My young cousin Alé Coniglio wrote this as a report for her English professor in San Giovanni, Sicily. I’m so honored:
My special American cousin
1. Camille’s first visit to Sicily.
2. Camille’s novels.
3. Camille’s passion.
4. A very big meeting.
1.Camille is my special American cousin. She lives in San Francisco with her very big family in fact she has got 4 brothers and 5 sisters. She is fifty years old and she was born in America like all the members of her family and her father and mother too.
Her grandfather was my great grandmother’s brother but one day they had to separate because Uncle Vincent decided to emigrate to America. About twenty years ago Camille came for the first time to Sicily to meet her relatives. She stayed here about two months and visited all the most beautiful places in our wonderful island. And she fell in love with Sicilian people, landscape and food.
2.Camille is a writer. She has written ten books and hundreds of articles for a lot of newspapers. Some of the titles of her books are: “Greece, A Love Story”, “Mexico, A Love Story”, “Italy, A Love Story”, “America Loves Salads” and “The Last Cannoli”.
3.One of her passions is Argentina Tango, in fact she has recently moved to Argentina to learn this discipline. Camille then has decided to tell her experience in Argentina in a book that has been very successful. She also likes travelling meeting people tasting local food in every foreign country she visits. She enjoys writing down all her emotions and feelings of her numerous and different experiences. She also likes to collect all the original and particular recipes and then she has them published in the magazine she writes for to let the readers try the food she liked.
4.I don’t remember when she came for the first time to Sicily because I was too young.
Instead I remember the meeting we had in 2006 when about 36 cousins left America to came and meet their Sicilian cousins. It was something very special and particular. They stayed in a hotel near Agrigento and come here by bus. We were all very happy because we didn’t know all of them. They didn’t understand Italian but they could understand a little bit of our dialect.
On that occasion they met cousins living in the two villages, San Giovanni Gemini and Cammarata, where then grandparents were born. Thirty-six of them ranging in age from eight months to sixty-one went up and down narrow, winding streets, visited the old Norman Church, the castle ruins, the town hall where they met the mayor. That evening we sat down together to have dinner together. We also had commemorative T-shirts made for every one of us. They featured an insignia with our names and the date with the bright red and gold, Trinacria, the ancient three-legged symbol of the tri-cornered island.
My special American cousin
1. Camille’s first visit to Sicily.
2. Camille’s novels.
3. Camille’s passion.
4. A very big meeting.
1.Camille is my special American cousin. She lives in San Francisco with her very big family in fact she has got 4 brothers and 5 sisters. She is fifty years old and she was born in America like all the members of her family and her father and mother too.
Her grandfather was my great grandmother’s brother but one day they had to separate because Uncle Vincent decided to emigrate to America. About twenty years ago Camille came for the first time to Sicily to meet her relatives. She stayed here about two months and visited all the most beautiful places in our wonderful island. And she fell in love with Sicilian people, landscape and food.
2.Camille is a writer. She has written ten books and hundreds of articles for a lot of newspapers. Some of the titles of her books are: “Greece, A Love Story”, “Mexico, A Love Story”, “Italy, A Love Story”, “America Loves Salads” and “The Last Cannoli”.
3.One of her passions is Argentina Tango, in fact she has recently moved to Argentina to learn this discipline. Camille then has decided to tell her experience in Argentina in a book that has been very successful. She also likes travelling meeting people tasting local food in every foreign country she visits. She enjoys writing down all her emotions and feelings of her numerous and different experiences. She also likes to collect all the original and particular recipes and then she has them published in the magazine she writes for to let the readers try the food she liked.
4.I don’t remember when she came for the first time to Sicily because I was too young.
Instead I remember the meeting we had in 2006 when about 36 cousins left America to came and meet their Sicilian cousins. It was something very special and particular. They stayed in a hotel near Agrigento and come here by bus. We were all very happy because we didn’t know all of them. They didn’t understand Italian but they could understand a little bit of our dialect.
On that occasion they met cousins living in the two villages, San Giovanni Gemini and Cammarata, where then grandparents were born. Thirty-six of them ranging in age from eight months to sixty-one went up and down narrow, winding streets, visited the old Norman Church, the castle ruins, the town hall where they met the mayor. That evening we sat down together to have dinner together. We also had commemorative T-shirts made for every one of us. They featured an insignia with our names and the date with the bright red and gold, Trinacria, the ancient three-legged symbol of the tri-cornered island.
🙂