Marionettes

 Sicily has a great tradition of puppet making and puppet shows.  Today we had the opportunity to visit a five generation family that does both.  Franco Cuticchio's Puppet Shop hand carves large (36" or more) puppets that they use in their shows.  We first watched one of their shows in their little theatre where Franco, his daughter and granddaughter helped stage the show.  Franco is the voice for all the characters while his daughter manipulates the characters stage left and Franco stage right.  The granddaughter hand cranks the little antique piano that provides the music for the staging.  It had it all, from love scenes to fight scenes where some of the puppets actually had body parts cut off by the swords of the 'good guys'.  It was actually very entertaining.

We then broke into groups to take photos in the workshop, the theatre, and portraits in the alleyway of the theatre.  Franco's 92 year old father posed for us in the workshop demonstrating how all the puppet parts are made and then assembled.  He was quite a character.  














 







We returned to the hotel where we had a break before our final dinner in Palermo.  A couple of us took the opportunity to visit Teatro Massimo, the third largest opera house in Europe and the largest in Italy.  It was quite striking with four levels of boxes along with floor sitting that allowed a crowd to watch a production.  In one of the rooms off the theatre the sound of your voice was amplified if you stood exactly in the center of the room.  Now that’s understanding acoustics!




Tonight’s dinner was very special.  We ate at Palazzo Arone dei Baroni di Valentina which is home to a Baron and Baroness, who stopped by to say hi before our dinner.  Their lovely mansion has rooms you can rent and also they can prepare special dinners like the one we were about to enjoy.  We took a tour before being seated for dinner served by white gloved servants.  The rooms were just as you would imagine with lots of gilded wood, antique paintings, and decorations filling all the empty spaces.  The dinner was very typical Sicilian and included caponata, swordfish, pasta that actually looked a little like spaghetti-o’s, and tiramisu for dessert.  Delicious!!!



Tomorrow: Cefalu & Siricusa




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