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!

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.

Venzone is a small town in the Friuli  region, in northern Italy.

I have relatives who live in Friuli and they decided to take me around this fantastic part of Italy.

Venzone’s main claim to fame was that it was almost completely demolished by a massive earthquake in the 1970’s.

The whole town was rebuilt to it’s original design, and rubble sourced from the original buidlings was used as much as possible in the reconstruction.  In fact, special laws were passed to ensure Venzone remained identical to it’s pre-collapsed form.

However, while building an entire town from rubble may sound a tad offbeat, it’s not the strangest thing about Venzone.

Check out the following Funny Postcard below that I obtained from Venzone – what do you see?

That’s right – it’s a bunch of mummified bodies encased within a few glass cabinets!

This postcard was taken at a Chapel museum which now charges tourists to view these preserved persons.  These mummies are nowhere near as old as those found in Egypt – only a few hundred years old.

During medieval times, some routine renovations and excavations occurred at the Chapel – and the workers discovered a  number of preserved bodies.

One theory is that the bodies were preserved by alkaline floodwaters that ended up preserving the cadavers.  Another theory is that the soil type in the area also promotes body preservation.

So if you feel the need to view some mummies, and you’re nowhere near Egypt – Venzone is the place for you! And you too can score this Funny Postcard!

Other things to do in Italy after visiting the mummies of Venzone – get your shoes repaired at a Cobbler, watch some dodgy Italian Television and check out The Worst Drivers In The World.

Cobbler.

This term is almost extinct.  Basically, a Cobbler is a person who repairs shoes, rather than making them.  Since we live in a throwaway society, most of us purchase a set of new shoes produced in a sweatshop somewhere instead of having them repaired.

Hence, the demand for Cobblers has almost disappeared.

However, they are still out there – and one of them was my Great Uncle, Zio Giuseppe.  He’s passed away now, but he used to live in a small village north of Catania, in Sicily.  He was my Grandad’s brother and was the prime example of working past the retiring age of 65, and having a Job For Life.

I’ve included photos of him and his shop below.

When I visited him in 2002, he had reached 87 not out and was still working five days a week, still doing the same Cobbler job continuously in the same, old, rustic, dusty shop for over 60 years.  A Job for Life is now a thing of the past  – more the domain of the Baby Boomer generation.  Generation Y is expected to have up to 30 jobs throughout their career.

But imagine having the same job for over 60 years.

I thought of suggesting Zio Giuseppe as a case study of how to combat Australia’s skills shortage to the Prime Minister, as a model convincing Australia’s ageing population to work until they die.

From what I deciphered amongst the cobwebs, the only change I accounted for over the years were his prices.  These were hand written in his Sicilian chicken scratch on the crumbling walls – the old Italian Lire prices were crossed out and had been converted to the equivalent price in Euros, without taking advantage of the price inflations Euro conversions had caused in all of the European Union since the introduction of the currency that sounded like a cheap three cylinder car.

Even though the price list was probably the newest item in his cobblers shop, it still had a romantic and antiquated feel about it.  He even had a steady stream of customers that must have been loyal for decades, and had a large backlog of repairs to go through.

I thought his shop was fantastic – completely unpretentious and understated, and a refreshing change from large multinational shops that seem to dominate many western societies.

Other things to do in Italy – check out Italian Television and the Worst Drivers In The World.

You never know, you might find a Cobbler near you!