'I had to give up my best friends'

What's your money worth? A series from the front line of the cost of living crisis, where people who have been hit hard share their monthly expenses.

Name: Claudio Meli

Age: 43

Occupation: Beekeeper

Lives with: Wife Laura (40), sons Giovanni (7) and Riccardo (5)

Lives in: The family is temporarily staying in Laura’s mother’s three-room apartment in Misilmeri, a small inland town in the northwestern province of Palermo, Sicily, Italy. They used to live on the ground floor of a two-storey building on the outskirts of Palermo city, Sicily’s capital, while Claudio’s parents lived in the apartment above. His parents bought the land in 2006 and together they built the house, completing it in 2014. It was destroyed by wildfires on July 25.

Monthly household income: 970 euros ($1,051) from Laura’s income as a shop assistant in a shopping mall. It used to be 1,400 euros ($1,517) with Claudio’s enterprise, which he was forced to give up after the fires. The 2023 average salary in Italy is 1,475 euros ($1,599), but lower in Sicily - about 1,000 euros ($1,084) - one of Europe’s poorest regions.

Total expenses for the month: 772 euros ($837)

As a child growing up in Palermo, Claudio Meli loved to immerse himself in nature in the surrounding countryside. From a young age, he would play with insects such as crickets and ants, and observe them with a magnifying glass. But bees with their wings and stingers were too difficult and dangerous to study; their elusiveness only made him curious and drawn to them, wanting to know more.

And so, for Claudio, whose surname Meli means “honey” in Sicilian dialect, it was only a matter of time before he would one day find a way to interact with bees. After graduating from high school, his love of nature didn’t immediately translate into work. Initially he found an administrative role with a major telecommunications company but he found the job dull and longed to be outdoors. In the meantime, he and Laura met when they were in their 20s. As they started thinking about one day becoming parents, Claudio realised that he wanted to contribute to a better world for his future children. Having noticed a general decline in the number of bees in Sicily compared with his childhood days, and knowing their importance in the food chain as pollinators, he “felt the urge to preserve them,” Claudio says with a sparkle in his eyes.

“The love and respect for nature I nurtured throughout my youth pushed me to abandon all certainties [of a stable job] and chase my dream to work with bees,” says the cheerful and talkative Claudio. “Of course a secure monthly salary made me feel safe. But it didn’t make me feel happy.”

After a few years of working full time with a beekeeper, Claudio felt had learned enough to take a leap, and, with his savings and some help from his parents, he decided to become an independent producer. In 2011 Claudio founded “Miele di Meli”, his own bee breeding and organic honey enterprise in the small village of Caccamo, a 30-minute drive from his home, where on a 15,000 square metre (about 161,500sq feet) piece of land he set up around 300 beehives, which became home to some 18 million bees. Twelve years later, huge wildfires would turn his hard work into ashes.

Sicily’s climate crisis

“Claudio has always dreamt about working in the countryside,” says Claudio’s wife Laura, her long brown hair tied in its usual ponytail and a frown on her face as she unpacks some clothing donated by neighbours. Her two young sons stand quietly, watching her take items out of a box. “He was not made for a nine to five job in a cubicle office, and I’ve always supported him.”

To Claudio, bees have always been fascinating. But despite their hard work and teamwork, their fragility in the Sicilian ecosystem means their habitats have been threatened by the increasing number of heatwaves and worsening air pollution, motivating Claudio in his mission to protect them.

In recent decades, Sicily has been heavily affected by the climate crisis, with average annual temperatures rising 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degree Fahrenheit) and less rainfall affecting traditional crops such as lemons and oranges. It has also led some farmers to start cultivating tropical fruits like avocados and mangoes. The annual wildfires that would devastate towns and villages around the island also destroyed the bees’ delicate ecosystem, burning the plants they would pollinate while the smoke killed the insects. Although local beekeepers faced a bleak future because of the climate crisis, as well as fewer customers and production disruptions during the pandemic years, Claudio didn’t feel discouraged about his chosen career path. Instead, these challenges only reinforced his conviction about the importance of his work.

“The Italian word for ‘beekeeper’ is apicoltore, which means ‘bee cultivator’. I liked this idea of being the custodian of their future,” he says with a hint of hope in his voice.

That’s why when he had to choose the species he was going to breed, he picked the rare Sicilian black bee - a species threatened in the past decade with extinction - that only lives in western Sicily. Starting from the 1970s, the Sicilian black bee was abandoned by local beekeepers who preferred to import Ligurian bees - seen as making the sweetest honey of all Italian bees - from the north. In contrast, Sicilian black bee honey, Claudio explains, has a delicate taste and a muted sweetness.

According to Sicily’s Beekeeping Association, today there are fewer than a dozen beekeepers breeding the Sicilian black bee. “I’ve always believed in the richness of my land and all it had to offer in terms of biodiversity,” Claudio says. “For the past years, they’ve [the bees] become my best friends and companions on sunny days in the open air.”

After a rough start in a field where the profession is usually passed down from generation to generation in beekeeping families, Claudio’s work was recognised with several awards for his honey, he was invited on television, and his produce used by gourmet chefs. “I had planned to start cultivating olive and almond trees, as well as beginning a learning centre for children to understand more about nature,” he says. But over the course of one night, everything changed.

The wildfires

Because of the record-breaking temperatures of about 40C (104F) in July, Claudio decided early that month to take a break of several weeks from his job which would normally entail going every day into the field to inspect the beehives, clean them, and collect the honey to then process it through iron filters and put in jars. The extremely high July temperatures across Southern Europe made it unbearable for him to work under the scorching sun and his neighbour had offered to check in on the bees every so often. Later that month, Laura discovered she was five weeks pregnant with their third child and the whole family was set to leave for a holiday in the last weekend of July.

As Claudio and Laura were enjoying a cold soda on the terrace at the end of a hot summer day with temperatures still at 35C (95F) shortly after midnight on July 25, the couple all of a sudden noticed the heavy smell of smoke and the flames of wildfires heading towards their house. There had been fires near their home in the past but never this close. Claudio quickly woke his children and rushed to bring them, Laura and his parents to safety at his mother-in-law’s, whose area was not affected by the fires, never imagining that they could lose their home. But after the short 30-minute drive back home to pick up some things for his children, he was shocked to find his neighbourhood on fire, and to discover that their house – a little more isolated from the others – had burned down. He says he felt that nature which he had dedicated his life to had turned against him. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Claudio recalls, tearfully.

When the firefighters arrived a few hours later, there was little they could do except check that the destroyed house was safe for him to enter. All that remained were a few charred pieces of furniture. “Our house, all our memories, all our efforts to make it a home. It all turned into dust in a few hours. I was paralyzed. How could we start over?” he recounts.

Inside the house, he discovered that all the jars of honey stored in his cellar to later on be sold, had melted in temperatures which would have had to be more than 1,000C (1832F) to destroy the glass. Claudio lost a year’s worth of production, and was left with nothing to sell to his usual clients. But his thoughts immediately went to his bees.

In that moment, fearing what he would find, he couldn’t bring himself to drive to check on them. But a neighbouring farmer told him that many of his bees had died because of the smoke while others flew away. Having lost his home and a year’s worth of his income, Claudio decided to sell his land and the surviving bees and that returning to a stable job would be the fastest way to provide for his family. Traumatised by the events of July, he has not been able to bring himself to return to his field, believing that the experience would be too painful a reminder of happier days spent outdoors with his bees.

Over the course of a month, from July 25 to August 25, as part of a collaborative project, Claudio Meli tracked his family's monthly expenses with reporter Stefania D’Ignoti.

Here are the expenses that tested his family's finances the most.

New house: ‘We have to start again from zero’

The Meli family used to live in Borgo Nuovo, a bustling, working-class neighbourhood at the foot of mountains and on the outskirts of Palermo, where after years of hard work as building managers, Claudio's father and mother - 70 and 68 years old respectively - and Claudio constructed their home. Now, they have all lost the homes they invested time and money building, decorating and furnishing.

“The house was big, with mosaics in the bathroom and a bedroom I had decorated in every detail,” Laura recalls, then starts sobbing, pausing for a moment. Claudio, who sits on the couch of his mother-in-law’s small living room, picks up saying, “My home was my temple, we took care of it in every detail to make every corner ‘ours’. It was full of all our memories. Now, we have to start again from zero, rebuilding memories in a new, anonymous house.” He is referring to the three-room apartment they will rent from September.

The wildfires that surrounded Palermo blazed over a few days and came close to the airport, forcing it to temporarily shut. The Palermo municipality has allowed people affected by the fires to apply for compensation for house and business damages. Still, Claudio says the immediate burden to look for and pay for new accommodation has fallen on the people affected by the fires. About 2,000 people were displaced by the fires in Sicily.

Claudio and Laura will soon rent an apartment to be more independent and closer to their children’s school. His parents, who are staying at Claudio’s younger brother’s house, will probably join them.

August 2022: 70 euros ($76) for house maintenance costs
August 2023: 300 euros ($325) for September rent paid in advance

Toys and school stationery: ‘Really important’

Giovanni and Riccardo will head back to school in mid-September. Riccardo will start first grade and was supposed to use his older brother’s old school stationary. But as they lost everything, Claudio and Laura have had to buy everything from scratch for both boys. What the children have been really missing, however, are toys and video games. When rushed out of their home that night, the boys begged to bring at least one toy each with them but the family left with just what they were wearing.

Claudio, in any case, thought that he would be able to return to pick up some toys, and never expected that there would be nothing left to collect.

“For his last birthday, after many sacrifices, I bought Giovanni a Nintendo Switch,” Laura says. She saved for months. “I didn’t want my kids to feel like they couldn’t have the same nice things as their classmates who have one,” she explains.

Between her salary and Claudio’s precarious entrepreneurial job, things were always tight. But now that Claudio has lost his livelihood, they have to be even more careful when making new purchases. “It might seem trivial to decide to buy new toys in these conditions,” says Laura, sounding slightly embarrassed. “But toys make [Giovanni and Riccardo] cope with the chaos of our situation.”

The children have suffered a lot as a result of losing their home, becoming more restless towards nighttime and crying that they don’t want to sleep because of nightmares. A psychologist they started seeing after the fires suggested to the couple that playtime can help them heal and distract them from their current troubles. So Claudio and Laura bought a superhero action figure for their youngest son Riccardo and a toy dinosaur for Giovanni’s birthday in September. “[The toys were] a considerable investment, considering the current state of our finances,” Claudio says. “But it was a really important expense we couldn’t give up on this month.”

Normally, they buy a big toy present for Giovanni in August during sales, and hide it until his birthday. This year they did not want to wait to unwrap the gift.

August 2022: 320 euros ($347) for Giovanni’s gift, toys and school supplies 
August 2023: 22 euros ($24) for Giovanni’s gift, toys and school supplies 

Psychologist and medical treatments: ‘I’m sure it’ll be worth it’

Laura found out she was pregnant a week before losing their home and had to juggle gynaecologist visits while being displaced, adding to her stress and exhaustion. “It’s already hard to deal with pregnancy when you’re in your own space, but this chaos made it even worse,” she says. A few days after the wildfires destroyed their house, she started to notice some bleeding.

Several weeks later, amid the sorrow and stress, she had a miscarriage. Although the Italian healthcare system covered most of her prenatal visits, she had to pay out of pocket for urgent treatment after her miscarriage.

After experiencing the loss of their home, displacement and a miscarriage, Laura began seeing a psychologist. Claudio and Laura also signed the children up for therapy, having noticed that their sons alternate between being agitated, listless to becoming extremely anxious. They hope the monthly therapy, which is all they can afford for now, will help them slowly recover. “It’s a luxury we couldn’t afford in the past, but now it has become indispensable,” Claudio says. “I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the long-run. I don’t want my wife and kids to cope with PTSD later on in life. Better start now.”

August 2022: 20 euros ($22) for general medicines like painkillers
August 2023: 150 euros ($163) for appointments with the psychologist

Toxic waste removal: ‘An extra cost we couldn’t afford’

Among the unexpected costs the family has had to cover this month is removing toxic waste generated by the fires destroying electronic objects and other items in their home. Claudio says they’ve had to call a company specialising in hazardous waste removal, a cost that, according to him, should’ve been covered by the relevant authorities. “It’s crazy that the municipality didn’t take care of that, that it had to fall on our shoulders,” he says. “That’s an extra cost we couldn’t afford, but we’ve had to forcibly face because of the circumstances.”

Claudio feels frustrated and sad that not only have they lost all their memories and belongings - which they attempted to retrieve for days, extracting mostly burned photos amid the debris - but also that “we even had to even pay ourselves to see what was left of our lives swept away by cleaners.”

August 2022: 100 euros ($108) to paint the living room after mould developed
August 2023: A 200-euro ($217) one-off cost for removal of toxic debris

Petrol for car: ‘No longer going to the seaside’

The only material object that the family didn’t lose in the fires is their reliable, seven-year-old car, a Dacia Sandero. But as petrol prices have soared again this summer – reaching almost two euros per litre ($8.30 per gallon) - the family avoids using the car when possible, and when they can they prefer to go by foot, or have friends or relatives pick them up. The cost of petrol constrains them from making trips to the beach, which would be a welcome distraction from their current circumstances.

“Even if we live on an island, and in a coastal city, we’re no longer going to the seaside, because even the smallest entertainment costs us a lot of money we cannot afford now,” Claudio says. “It was a hard choice, because the children could’ve used some relaxing, playtime moments at the beach.”

Claudio says that last year a full tank would last them a month, now they can barely make it stretch over two weeks. “It’s not the right time for [petrol] increases when you’ve just lost your house,” Claudio says bitterly.

With tighter finances, the family only uses the car for necessary outings, such as job interviews Claudio has managed to line up including one at a boat building factory, or to meet potential buyers for his agricultural field. Claudio’s business was not insured and he has not had time to check whether he qualifies for any government support.

In any case, he does not see himself returning to beekeeping in the foreseeable future. “My family’s economic conditions are too dire for me to go back into beekeeping. At least, not for now,” he explains. “I decided to sell what’s left of my business.”

He continues, his voice almost breaking: “It broke my heart to give up on my dream, but the least selfish financial decision I could take was to go back to a normal 9-5 job for my family, to give us some stability. I will probably hate it, but it’s a necessary sacrifice.”

August 2022: 50 euros ($54) for a full tank of petrol
August 2023: 100 euros ($108) for a full tank

Six questions for Claudio

1. What's one thing you had to forgo this month? We had planned a [10-day] family vacation with my parents for the first time in our lives. We were going to Marina di Ragusa [a seaside village in southeastern Sicily]. My parents paid for it in advance with their savings as a way to celebrate Laura’s pregnancy. My father thought of doing this now, before he would get too old to move around and before a new child would change our routine. Laura had taken two weeks off from work, her first vacation day was July 24th. But just a day later, the tragedy occurred. Looking back, it seems trivial that we spent the morning after [losing our home] trying to get the reimbursement for that trip, for which we could only retrieve part of the money. But it also felt painful, having to give up on this much awaited moment of relaxation after having worked hard all year. We needed and deserved it, but we had to give up on it.

2. What’s the hardest financial decision you had to make this month? To give up all my animals. We had to give up our family dog, Sheila, as with our current situation we cannot afford to feed her and take her with us. We gave her to trusted acquaintances. I also had to give up my best friends, my beloved bees.

3. Which is the most worthwhile expense from this month? A new house.

4. When finances get tough what gets you through the difficult times? To remember that it is all just temporary, and that tough times like this won't last too long, if you have the strength to move forward.

5. What’s your biggest money worry? How to support my wife if we want to bring another life into this world. It’s been hard to face my wife’s pregnancy in these conditions. I couldn’t sustain her economically as I currently don’t have a job, and couldn’t help her pay her medical appointments. What worries me the most is how I will move forward, after selling my business. I need to find a new way to reinvent myself but also be able to cover my household daily expenses.

6. What’s the saving hack you are proudest of? I realised that even in the worst of situations, in Sicily, you will not die of hunger. There’ll always be someone offering you food to put on the table, no matter what. As I’ve worked with restaurants through my honey-making business, I had a strong network of friends, colleagues and acquaintances who own restaurants, and fed my family for free, for several nights a week over the past month. As grocery shopping got particularly expensive these days, especially for us, being offered free meals through our friends really helped us.

Read more stories from the series: What's your money worth?