Sonninese Sign Language: Part 1

I asked my Zio Nicola to demonstrate some of what I call "Sonninese sign language". These are the hand gestures you see all throughout Sonnino. This first one is a classic and maybe the most common. This is the gesture one uses when you like what you've just eaten. If somebody asks, "do you like the carchofi (artichokes)", this is how you respond.

Cannateglio -nod off

This is a very usefull work to know. With all the eating I do in Sonnino...this has word has come in handy. Click to listen.

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Nommera (nicknames) in Sonnino

In Sonnino it seems that everyone has a nickname. Somtimes the nicknames are for an individual and other times they are for a whole family. With the number of Antonio's and Giacamo's in Sonnino, this makes sense.

My family is known as "the butcher". Place that at the end of any first name and you have a "nommera". Other people I meet had nicknames based on family history or family attributes. Do any Sonninese out there care to share what their "nomerra" or family nomerra is?

I'm hoping to get some more examples from my family that I can post.

The newest Sonniese bambino

On September 7th, my wife Margie and I welcomed Rafael Corcoran into our lives. He is happy, healthy, and looks like a nice little Italian boy! Zia Annunziainta even made him a beautiful "Buona Notte" blanket. Pretty soon, his Italian will be better than mine!

Sonninese song...played on the accordian

When I was in Sonnino in May I was at the grandmother of a friends. We went outside and heard an accordion playing. It turns out their neighbor is well know around Sonnino for his accordion playing. He played us a Sonninese song and we did a little waltz. I recorded him playing on my digital recorder. Have a listen

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Sonninese Proverb

In my visits to Sonnino I've heard many Sonninese proverbs. Unfortunalty, I never write them down. Hopefully this will change. Fortunately I did write one down at a meal we had with some older relatives.

We were having dinner and talking about Le Torce the next day when the homemade wine made it to me. I was told "You should drink some...wine becomes blood". The Sonninese say that wine (not to much) fortifies the blood and gives you strength.

The Lepini people

I took this picture on the grounds of the Fossanova Abbey, which is in Sonnino scalo. I've been seeing these signs around the Sonnino area for the past few years. I asked my cousins about about the structure on the sign.

The area around Sonnino is called the "Lepini Plain". The Lipini are the ancient people of the Sonnino area. This structure is a rendering of what their dwellings looked like. My cousins also mentioned that in the hills right behind Sonnino there are still ruins of ancient Lepini homes. Has anybody seen them?

The giving of the torches

This is a video I took in the church after the priest had blessed the torches for "Le Torce" and sprinkled them with holy water. They were then given to the four leaders of Le Torce to carry.

Song: Sonnino Bello

I was having dinner with some family in Sonnino in May and we began to talk about some songs I had heard people singing. Zia Lydia and my cousin Antonio were kind enough to lend their beautiful voices and sing me a few. They said this one is very old and is called "Sonnino Bello". Zia Lydia is in this photo on the bottom-right. Here are the words and the recording. Bonus points if you can translate it!:

"Sonnino e bello, Sonnino
e fatto a ferro, di cavallo
non te ne incarica.
Di cavallo cesta la giovenio col sangue bello, non tene
incarea."

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Friends from Sonnino

This is a picture of some friends from Sonnino. They took me on a fantastic trip to a little called Serrmoneta. It has a beautiful castle which I'll write more about in future posts. From left to right (Eliza, me, Roberto, Luca, Milcho(sp?). This is also a great way to get them to read the blog!

"Le Torce" video...the first of many!

This is a video I took of the torches right after they were lit and folks we're starting to head down the mountain. This is the first point at which the people in Sonnino could see us. It was a pretty amazing moment! There were fireworks a few minutes later. If you have speakers, turn them on and listen to people singing and firing guns.

Back fromn Sonnino

Sorry for the lack of posts. I just returned from Sonnino and had an amazing time and have some great things to post about. I went to Sonnino for Le Torce, it was an incredible experience that I'll write more about.

IN the meantime, please enjoy the picture of My Zia Annunziatina and Zio Giovanni's fabulous produce. The have some of the greenest thumbs I have ever seen! The food is always fresh at their house. In this picture there are fava beans, which are season right now, as well as a leafy green that I forget the name of. There is also some frutta secca (dried figs with an almond in the middle) perched on the basket. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Soninese artichoke

This is a picture that my wife took of an artichoke in our relative's garden. Makes me hungry for "carchofi alla Romana"

Matteo and Graziano

This is a picture of my cousins Matteo(San Francisco) and Graziano(Sonnino). Matteo visited Sonnino for the first time last spring. He hit it just right and was in town for Le Torce. I believe they're standing in front of the home where my great-grandmother grew up.

SLEEPING VILLAGERS FROM SONNINO: An Unpublished Terracotta by Bartolomeo Pinelli.: Michael Preston Worley: Books

I'd like to thank Sandra, a reader whose family is from Sonnino, for forwarding this on. It looks like a book about Sonnino. It's one that I haven't seen before. Has anybody heard of it?

Amazon.com: SLEEPING VILLAGERS FROM SONNINO: An Unpublished Terracotta by Bartolomeo Pinelli.: Michael Preston Worley: Books

Sonnino olive oil for sale on Amazon.com

Apparently you can buy olive oil made in Sonnino on Amazon.com. Each time I go my family is kind enough to send me back with liters of amazing oil. A little taste of the home country in Boston. Has anybody triewd this brand?

Click on the link to view the Amazon.com web page.

Amazon.com: Cetrone Aromatic Orange Extra Virgin Olive Oil - 8.8oz.: Gourmet Food

Donna di Sonnino print

I found this print online. It's called "Donna di Sonnino" and it's from Italy. Anybody know where it's from? Here's what the website that is selling says:

Donna di Sonnino.
ITALY)
US$65.00

Rome. No date. Ca. 1830?

Engraving, handcolored, image platemark approximately 11 x 7 1/2 inches on sheet 14 x 10 inches. Overall light toning to paper, a small tear in upper left and middle right margins (well outside of image area), a bright and clean image on light cream colored paper.

Sonnino - Outlaw Capital

A fellow countryman from Sonnino, David, sent this interesting link along about Sonnino. He wrote:

"Thought you might find interesting this account of Sonnino’s most famous son, Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli.From all historic accounts, in the 18th and 19th Century, Sonnino was the outlaw capital of Italy."

David is doing some very interesting writing about the history of the Italian community, including Sonninese, in Syracuse. Hopefully we can get him to post some of this finds! Click on the link below to read the article.

http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/4/3/8/14381/14381.htm

A little Sonnino History: Sonnio's boundry lands

Sonnino – Museum of the boundary lands

Founded in 2004 and started in 2005, its development is still in progress.
The Museum of the boundary lands collects the signs of the anthropologic deeds of the boundaries of Sonnino.

The whole history of Sonnino is, in fact, impregnated of “boundaries”: from the century old conflicts with Priverno, to the brigands in the free zone between the Papal State and the Kingdom of Naples. And each year, the boundaries are passed along by the night procession, the Feast of the Torches, which has become the symbol of the community.

Sonnino, a small town castled on the Musoni mounts, is placed on the southern extreme pieces of land of the Ciociaria, which, up to the ‘30ties, belonged to Frosinone and that once was the extreme limit of the State of the Church (the “Marittima”).

Finally, the boundary in the exhibition is represented as the arrival point of the community process and, at the same time, point of escape in order to get in relation with the external world.

Dinner at Nicola and Adele's

This is a photo my cousin Matteo from San Francisco who visited Sonnino with his wife Kai took. They were having dinner at our great-uncle/aunt Nicola and Adele's home. Anybody want to guess what was on the menu? Maybe I'll give a prize for the person who guesses correctly.