At Home : Letters from Italy at the Time of Coronavirus. Story Nine : Sicily
Silvia, owner with her husband of Mandranova, a Sicilian agriturismo inn our clients love, is as frank as ever :
“The period we are living in is strange, undefinable, the world has stopped. Not just our world here — the world.
Nevertheless we are among the lucky ones because we are well, and are living on a marvelous piece of land during a season that offers flower after flower, perfume after perfume, and color after color.
We are continuing our work, preparing our olive oil to send out across the world. That business has not stopped at all.
Naturally no one is working in our offices, as there is no work at all that relates to tourism. But our agricultural life is something else.
After a period of quarantine, which was more as a result of terror than actual illness, our farm workers are back at the seasonal jobs that simply couldn’t wait.
And I, what am I up to ? Office work, and coordinating the sending out of our oil and other products. And I am dedicating myself to seasonal jobs that I normally have no time for : making marmalades, perfecting soaps made with our extra virgin oil, revising our website and general e-commerce.
Do I cook ? Absolutely not ! Except for Giuseppe, and to indulge the dogs.
Time goes by so fast.
The tourist season ? None, nor do I foresee one in the next months, and if so, it will be greatly reduced.
Our market is a foreign one and as the epidemic wave is well behind Italy in our clients’ home countries, it will be some time until it is fully over. I suspect that everyone will be hesitant to leave home for a while, and this makes me feel all the more sure that this year, from the touristic point of view, will be very slow if at all. “
Mandranova, outside of Agrigento, is a special place, and its oils are simply delicious, as are all the estate products that find their way into Silvia’s sublime cooking.
When she says that nature at Mandranova never sleeps, she is right. Spring on the property is explosive and joyful. The rich colors and bold vegetation bring to mind the ebullient rebirth that in Greek myth was the springtime gift of Demeter to her daughter Persephone.
Even during lock down.
Today a record number of Italians were declared fully recovered, 2099. And for the fifth day in a row, intensive care patient numbers continue to drop.
And Easter — to be celebrated at home, in lock down, within your own walls — is around the corner. Nevertheless, no Italian can avert their eyes from Lombardy, where the situation, though better, is still grave. And at least 17.669 Italians, since the very first case diagnosed on February 21, have lost their life to coronavirus.
A friend in Venice says that on television politicians have been replaced by psychiatrists as Italians’ mental health is beginning to suffer seriously after so many weeks in lock down.
“It is understandable”, says my friend. “We are trying so very hard.”