I Portali Grand Opening

Window shopping in Sicily was never more fun than today, October 25, 2007, at 10:00am. It was the precise time of the grand opening of a new mall in Sicily. OK, picture this. . .hundreds of Sicilians lined up outside the door, waiting for the mall to open. Well, not exactly lined up, because there is no such polite organization here. You just think you're in line until someone pushes ahead of you without apology. It was more like a mad rush. And I do mean rush. Were the stores giving away there merchandise on the first day? Was a celebrity waiting inside? Perhaps a rock star? It turns out that word travels fast and the diehard shoppers browse the previously seen brochures, studiously memorizing the bargains.

Apparently the really, really big deals were to be found in the electronics store (Sicily's answer to Best Buy). We pushed our way into the store like salmon swimming upstream, and observed that the hottest buy was a blowdryer for 3.90 euro. That's about $5.50. I might add that as we entered the store, a man, in his exuberance, clipped me with his arm across my throat. Could this be the origination of the term "cutthroat?" No such thing as "one per customer" here. People had stacks of them in the arms, walking rapidly to the cashier. I mean, how many blowdryers can a person use, or even a family? I kid you not when I say that people were dragging huge plastic bags full of purchases out of the store and down the mall. Dragging...

This photo was taken within 15 minutes of the mall opening. They sure didn't waste any time! See the stacks of blowdryers?

Next we walked around to several other stores, mostly upscale and pricey by any standard. How about a pair of silky "Hello Kitty" jammies with bling for $100? How about an entire store of "Hello Kitty" stuff? Does that name sound at all Italian to you? That would be "Buon Giorno Gatto". It just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Another popular and crowded store carried housewares. The prices were pretty good, but again, the problem was that the cashier lines were so long and slow that I'd still be there trying to pay instead of writing this blog.

The mall itself is glitzy and bright with water features, tropical plantings, marble floors, with loud rock music playing (in English). It was reminiscent of when malls started to become popular in the States. My first experience was going to the Cherry Hill Mall in New Jersey, back in the late 60's.

The other general phenomenon that always amazes me about Sicily is there love affair with things that we would consider American. For example, some of the store names themselves bear English names.

Here is a version of the ever-popular dollar store, another madhouse with wall-to-wall people and long lines at the checkout. Notice the Hallowe'en skeleton in the window. This is not a Sicilian holiday or tradition, but anything to copy the Americans and make money seems to be where it's at.

My friends, Mary and Jacque, and I ended our mall experience with. . .you guessed it. . .cappuccino and gelato. The best, most smooth and yummy gelato I have ever had, or do I just say that every time?