serving as the national coast guard.
138. pasta ncasciata: A casserole of pasta cortathat is, elbow macaroni, penne, ziti, mezzi ziti, or something similartomato sauce, ground beef, Parmesan cheese, and bechamel.
138. Give land to those who work!: In Italian, La terra a chi lavora! This was the rallying cry of the land-reform movement that, in the late 1940s, demanded the break-up of the large landed estates, much of whose vast territories (latifondi) lay fallow while the peasantry went hungry.
159. ten thousand lire: About $6.50.
159. podest: The head of the municipal government, equivalent to the mayor, in the Fascist period. It was an appointed, not elected, office.
168. Sex standing up...to a bad end: Fi addritta e caminari na rina / portanu lomu a la ruvina (Sicilian proverb).
170. National Police: The carabinieri.
170. outstanding corpse: The term cadavere eccellente is Italian jargon for the dead body of an important personage, especially when the death has occurred in shady circumstances.
171. Falcone and Borsellino! Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino were prominent investigating magistrates in the struggle against the Mafia in Sicily, both murdered by the mob in 1992.
177. Epiphany of 43: In Italy the Christmas holiday lasts until the first day after the Epiphany ( January 6).
178. Gentile: Giovanni Gentile (1875-1944) was a prominent Italian philosopher and politician of Sicilian birth (Castelvetrano, province of Trapani), author of many important works of philosophy from the turn of the century onwards and editor and organizer of the Enciclopedia Italiana (1925-1943). As minister of education under the Fascist government from 1922 to 1924, he instituted sweeping reforms of the national educational system; as president of two commissions for the reform of the Italian constitution, he also contributed to laying the institutional foundations of the Fascist corporate state in 1925. Though his political influence steadily declined thereafter, he remained loyal to the regime until the bitter end, even serving as president of the Accademia dItalia under the Nazi collaborationist Republic of Salstablished after the armistice of September 8, 1943. He was killed by anti-Fascist partisans in Florence on April 15, 1944.
178. lyceums: The Italian word is liceo (sing.), which, like the French lyc harks back to the ancient Greek Lykeion, the Gymnasium near Athens where Aristotle taught.
197. fresh anchovies allagretto: Baked in a sauce of lemon juice.
211. half a million lire: About $650 at the time of the novels publication in 1996.
227. La Vuccir: The large, old market district in Palermo.
228. ma: Calf's spleen sliced into thin strips and cooked in fat.
230. Giovani Italiane: This was the compulsory Fascist youth organization (the Young Italians) for adolescents aged sixteen and seventeen. The groups for younger children were the Figli della Lupa (Children of the She-Wolf ) and the Balilla (named after the boy who incited the Genoese to rebel against the Austrian occupation in 1746). The girls uniform of the Giovani Italiane consisted of a black pleated skirt, a white blouse with an m (for Mussolini) on the front, and a black beret.
252. forty thousand lire: About $25 at the time.
265. pasta al forno: A casserole of pasta and a variety of other ingredients that may include meat, eggs, vegetables, tomato, or cream sauces, and so on. It is a typically southern Italian dish.
274. sacred area of the Phoenicians: Early Phoenician settlements existed in coastal Sicily and its surrounding islands before the Greek era. The most important Phoenician centers were Panormos (modern Palermo), Soloeis, and Motya (modern Mozia). Later Carthaginian settlement (fifth and fourth centuries b.c.) in the southern and western regions of the island reinforced this Sicilian link to Phoenician civilization, opposing these regions to the Greek culture fast gaining prominence in much of the rest of the island. Following the Punic Wars, when Rome defeated Carthage, all of Sicily became Roman (after 210 b.c.). In the Middle Ages, the Arab rule of the island from the late ninth to the mid-eleventh century again revived Sicily's historic links to the cultures of North Africa and the Middle East.
281. pasta con le sarde, and purpi alla carrettera: Pasta con le sarde is a classic Sicilian dish served usually with bucatini, broad spaghetti- like strings that are hollow in the middle. The sauce consists of fresh sardines, tops of wild fennel, pine nuts, raisins, garlic, and saffron. Purpi alla carrettera is octopus served in a sauce of olive oil, lemon, and a great deal of hot pepper.
298. ten million lire: About $6,500.
304. RAI regional news: The RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) is the government- owned national television network, which also has regional news broadcasts.
308. Fininvest, Ansa: Fininvest is the financial and media conglomerate owned by Silvio Berlusconi; Ansa is an acronym for Azienda Nazionale Stampa Associata, the national news agency.
310. Corriere: Corriere della Sera, the Milan daily and the premier newspaper of Italy.
318. leghista: A member or supporter of the formerly secessionist Northern League (Lega Nord), a right-wing political party known for its prejudice against foreign immigrants and southern Italians.
Notes compiled by Stephen Sartarelli.
