Look at me! I'm SandraD Back Home

During August, it is the ferroagosto – (holiday season for Italians), so you tend to see more Italians travelling than normal. Whilst I was in Capri, I was amongst a bus load of Italian travellers. The bus was lively with people abusing each other, making jokes, laughing, screaming and lots of hand gestures! I noticed a boy of around 15 years old with his Mamma. He was twice her size and was sitting in the doorway of the bus and she was standing behind him. When the bus stopped to let someone off, he was blocking the doorway. His mother yelled at him to get up and with one fell swoop of her hand, gave him a backhander – a schiaffo, across his head. (Lo Schiaffo is a perfectly executed slap with a quick wrist action and under and up movement at the back of the head.) She turned this 15 year old boy into a cowering mess. There’s a lot said about Italian boys and their mammas and how they cling to their mothers. If you had seen how quickly this woman had reacted to this young boy twice her size, you can understand the power of Lo Schiaffo. In Italian society, for men, there is always that fear of Lo Schiaffo, that mamma will be right behind them clipping them behind their ears infront of the whole world!