Crush garlic, put it on the corn and hold it with a plaster. Change it every twenty-four hours. The corn goes really fast.

Especially on the feet - soak in a bowl of cold water, either sea water or with crystals of sea salt dissolved in it.

When having a picnic on the beach or in the country, with all those kids someone would always get stung by a wasp. You take a knife and strop the blade back and forth on the sting then press it down hard flat and hold it there. We shouted because it hurts, but it hurts more if you don't do it.

To make skin less greasy, mix an egg white with some lemon juice in a cup and put it on the skin for about ten minutes until it dries on you face. Wet some cotton wool and dab it off, then wash.

We have a lot of trouble with rashes because of the heat - women menstruating, fat people under their tits or where the thighs rub together, and babies with nappies. In an espresso cup (or if you're too English to have one, use an egg cup) put half a cup of olive oil and a few drops of water and beat it to an emulsion. Put it on cotton wool and over the rash. The rash goes really soon.

To stop a burn or scald going too deep or making a blister you can use potato and toothpaste. I knew this from Sicily and used it on a friend here in London who dropped a pan of boiling water on her bare feet. I put her in a bath of cold water for about ten minutes, then I put toothpaste over them. In most places, the toothpaste went dry and stuck but where it's burning deep it slides off. I used slices of potato to take the heat from these places and then tried again with the toothpaste to check it’s finished. In a couple of days she was ok and there is no sign on her feet.

When I was a kid and burnt myself, my mum always put it under the tap for a few minutes and then rubbed the clothes soap on top of it.

To prevent a bruise, put a slice of raw meat on the place. It takes some of the heat from the body and goes grey as if it was cooking.

Like using meat, a cheaper way also good for vegetarians is to use slices of potato instead.

My hair was always short and curly, and my mum wanted to use petrolio (crude oil) to make them grow thick, but she couldn't because they are blond and used chamomile instead. Chamomile makes blond hair more blond and soft. Many women with black hair use petrolio, and it makes the hair really shiny. You can also use it to get rid of lice.

Kids often bang their heads, but if they get a cut in their hair which is bleeding we put sugar on to stop it.

You can disinfect cuts with seawater, salt water or your own saliva.

To help bring them out, heat some olive oil and apply it hot with some cotton wool. If you do this for a few days, like my mum did to my brother Fabio when he was a teenager, the boil comes up to a head which you can squeeze out.