Bleury Street.I only saw it 7 times.

Café Roma became my new hang out, located on Monk Boulevard in Ville Emard, a new neighborhood, with a strong Italian presence. It is here I also found a new soccer environment where I played with teams such as Monitalia and Napoli at Newman Park.

A Tribute to the Greatest With the advent of the 1968 Championship, the Formula One evolution continued with a few changes that would mark the sport to this day. First, there was the arrival of sponsors, whose logos initially appeared on Colin Chapman’s Team Lotus Cars. The Lotus 49 would abandon forever its traditional British racing green with the gold or yellow stripe down the middle, for the red and gold colors of Imperial Tobacco’s Gold Leaf brand of cigarettes.

Sponsorships would change the face and fortunes of motor- racing for ever.

Another remarkable change was the addition of wings to improve the down force and cornering capabilities. In fact, in 1968, some cars had twin wings anchored on the front and rear suspensions to maximize stability. This solution would soon be discarded, following some spectacular accidents (fortunately of no serious consequence), and limited to one at the rear, to meet new safety regulations.

The season’s first race was held in South Africa at Kyalami. Bruce McLaren had fielded his own make of car the previous two seasons with little success. Finally he was able to field a strong team composed of a competitive chassis, powered by the popular V8 Ford Cosworth.

Painted a bright orange, the McLaren Cars were driven by the Kiwis, Bruce McLaren and reigning champion Denis Hulme who jumped from Brabham.

The 1968 racing season also marked the arrival of Team Tyrrell. Ken Tyrrell had managed to convince the French automaker Matra to allow the use of their chassis to be fitted with the already successful Ford Cosworth engines. He then proceeded to sign very promising Jackie Stewart and French playboy journeyman Johnny Servoz Gavin. Meanwhile at Brabham, Austrian Jochen Rindt replaced Hulme.

At Ferrari, Chris Amon was joined by Belgian Formula Two Champions Jackie Ickx and Andrea de Adamich. Matra fielded an all French chassis and V12 engine combination. The drivers were Jean Pierre Beltoise and Henri Pescarolo.

Both French of

Two. Sadly, while competing in one such event, on April 7, 1968, at Hockenheim, the very fast circuit located in the heart of Germany’s Black Forest,

“Jim Clark died tragically while competing in a european Formula Two championship race.”

The cause of the accident was attributed to a failed suspension. The Scot’s Lotus flew off the track where it crashed in the trees leaving Clark no chance of survival. With his 25 wins, Clark also had 33 poles, 48 front row starts, and 27 fastest laps. This record was obtained in only 72 Grand Prix races, all at the wheel of a Lotus.

course.

Jim Clark and the ultra-efficient Lotus 49 Ford

Jim Clark dominated the qualifying to grab the pole and made up for a poor start by passing Stewart on the second lap. He led the remaining seventy-nine laps for the win while setting the fastest lap in the process. This would be Clark’s 25th win and a new F.1 record was set, previously held by the great Juan Manuel Fangio.

Prior to the Spanish Grand Prix in May, like most other drivers, Clark kept busy by taking part in other forms of racing such as the Indy 500, the Sport Prototypes and the European Formula

My first Grand Prix Predictably, the 1968 season progressed with Graham Hill, Clark’s teammate, taking charge of the championship at the wheel of the dominant Lotus 49.

And despite the void left by Clark’s absence, my dream finally came true when I was able to attend my first Grand Prix of Canada held at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant. Osvaldo, a friend who frequented Cafè Roma, who owned a two door Mercury Meteor, made this possible when he kindly offered me a ride to my first ever Grand Prix. Santa Clause came on September 22nd.

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When we arrived at the Le Circuit, it was foggy and drizzly. The surrounding mountains were spotted in green, yellow and red, with the season’s foliage.

There were “Welcome Race Fans” signs everywhere, and despite the weather and the mud, there was indescribable electricity in the air. We finally found room to sit, perched on the side of the mountain, with a magnificent view.

Below our position, cars appeared from under the Players Bridge, before braking hard at the start of Namerow corner prior to the front startfinish line. We had a perfect view of the pits and of course, the starting grid before the cars would disappear from view.

“I will never forget the excitement of hearing the roar of those engines for the very first time”, when the Formula One cars appeared for the warm-up session. The screams of the V12 Ferrari and Matra in particular, coupled with the echo caused by the surrounding mountains made the spectacle almost surreal.

What symphony, what excitement, watching the twenty cars line up for the standing start. Rindt and his Brabham had the pole position; Chris Amon in the Ferrari had the second fastest time and occupied the middle of the front row.

The very quick Swiss Joseph Siffert, in Rob Walker’s private Lotus 49 Ford, completed the first row.

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There were no lights. The starter would count down ten seconds as he walked from the front of the grid to the side of the track, to drop the flag for the start.

Amon was the quickest at the start of the ninety lap’s race and took the lead.

His Ferrari was so dominant he pulled away with ease. Lap after lap, Amon and the scarlet red Ferrari built what seemed an insurmountable lead.

However, Amon would again be denied a sure win. He never completed lap seventy-three as he was forced to retire due to transmission failure.

The race was won by Denis Hulme, with teammate Bruce McLaren a full lap behind. It was the first one-two finish of many to follow by the now famous McLaren cars. Third was Mexico’s Pedro Rodriguez in the BRM, followed by Hill in his Lotus Ford. Hill would go on to finish second at Watkins Glen, site of the US Grand Prix that followed. It was at this event that a young Italian –American, born in Trieste, by the name of Mario Andretti in a Lotus Ford, won a surprising pole in his first ever Formula One race. At the season’s ending race, the Grand Prix of Mexico, Hill would be crowned World Champion for the second time with a convincing win.

In 1969, Ferrari had the worst Formula One season in history. The car proved unreliable. Amon and Rodriguez scored a total of seven points, the lowest ever.

The championship was won by Jackie Stewart in his Tyrrell Matra-Ford, the first of his three titles. Second was a surprising ex-Ferrari promising star Jackie Ickx, who moved to Brabham.

With an aging chassis, Ickx won at the legendary Nurburgring, site of the German Grand Prix, where he beat Stewart by almost one minute.The second win of the season came in Canada at Mosport Park, where he preceded team owner and three time champion Jack Brabham. The Belgian proved to be a very quick driver which deserved a

call from “Il Commendatore” Enzo Ferrari to rejoin La Scuderia in 1970.

Which he did.

This was the first of my yearly pilgrimages I made to the Mosport Park track.

It was and still is considered a challenging circuit, with fast sweeping bends and the signature “Moss Corner”. From the main grandstands, one could see the start/finish line, the action in the pits, and a good part of the track. Fans still consider Mosport a spectator friendly facility. In those early years, it was also open for regular paddock and garage visits….and weather permitting a real pleasure to attend.

The Price of Victory

“The start of the 1970 championship began full of promise for Ferrari as it introduced the 312T”, a sleek and low missile-like design that took full advantage of the revolutionary Boxer or Flat-12. The team had repatriated Ickx and promoted Clay Regazzoni, the colorful Swiss who enjoyed success in the European Formula Two with Tecno and Ferrari. The competition however was ready for the challenge.

Team Lotus introduced the wedgeshaped and innovative Lotus ‘72 with inboard brakes for Rindt and Emerson Fittipaldi, a young Brazilian who had done well in British Formula Three.

A brand-new super team emerged, the STP March, with drivers Amon, Andretti, and Siffert. Another innovation was the new BRM, now sponsored

by Yardley, the cosmetic giant.

Two other welcome additions were the new Team Surtees, by former World Champion John Surtees and Derek Bell. Italian builder of the famous Pantera, Alessandro DeTomaso entered a De Tomaso Ford for Piers Courage.

He would die at Zandvort site of the

Dutch Grand Prix and would be replaced by Australian Tim Schenken.

At McLaren Cars, a second team with Alfa Romeo engines was fielded with die-hard Alfista, Andrea de Adamich.

Four different drivers won the first four races. By the fifth race, the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, Rindt and his Lotus ‘72, began a string of four consecutive wins that included the French, British, and German Grand Prix. Sadly, tragedy strikes again at the Italian Grand Prix held at Monza. Rindt was killed in qualifying, when his Lotus slammed against the guardrail at the entrance of Parabolica. He was pronounced dead on site. At the time Jochen Rindt led Ickx, his closest rival in the points for the Championship by 27 points. Four races remained. Without Team Lotus, whose cars were impounded by the Italian authorities, the Ferraris dominated the weekend. Ickx earned the pole position, and Clay Regazzoni finished first for his first Grand Prix win.

The Formula One circus landed in North America for the final three races starting with the Grand Prix of Canada at Le Circuit, Mont Tremblant.

Colin Chapman, Team Lotus owner, decided to forfeit the even still mourning the loss of his lead driver Rindt. The new Tyrrell-Ford made a spectacular debut with a stunning pole by Jackie Stewart who was determined to challenge the Ferraris for the win.

Stewart in fact led the first thirty-one laps, after which he was forced to retire due to mechanical failure. The Ferraris of Ickx and Regazzoni paraded to the checkered flag for a one-two finish.

With two races remaining, Ickx could still tie Rindt for the title.

On a personal note, I lived another dream weekend. Despite I had my right leg in a full cast from a soccer accident, requiring crutches; I could not refuse an invitation

by Burzio, a friend from Cafe’ Roma to spend the weekend at Tremblant.

Riccardo Patrese

We found a room in a private house within walking distance to the paddock entrance..

With paddock tickets which offered unlimited access, (in those days it was still possible), I got the opportunity to rub elbows with most of the drivers and crews. At the time, several huge tents were erected in the paddock and served as garages. There were no corporate lodges, and teams traveled at their own expense, which may explain why the number of entrants changed from one race to the next.

My focus was of course La Scuderia Ferrari. Here I befriended Tony, the driver of the team’s red transporter, supplied by Luigi Chinetti’s NART Ferrari.

This New York businessman is credited with having convinced Enzo Ferrari to build street legal cars he was sure he could sell to Americans.

It didn’t take me long to become acquainted with Giulio Borsari. He was Ickx’s chief mechanic. I guess he took pity in my injury status, and he invited me to watch the race from the Ferrari pit or box. There, Katerina Ickx, Jackie’s wife was sitting on a high stool, responsible for Ickx’s lap chart. The lap times were taken with three stopwatches clipped on to the lap board. The team manager was Mauro Forghieri who kept yelling orders to mechanics throughout the race until the checkered flag dropped.

Following one of the most one-sided Ferrari team victories, and when the euphoria gradually subsided, I was invited to follow the team to the next venue for the last race of the season, the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. The Glen circuit was built on the hills of the same village located in western New York State on the south side of Seneca Lake at the heart of the Finger Lakes wine region.

At the Glen, I got to see history being made once again. Ickx was never a factor as Stewart lead for 82 laps before retiring again with engine problems. Rodriguez, who took over the lead, ran out of gas with 9 laps to go handing over first place to the young Emerson Fittipaldi, who sped to his first Grand Prix win. This win by Fittipaldi sealed the title for Jochen Rindt who was crowned postmortem, World Drivers Champion.

Ickx, by winning in Mexico, finished in second in the title race, five points behind, and team-mate Regazzoni third.

In retrospect, I seemed to bring Fittipaldi luck over the course of his career, since I was present at Monza in 72 and again at the Glen in 1974 when he was crowned World Champion while driving a McLaren Ford. .

Over the years, I have attended seventythree Grand Prix events, both as a spectator or as a reporter for Autosprint and Rombo.

As a member of the media, one is treated to privileges all fans only dream about.

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Gilles Villeneuve - Trois-Rivières In fact I was privileged to have met most drivers up close.

“This select group included Ronnie Peterson, , Elio De Angelis, Patrick Depailler, Riccardo Paletti, Manfred Winkelhock, Stefan Bellof, Michele Alboreto, and my two other idols, the legendary Gilles Villeneuve, and Ayrton Senna who sadly have all died tragically.”

This loss of life was however not in vain. New regulations have made cars and tracks much safer, reducing the risks of accidents and casualties.

Proof of these new safety regulations is the long career enjoyed by Riccardo Patrese, who is now retired after having competed in a record 256 Grand Prix races. As the Dean of the sport, he is now living the life of the “shuri” (rich man) as he would be proud to admit.

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I would like to recall a conversation I had with Chris Amon at Le Circuit, Mont Tremblant in June 1977 at the curtain raiser of the revamped Can-Am Championship Series. Amon had never won a Grand Prix in 96 starts, due in part to some of the worst luck suffered by any driver. He had retired the year earlier from Formula One and had planned to live on his farm in New Zealand. Enter Walter Wolf, a Canadian with Austrian origins who made a large fortune in construction at the time of Expo 67 and later in the maintenance of oil platforms around the world. Wolf convinced him to come out of retirement to drive a brand new DallaraChevy in need of an experienced driver.

It was a Saturday afternoon and qualifying for the Molson Can-Am was to begin later.

During the interview, I commented on some of the unfortunate circumstances which deprived him of a Grand Prix win.

Without hesitation, he stared straight into my eyes and said: “I feel like a very lucky man to be sitting here, still in one piece and healthy enough to enjoy life and my family back home.”

Words of wisdom.

In fact, later that afternoon, Brian Redman was rushed to the Royal Victoria Hospital in a coma with a cracked skull following a horrific crash in which his Lola flipped several times. Amon, who had shared many tragedies with too many of his friends and families, decided to retire. This time for good. He returned to the family’s farm that awaited him.

Ironically, Wolf offered the drive to Gilles Villeneuve, who welcomed the opportunity which ultimately led him to Ferrari at season’s end. He would be recommended

by Chris Amon, who still enjoyed the respect of Enzo Ferrari. The rest is history.

“The background as well as the track have changed somewhat in comparison to the present running of the Canadian Grand Prix, at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, on Ile Notre Dame, venue of the ever popular June 13, 14 & 15 event.”

BY DAVID WEEKS

Sommet des Légendes Are you a motor racing fan with an insatiable appetite for truck events? Does the Grand Prix zoom by, leaving you hungry for more?

Would you like to attend more events during the racing season? If you find yourself agreeing, then hold on to your seat, because there is something special coming down the track next summer that no one will want to miss.

The second annual Sommet des Légendes event will take place July 4, 5 and 6, 2003 at Le Circuit, Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. This weekend of vintage racing is unique in Canada and a rarity in North America. Many significant racecars will come from around the world to participate in this special event being held at a special venue. Le Circuit is nestled amongst the green hills on the outskirts of picturesque Mont-Tremblant village in the Laurentians. The track, which was built in 1964, has a rich, historical past. It was the venue of the inaugural race in the Can Am series in 1966.

The 1968 and 1970 Canadian Grand Prix were held here, among other significant events.

Even last year’s Sommet des Légendes weekend was historically significant. It had the largest Formula One grid in North American history, with 33 cars dating from 1967 to 1983 starting the race. Additionally, it is the birthplace of many important Canadian race drivers’ careers, among them Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve, who both attended the Jim Russell Racing School here in 1973 and 1985, respectively.

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Over the past number of years the site was completely refurbished, the 4.3-kilometer track was completely repaved and was at the same time widened by 3 meters. The runoff areas were improved and the control tower and infrastructure renewed.

The results are impressive, and the facility now meets current FIA standards. It remains a technically demanding and difficult track to drive though, with high-speed sections and many elevational changes.

Many drivers have commented on its resemblance to older style worldclass European tracks, and the beautiful surroundings add to the flavour. It is considered one of the best motor racing venues in North America today.

It is with this in mind and the recent explosion in interest in historic racing in Europe and the United States, that the Le Circuit’s management decided that their track would make a perfect stop on the world tour of historic racing events. Their hope is to bring back the glory days of international motor sport with the Sommet des Légendes. They want to draw the fans back to rekindle old memories and to create new ones.

Younger generations will be able to see firsthand and up close the evolution of motor racing through the decades to its culmination as the high tech, highly competitive event that it is today.

The Sommet des Légendes will showcase seven categories of vintage racing, each of them having something to capture the interest of everyone. They are: • •

•

•

• • •

the Prewar Classics the Sports cars of the 1950s small Formula cars (F2, F3 and Atlantics) the GT and Production class of the 1960 FIA Championship of Makes Group C GTP and GTP Lights and the Historic Grand Prix race cars from 1968 to 1983.

The F1 cars date from the era before turbo charging. Many marques are going to be represented, such as Arrows, Brubham, Ferrari, Lotus and Mach to name a few. Ferrari will be the featured marque this year.

There will be three ex-Villeneuve Ferraris out on the track, which will make this a special and emotional event for local fans.

The Ferrari Club of America’s Quebec Chapter will be holding its annual Festival Ferrari in conjunction with the Sommet des Légendes weekend, giving fans of the legendary Italian marque many opportunities to savour classic and late model Ferraris at the same time.

Montreal - 1981

Montreal - 1979 Pictures by Pino Asaro

POWER IN SAFE HANDS.

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