About this user
have only seen my father cry twice: when his mother died and when he returned to his hometown of Calascibetta, Sicily, together with my family, 38 years after coming to America in 1952. The return to his small hilltop hometown in the center of Sicily represented a return to the place that formed his personality and character so many years ago. For me, Matthew Platania, founder and CEO of Modern Italian, the visit to Calascibetta would alter the direction of my life forever.
We entered Calascibetta (originally Kalath Shibet, Arabic for Castle on the Hill) on a winding two-lane road that wrapped itself around the tall hillside before entering the town proper, passing the Santa Barbara church and being squeezed between the outwardly indistinguishable homes, pressed up against each other. The narrow road led us past the few storefronts, still more churches, and one of the 4,000 person-town's four bakeries until we reached its large piazza. My sister, mother and I had noticed my father's silence and witnessed his emotional response to the memories that must have flooded his eyes, probably causing him to momentarily confuse the Fiat 500 and other motorized vehicles for the images of scieccu (donkey) that were present years ago in the long-forgotten post-war Sicily of his youth. In that moment, all of the images that I had inherited from my family's stories of the past transformed from black-and-white to vivid color. Although not born there, Calascibetta was almost as much a part of my upbringing as my father's, and I, too, felt like I had come home.
Since that visit some 18 years ago, I have been able to incorporate the customs, language, and even attitudes that I learned while living and traveling in Italy into my American life. I've found that it is actually possible to combine the best of both cultural realities into one existence, even if spatially separated from one country or the other. I have discovered that it is possible to develop a relationship with Italy and Italian culture that exceeds the relationship of a tourist by actively seeking out elements of Italian culture and purposely integrating them into daily life. I have also seen that living like an Italian does not mean that you have to have ancestral roots there and that the Italian lifestyle is appealing to all people. I consider myself exceedingly lucky to have been able to live in Italy, learn to speak Italian, and now, work to provide people with a way to access and embrace Italian culture at their own pace and to the level they wish- just like I have done in my life.
I founded Modern Sicilian Network almost four years ago before distinguishing between our philanthropic efforts in Sicily through Modern Sicilian from our efforts to provide access to and inform about Italian culture through Modern Italian Network. Please excuse any confusion that the shift may have caused.
The objectives of each organization are similar, though, in their mission to positively impact the lives of others. In the case of Modern Sicilian, the goal is to stimulate economic development in central Sicily, the area immediately surrounding Calascibetta, through the establishment of a cultural tourism promotion center. We have been successful in helping to restore a cultural monument and are now in the process of implementing a project known as "Progetto Centocinquanta" (Project 150) to attract tour buses to visit Calascibetta- an effort that has the potential to provide the town with immediate revenue. We hope to manage this process in a way that does not damage its pristine environment and pleasant atmosphere.
Modern Italian, similarly, seeks to improve your lives, or, at least to offer you a means to independently enrich your life with access to Italian culture, at your own pace and with your needs in mind. To date, we have been limited to sending periodic newsletters and updates to you with links to informative or entertaining articles and video. We have also held occasional events and even a tour or two in Italy.
By the end of the year, we will launch our Social Networking website for Italian culture. This project is almost one year in the making and we hope that it be successful in providing you a place to express your enthusiasm for Italy and Italian culture. The fundamental function of the website will definitely include information about Italian culture; however, its most important and valuable function will be to provide you with a place to influence Italian culture yourself by sharing the memories, like I have shared above, about how Italy and Italian culture has affected your life. Our goal is to provide you and others with the means to benefit from a relationship with Italy and its culture in the same way I have been able to, ever since that first, influential visit so many years ago.
