Many of you would know about movie and theater legend, Paul Sorvino as he has starred as Paulie Cicero in the mob movie, Goodfellas, and as Henry Kissinger in Nixon.

He’s been in loads of other movies and TV shows as well and is a well respected actor.  You can view his Filmography at the Internet Movie Database.

Anyway, Paul has been lucky enough to have travelled around the Amalfi Coast region in Italy. I was given a great opportunity to catch up with him and pick his brains on this famous region, amongst other things!

The Travel Tart: Buongiorno Paul, and thanks so much for the chance to interview you. If you had to describe yourself in a paragraph, what would you write about yourself?

Paul Sorvino: Buongiorno Anthony! Tutto bene?

Well, I’d like to consider myself outgoing, compassionate and always wanting to help others.  I love creating things and making people’s lives happier as well as myself.  I really enjoy being creative.

The Travel Tart: Like yourself, I have an Italian background – both sets of my grandparents emigrated to Australia from Italy in the 1950s. I think it’s a big deal to up and leave your country of origin to travel half way around the world to a totally different environment, where you don’t speak a word of the language! This is something Australia has in common with the United States, where there is a large community of people who have an Italian origin. I went to Italy a few years ago to discover my roots (my dad’s family came from a small village near Venice, my mother’s from Sicily), and met my ‘extended’ family – and I loved it, even though I was stuffed silly full of food and wine every day. Anyway, where are your Italian origins, and have you visited that region?

Paul Sorvino: My father was born in Naples, Italy (Campania Region). My family actually comes from a long line of nobility in Italy, dating back 1,000 years.

My mother’s family is from the Abruzzo region. Abruzzo is interesting because it’s where northern Italy meets southern Italy.  On one side you have mountains and on the other side towards the east is the Adriatic Sea. There are so many little towns and villages, all unspoiled.

As a matter of fact, I recently launched a new line of pasta sauces that are from my family’s recipes. All my ingredients come from Italy.  So my family roots and Italy are very special to me.

The Travel Tart: I can relate to that too well!  I have relatives in Switzerland who moved there from Italy, and when I visited them, I helped make a truckload of tomato sauce from about 150 kilograms worth of tomatoes! (Check out Making Tomato Pasta Sauce, Swiss Style). What was your favourite part of your Amalfi Coast Trip?

Paul Sorvino: To me it was the people!  People who you don’t know just invite you to dinner and are very welcoming.  And of course the spectacular sea views from the drifting cliffs are breathtaking.

The Travel Tart: What are your best tips for visiting the Amalfi Coast region?

Paul Sorvino: I really like touring around the city of Naples. I suggest going to the churches and looking at the artwork. Truly amazing art. Try to also designate some days for visiting the islands off of the Amalfi Coast such as Capri and Ischia and just relax in the sun, drink, eat and be merry.

The Travel Tart:  I really enjoyed the ‘organised chaos’ of Italy when I went there. Funnily enough, Italy made my list of ‘Worst Driver’s In The World’.  Have you driven in Italy, and if so, had any close shaves with the local drivers?

Paul: No and nor do I ever want to!

The Travel Tart:  Ha ha, I totally see where you are coming from!  I also hear that you delve into opera singing (for example, check out Repo! The Genetic Opera). How did you stumble into doing opera?

Paul Sorvino: I actually didn’t stumble into it.  I developed a voice at 8 years old and have done so over the years intermittently. I was really fortunate to be born with this “voce”.

Check out this behind the scenes clip about Repo! The Genetic Opera.

The Travel Tart: At my website, The Travel Tart – Offbeat Tales From A Travel Addict, I write about the ‘funny, offbeat, and downright strange’ aspects of travel. Can you tell me a couple of quick tales – the funniest, the most offbeat, and the strangest experiences you’ve had when travelling?

Paul: Speaking of “worst drivers”. The very first time I saw an argument between two Italian cab drivers is a memory I won’t forget. One of them happened to be my driver. I saw a lot of hollering back and forth, nodding heads, plenty of gestures and hand movements.  I thought for sure this was going to turn into bloodshed.  As you would see in the movies in America.  But in the end, my cab driver just got back in the car and acted like nothing happened. I asked him “That was it?” He said, “Si, certo, that’s how we do it here, we just like to argue”

The Travel Tart:  Thanks for your time Paul! I’ll leave you with this joke that I think you will appreciate!

Question: What does an Italian have when he has one arm shorter than the other?  Answer: A speech impediment!

Happy travels! And if you have any future trips to Italy, please take me with you!

Paul Sorvino: Ok. I have a joke for you.  What do you have when you have two gizzards?

Answer: Ghi se deech?  (Dialect for “che se dice” in Italian)

(if you’re struggling with the punchline,  the punchline is in the pronunciation of “Ghi se deech”.  The Italian version “Che se dice”, which means ”What do you/they say” means nothing, but the dialect sounds like “gizzard each” when you say it out loud! i.e., two gizzards as in the question).

If you love your tomato sauce like I do, check out Paul Sorvino Foods at www.paulsorvinofoods.com.

You can also follow Paul Sorvino Foods on Twitter.

Hope you enjoyed this interview with Paul Sorvino!

There goes my 15 minutes of fame!

Montserrat, Barcelona is a mountain located on the outskirts of this great Spanish city that possesses a Benedictine Monastery.

Montserrat was also the rock source for some sections of the famous La Sagrada Familia church that’s been under construction for decades and doesn’t look like finishing soon.

The structural engineers who designed and built the Benedictine Monastery of Montserrat, Barcelona ignored the laws of gravity, creating a place of worship entrenched in the side of the mountain.

This photo is self explantory!

It was built there marking the site of an apparition of the Black Virgin, or La Moreneta.

The La Moreneta statue there is a wooden sculpture of Mary with the baby Jesus, and has been Catalonia’s official ‘patron saint’ since 1881.

However, La Moreneta is also the place where desperate Catalonians leave offerings to somehow please the Black Virgin into making their sometimes miserable lives just a little bit better.

One of my Spanish mates called Robert took me to Montserrat, Barcelona to have a look.

‘Have a look inside, it is really bizarre,’ Roberto commented.

‘What do you mean Roberto?’ I replied with a ‘what the hell?’ tone.

‘Just go inside, you will see what I mean.’

We opened the heavy wooden door revealing a collection of items resembling an enormous garage sale.

There were wedding gowns from spinsters wishing for marriage, motorcycle helmets from passed-on loved ones, prosthetic limbs from amputees wishing their arms or legs to grow back, and family pictures and baby clothes offered in the hope of conceiving children.

Have a look – this is not a joke!

The items were placed there by desperate people who had nowhere else to go after science and society failed them, praying to the Virgin for a change in fortune.

I placed an old boarding pass there and wished that I could be a full time professional traveller.

I’m still waiting.

Other things to do in Europe besides checking out Montserrat, Barcelona – visit the House of Cheese in Florence, and the Mummies of Venzone.

Finnair is, funnily enough, the national airline carrier of Finland.

Recently, their Frequent Flyer Program, Plus Points, was amended so that Frequent Flier Points could be redeemed in exchange for plastic surgery.

That’s right! If you fly often enough, you could have the facelift, nip/tuck, or boob job that you have always wanted!

There’s more on that story in this article.

You would need to fly a lot to score a free trip to the surgeon’s knife – about 400 flights between Helsinki and Hong Kong in return for some breast implants.

Hmm, I can’t wait to see the points table for botox, facelifts, and nose jobs.

But that got me thinking – the current Finnair Frequent Flyer Program is called Plus Points.

I thought that because of the new plastic surgery rewards that have been offered, ‘Plus Points’ is a bit bland and should be changed to something else that reflects the new award benefits.

So I’ve done the work for Finnair already!

Anyway, here are my 10 Possible New Names for the Finnair Frequent Flyer Program:

1. Uplift Awards;
2. Points Abreast;
3. Nose Job Journeys;
   
4. Designer Vagina Voyager;
   
5. Penis Extension Points;
   
6. Botox Bonuses;
   
7. Collagen Injection Incentives;
   
8. Facelift Flight Rewards;
   
9. Skin Stretch Kilometres; and finally
   
10. Extreme Makeover Miles.
    

I would doubt if Finnair would take on any of these for their Frequent Flyer Program, but anyway, you never know!

I thought it was a bit strange to introduce plastic surgery as possible gifts for airline points in the first place!

The House of Cheese, or Casa Del Formaggio is located in Florence, Italy.

Most people go to Florence to see the typical cliche sites like the Statue of David, the Ponte Vecchio and its gold shops, and the magnificent Duomo Cathedral.

Visits between these sites can be pleasantly interrupted by pig-out sessions on fantastic gelato, or having some nice hits of espresso.

However, the funniest thing I saw there was the House of Cheese / Casa del Formaggio. The store front is shown below:

Of course, you can buy things like.. cheese, and other smallgoods like salami, cabanossi, peperoni etc.

Personally, I love sitting around in the afternoon grazing on a platter of cheese and salami, washed down with a bit of wine.

That’s one of the best things of Italy – they live to eat instead of eating to live.

Anyway, have a look at the photo below of the House of Cheese / Casa Del Formaggio – do you notice anything unusual about it?

That’s right, the there is a family of stuffed piglets dressed up in medieval clothes having dinner.

A close up of the stuffed pig family is shown below. WTF?

The House of Cheese / Casa Del Formaggio probably makes awesome cheese, which beats making your own.

Other things to do in Italy after visiting the House of Cheese/Casa Del Formaggio – visit Mount Etna, Sicily when it’s erupting, and watch some Italian Television.

Mount Etna, in Sicily.

It’s a potential touristic indulgence for the natural wonders of erupting volcanos.  And Mount Etna erupted during the only time I went to visit my relatives in Sicily.

Hmm, I seem to have a nasty habit of visiting disaster zones – such as Kosovo.

The eruption I witnessed occurred in 2002.

Here is a picture I took of Mount Etna spewing it’s guts up from the nearby town of Giarre-Riposto, not far from the main centre of Catania.

The name of Giarre-Riposto is derived from the word giare, which means jars.  The village is conveniently situated at the eastern base of Mount Etna and the Mediterranean, probably the grumpiest volcano in the universe.

At the time, Mount Etna was inactive for three years, until it decided putting on a spectacular show just for me.  Etna had obviously been waiting for me to discover my Sicilian roots before it decided to make millions of other Sicilians nervous for the first time since 1999.

Etna slowly filled the sky with its poisonous ash, gradually changing the sky from light blue to dark grey.  This phenomena looked like an ominous sign, but I’d not sighted the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse bursting through Etna’s cone to ride down the rivers of previous lava flows.

It looked like the end of the world was beginning right here, right now.

The night before I left, Etna dumped the proverbial load of ash on Giarre-Riposto, covering the cars and streets in dusty black powder.  The following morning, old women busily swept the fine black powder off their footpaths and into the now black gutters.

Here are some photos:

I was amazed at this sight as I kicked up black dust walking along the footpath, breathing this respirable crap into my lungs that made my breathing organs resemble those of an underground coal miner or a pack-a-day smoker.

So I highly recommend NOT to visit Mount Etna when it is erupting.

You can see more about Mount Etna in this DVD.

Other things to do in Italy after watching Mount Etna erupt – visit the mummies of Venzone or watch some crappy Italian Television.