“Creepy Italian Trees”

A sure sign that spring is just around the corner here on the Amalfi Coast is when the tree trimming begins. As those of you who live here or have visited here may have noted, there are a lot of platano trees, or plane trees (known as sycamores in North America) along the Amalfi Coast. I love these trees in the summer, and I don’t even mind sweeping up their large leaves in the autumn, but this time of year I find them, well, kind of creepy. I am reminded of that scene from Under the Tuscan Sun where Patti, the character played by Sandra Oh, is admiring one of those characteristic tall and pointy cypress trees in Tuscany:

Patti: I don’t like these trees. They know things.
Frances: And they know that we know that they know.
Patti: Yeah. Creepy Italian trees.

While I am not sure I have ever found a cypress particularly creepy, I laugh at that scene every time. I would, however, like to nominate the platano for the creepy Italian tree award. Here’s why:

After the spring pruning, with their knobby and crooked branches reaching toward the sky, the platano trees make me think of one of those bad horror movie scenes where the scary hand reaches out of the dark or a grave. So they have become for me the creepy hands of spring.

Okay, enough with the dramatic photos. But you have to admit that even in the sun they are a bit strange. Here is a row of plane trees along the beach in Maiori two years ago:

Do you have a nomination for a creepy Italian tree?