I was watching Jamie Oliver touring Italy last night in his Kombi, actually this was the first episode so we only saw him arrive in Palermo, and cook some fish at a street grill.
What really made an impression on me however wasn’t Palermo, although that was interesting. The thing that really impressed me was the farmland and hillsides around Palermo.
Every other time we’ve seen pictures of Sicily it has looked very rugged and rocky, but the scenery Jamie drove through was different. Altogether very green. Made me realise that touring Sicily could end up being one of the highlights of our time in Italy. But on the other hand, we’ve also heard wonderful things about Sardinia, and I still remember travelling through the boot of Italy and it was all gorgeous – maybe Italy is just all beautiful.
Another funny thing occurred to us as we listened to Jamie talking to people on the street in Palermo. We understood their accents more clearly than when we watch something filmed in Rome. We haven’t been able to work out the difference because we didn’t record the show, but if any native English speakers have an opinion on Italian accents we would be interested in hearing from you. Actually when we think of it, we understood many of the characters in Montalbano more than other shows we’re watched recently like “Commesse 2″, the shop girls, which was also filmed in Rome.
