Pantelleria Island. Summer 2013.
Tourist count this year: very low. Lowest in decades. Listless people in small numbers visited this summer season. Seems like the lowest number of visitors in many many years,
I have my art gallery open every season. This year, for the first time, not one sale of anything. Zero. And very few visitors. Smallest number ever. Those who did come seemed more like ghosts than like human beings. They could see nothing, had no curiosity and left quickly.
Vacationers who own homes here came in the usual numbers, but none of them want to pay their bills, and everyone is waiting to be paid.
Austerity continues to present Pantelleria with a portfolio of bad news. No one knows so far what will become of the grapes this year. We continue to suffer with one very poorly managed, old, terrible boat. Last year thousands of liters of wine were lost because there was no way to transport the grapes to Sicily. This year it may be the same, may even be worse.
The island continues to be a place of peace, but it is an uneasy peace. A lot of Romanians have come here to work in black, very cheaply, stealing a lot of jobs. At one pint we had nearly 2,000 Romanians here...on an island with only 6,000 or so regular inhabitants. They took a lot of jobs. They also pulled out pistols and shot at least one boy and behaved like gangsters, threatening violence, all across the island. It makes no sense there are sop many of them on this little island. Their illegal wages do not stay here, it is all sent back to their families. A double negative showing no signs of abating in the future. While some of these Romanians are very nice, mostly the women, many of them are very sullen, aggressive and not at all simpatico with the island. It is difficult to see it as a positive development.
It is not so clear at this point what the future holds for many of us.
The central plaza of the main village has attracted a lot of dark and stupid people. There is a kind of cloud over the usual coffee houses. The friendly faces are becoming more elusive and being replaced by people who do not seem to work, who are not so friendly.
Over the last year a few actual Americans have moved here. They are sullen and rude and not at all interesting. They seem part of the new wave of ghosts to come to our little island. No one is anxious or very interested in seeing arrogant and sullen Americans take hold here.
The new 45 million euro airport is not doing so well. A Swedish airline took the contract to bring the daily flights to and from the island, and they are doing a terrible job. Dozens of times they have cancelled flights and just left hundreds of passengers stranded without explanation or recourse. It is so bad that even the usually indifferent and largely incompetent administration at Trapani have opened an "investigation".
I have spent the year photographing the island, the flowers in particular, but also the people and the architecture. All are quite interesting and I have really enjoyed getting into this new project. I invested in all new photographic gear this year, lifting up my equipment, and the learning curve, to a considerably higher level.
We hav enow at least eight Eagles living on the island, as well as a family of magnificent swans. This is a very interesting development. At one point in the late Spring this year, they were all circling right near the house for some days, a spectacular sight.
We all remain hopeful and work hard to keep our traditions of hospitality and sweetness about ourselves in the face of all these clouds and ghosts. We all remain optimistic, but it is a strange feeling these days. Many questions.
September 2013
Tourist count this year: very low. Lowest in decades. Listless people in small numbers visited this summer season. Seems like the lowest number of visitors in many many years,
I have my art gallery open every season. This year, for the first time, not one sale of anything. Zero. And very few visitors. Smallest number ever. Those who did come seemed more like ghosts than like human beings. They could see nothing, had no curiosity and left quickly.
Vacationers who own homes here came in the usual numbers, but none of them want to pay their bills, and everyone is waiting to be paid.
Austerity continues to present Pantelleria with a portfolio of bad news. No one knows so far what will become of the grapes this year. We continue to suffer with one very poorly managed, old, terrible boat. Last year thousands of liters of wine were lost because there was no way to transport the grapes to Sicily. This year it may be the same, may even be worse.
The island continues to be a place of peace, but it is an uneasy peace. A lot of Romanians have come here to work in black, very cheaply, stealing a lot of jobs. At one pint we had nearly 2,000 Romanians here...on an island with only 6,000 or so regular inhabitants. They took a lot of jobs. They also pulled out pistols and shot at least one boy and behaved like gangsters, threatening violence, all across the island. It makes no sense there are sop many of them on this little island. Their illegal wages do not stay here, it is all sent back to their families. A double negative showing no signs of abating in the future. While some of these Romanians are very nice, mostly the women, many of them are very sullen, aggressive and not at all simpatico with the island. It is difficult to see it as a positive development.
It is not so clear at this point what the future holds for many of us.
The central plaza of the main village has attracted a lot of dark and stupid people. There is a kind of cloud over the usual coffee houses. The friendly faces are becoming more elusive and being replaced by people who do not seem to work, who are not so friendly.
Over the last year a few actual Americans have moved here. They are sullen and rude and not at all interesting. They seem part of the new wave of ghosts to come to our little island. No one is anxious or very interested in seeing arrogant and sullen Americans take hold here.
The new 45 million euro airport is not doing so well. A Swedish airline took the contract to bring the daily flights to and from the island, and they are doing a terrible job. Dozens of times they have cancelled flights and just left hundreds of passengers stranded without explanation or recourse. It is so bad that even the usually indifferent and largely incompetent administration at Trapani have opened an "investigation".
I have spent the year photographing the island, the flowers in particular, but also the people and the architecture. All are quite interesting and I have really enjoyed getting into this new project. I invested in all new photographic gear this year, lifting up my equipment, and the learning curve, to a considerably higher level.
We hav enow at least eight Eagles living on the island, as well as a family of magnificent swans. This is a very interesting development. At one point in the late Spring this year, they were all circling right near the house for some days, a spectacular sight.
We all remain hopeful and work hard to keep our traditions of hospitality and sweetness about ourselves in the face of all these clouds and ghosts. We all remain optimistic, but it is a strange feeling these days. Many questions.
September 2013
