Choosing wines for a romantic dinner has never been that easy. A smooth red wine? Or full-palate bubbles? Or to be challenged by less simple wines that can create an intriguing tension between minds?Like everything about passion in our life, the crucial element of a romantic dinner is a crescendo, a sort of road map of desire, to gradually create the right atmosphere for making minds and bodies dialogue with each other. 

Catering that welcomes you in the family rather than a family in catering: the multifaceted project by Stefania Milano and Franco Virga savours of Vucciria, of the art of sharing, of sensitivity to space and people. From Palermo to the stars with love.

Più che una famiglia nella ristorazione, la ristorazione che ti accoglie in famiglia: il progetto multiforme di Stefania Milano e Franco Virga, che sa di Vuccirìa, d’arte di condivisione, di sensibilità per lo spazio e le persone, da Palermo alle stelle, con amore.

About love and personal stories

We are in a network of relationships of which family is, perhaps, the primary core, the original one. As a matter of fact, the first core is the relationship we weave with ourselves. In these pages, we will read more than once how the lockdown – and the pandemic in a before-and-after variable – has been an opportunity for someone. Therefore, reading between the lines, there is always an opportunity if you know how to seize it, find it and make it yours. It takes healthy awareness.

For example, my great opportunity has been to rediscover myself and return to the oldest and most ambiguous of relationships: the one with myself. From there, I found my family and my own centre of gravity, the primary core that has always been there, a speck inside the vortex of work, things to do, and projects. I risked annihilating myself – and, perhaps, I did it for a very long time. But during the weeks that proved to all of us that we are neither invincible nor supersonic

The ritual of full-flavoured, deep, fragrant coffee has spanned over four generations at a slow, inexorable pace. Ancient, brand-new, deeply ingrained but cosmopolitan, transformational, enjoyable coffee: Morettino, from Palermo to the world at a slow pace. Arturo, Angelo, Alberto, Alessandro, Andrea... their names only begin with A. And, as Andrea Morettino tells, it happened almost by chance, just the way things happen, the way traditions begin. Four generations of capital A with a unique passion: the black gold of Italian morning awakening, which is not Italian (actually: it was not...), namely, coffee. It all started at the Spezie e Coloniali shop in San Lorenzo ai Colli, a residential area of Palermo. In Sicily, in the 1920s, coffee was just one of the odd things in the shop. It was Arturo who began nurturing the passion. A tireless worker, he made blends, tried methods and created the coffee roasting business. In a historical period when cafés were the venues for culture, meetings,

I miss the sea. Covid-19 affected our emotions. As if there were – and there is – a higher stake that is life. Hence no cinema, no walks, no shopping at the market. How much I miss it! I'm not worried about myself. I'm a fatalist. I overcame a tumour – they couldn’t take it anymore at the Veronesi hospital [European Institute of Oncology]. They said I puzzled them, but I know they had fun after all! Now, I’m worried about my family, my daughters and grandchildren.The sea, like paintings, is a kind of inheritance, a family thing. My father was a real artist [Eustachio Catalano, an artist and former director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo], and my brother was a marine biologist. Part of my childhood was imbued with the sound of the waves of the Sperone suburb. What else could I have painted if not the sea?

I miss my sea and going fishing. I miss Arte al Borgo because it’s now gone, and even the place is not the same anymore. I used to go arm in arm with Sciascia. First, we discussed

In mezzo ai campi è sorto il pastificio, realizzato per avere il minimo impatto ambientale e paesaggistico. Qui la coltivazione si fa seguendo una attenta rotazione, così il terreno si fertilizza da solo, grazie alle diverse colture, anche per questo la pasta Mancini va ad annate, come il vino, non è mai uguale ma ugualmente buona. 

Vuoi una salsa di pomodoro densa, profumata solo di pomodoro, senza sale ché così te la regoli a gusto tuo. La vuoi senza aromi aggiunti? La vuoi in una confezione rispettosa dell’ambiente? Ti fa piacere sapere che nessun operaio è stato sfruttato per crearla?
Beh, tutto questo vale e dunque costa.

Siamo isolani, abituati a contare sul mare e a farci i conti, con il mare. Abbiamo tutti imparato a nuotare da piccoli, la maggior parte di noi gettato in acqua all’improvviso da qualche parente che non doveva avere molta familiarità con Montessori. Le reti, il pesce, la marea, le onde, la salsedine, i nugoli di vespe sulle reti, i pescatori che ricuciono lentamente, i riflessi argentei, l’odore salmastro: elementi radicati e radicali. 

Chi pesca e chi coltiva, chi va a caccia e chi va in ufficio, chi insegna, chi ricerca, chi studia, chi scrive e chi legge, chi cucina, chi viaggia: stiamo solo parlando di persone.

Di esseri umani - e non - che fanno il proprio percorso, il proprio ciclo incrociandolo con gli altri, altri cicli e altre persone.