The first coppola I bought in Palermo turned out not to be quite a real coppola. Still, it protects me from the sun, and believe me, Sicilian caps are not just for decoration. A light linen cap that stays firmly on your head in gusty winds and is barely noticeable in temperatures above 40 degrees is a miracle created by human hands.
One day, wearing my “coppola siciliana,” I walked into an expensive hat shop and started talking to the owner. He pointed out the button in the centre of my cap’s visor, which holds its shape. Apparently, from a technical point of view, this is wrong. A properly made coppola should hold its shape without a button.
There are several versions of the history of the coppola, as with almost everything in Sicily. They say that the English brought the fashion for these caps, while the Sicilians adapted them to their way of life and gave them a Sicilian name. However, the word “coppola” appeared in dictionaries around a hundred years before the English became particularly active on the island.
Today, many people associate this cap with the Mafia, simply because Hollywood used it as a recognisable symbol of Sicily. Originally, the coppola was an ordinary piece of headwear that protected farmers from the sun. Today, Sicily is actively moving away from the association “coppola = Mafia,” and you can buy the cap almost everywhere, from Chinese shops to expensive boutiques. The only difference will be the price and quality.
I sometimes enjoy visiting expensive boutiques because it is simply a pleasure to look at all that beauty, and occasionally I can treat myself to something. But when you just need a cap for everyday life, the first place to go is Via Garibaldi. Historically, this was the street of the berrettifici — workshops where caps were made. Just like Via Calderai, where kitchenware was produced, this was where cap makers lived and worked. They shared suppliers and customers. It was a community rather than competition.