Sicily by Storm or by Crazy Driving-(you gotta get there somehow).

We’ll begin the story of our visit to Sicily by telling you about the Italian driving experience. For those lucky enough to have encountered the driving in Sicily and lived to read this (much like Rome but with a lot more intensity and narrower streets), you know the drama, amusement and fright that accompanies it.  Let’s paint a picture so that you get the full effect...The streets resemble small, narrow alleyways often cobble stoned and have parked cars lined up on both sides. Side note: when we say “parked cars”, we mean parked parallel as well as perpendicular, double parked with hazards on and double parked without hazards on and even triple parked!!  As you squeeze your way through the narrow road, hoping to penetrate the alley without incident, you suddenly realize that it is a two way alley and there are speeding cars buzzing straight for you. You pull so close to the parked car on your right, that you probably couldn’t put a dime in between your car and the parked car. You then squeeze your eyes shut and pray for the best. Your eyes quickly opened with the many horns honking and motorcycles noisily, rattling beside your car only to see the city bus making its way toward you. You then pray to the Lord that He spare your life and the heck with the rental car! As the scooters and motorcycles squeeze their way through the sides of the traffic without regard to their own safety (actually saw motor bikes driving down sidewalks and riding a wheelly while riding double in major traffic), you realize then that the driving in Sicily is a “free for all sport” and if you don’t learn the rules quickly, you won’t get to any of your destinations. That scenario plays itself out all day, everyday, in the very overpopulated and busy streets in Catania, Sicily. As a matter of fact, an Italian escort of ours reported to us after we inquired about the Italian ways of the road, that there is only one rule of the road in Italy-and that is… that there ARE NO RULES, and boy, did we experience that  firsthand.



T managed the road very well and kept his composure through it all except…when a man was tailgating him on a street that was very difficult to maneuver and there was nowhere to go but straight with about an inch to spare on both sides of our car. The guy incessantly and ridiculously leaned on his horn time after time.  Finely, T had had enough so he stopped the car, unbuckled his seatbelt and was reaching for the door handle when I convinced him it wasn’t a great idea. He just wanted to walk over to the guy, reach into his car and lean on his horn…he thought that would give the guy the message. I think it would only serve as a “stupid American story” for the Sicilian and we bypassed that incident without a problem.



Once we finally arrive at our Zio and cugina’s casa (Uncle and cousin’s house), we relaxed for hours in their wonderful backyard filled with palm trees, olive trees, lemon trees and of course, Yuri, the German Shepard watch dog. Zia Agatella made many courses of Sicilian style food which we ate with delight. The food was delicious but we mostly value the company of T’s wonderful Uncle Carlo, Aunt Agatella, sons Daniele, Roberto, Antonio, Marco and their wives, Santina, Franca, Tiziana and Luisa respectively. There are numerous children (2^nd cousins)  raging from 18 months to 14 years old  (Carla, Enrica, Greta, Carlo, Anita, Carlito, Agnese, Vincenzo, and Matteo) and the house is always lively with children playing and the adults expressively discussing the most recent topics of the world in their melodious language of Italian/Sicilian. Laughter is always a prominent part of our interactions as we try hard to communicate although T was amazing with his attempts at Italian, (really amazing) and the family has a decent command over the English language (especially Santina with her Italian to English handy little red book).  We sat around the table for hours, eating, chatting and laughing most especially, much like like a page torn from the history books where life was simpler and revolved around the family unit. The 4 nights of our stay in Catania was mostly spent with the family, around their table enjoying one another’s company. It is a memory never to be forgotten and we are blessed to have such an amazingly giving family who values our being there and takes every step to make us feel like we are special and they are the ones who are blessed!

Many of the cousins visited our nightly gatherings including Simona, Zia Agatella’s brother and sister in law, uncle and wife. It always makes for a more interesting evening, especially trying to break through another language barrier.



One such visit from T’s cousin Nello, wife Giovanna and daughter Silvia (Flavia was unable to attend) was wonderful. They remembered my love for Arinochini “rice balls” and presented me with several dozen that I shared with all. Also, Franca, Roberto and Agnese kindly accompanied us to visit Nello and his family in their beautiful home, located on the outskirts of Catania and where we enjoyed more Sicilian specialties.



Daniele and Santina escorted us to the Galo, the nature preserve with a waterfall near their summer home.  It was a beautiful, crystal blue-green stream and waterfall jetting its way down the mountainside. When departing the park through the gift shop I made the mistake of looking at a Sicilian cookbook and suddenly found it lying on my lap, a gift from Daniele and Santina.  They also escorted us to Mt Etna, which was actively spewing smoke clouds, to view the craters and lava remains of the volcano’s many previous eruptions. It is amazing to see but even more amazing that Tand I have seen both Mt Vesuvius and Mt Etna, two very famous and destructive volcanos.



Our hotel Liberty in the middle of historic Catania was lovely except…the location left much to be desired. Catania is located on the seaside of the Mediterranean and we were disappointed that it wasn’t located on the shore. The hotel was situated in a neighborhood filled with apartments that surrounded it like the olive and its seed with drying laundry hanging from their windows, obscuring our views of everything. The hotel itself was a beautiful, small, inn like abode, carefully and beautifully decorated with historic colors and designs from the Catania history.



Visiting T’s family in Sicily is such a wonderful and memorable time, we are always thinking about the next time that we can go back again.



Our trip was almost ended, arriving in Rome from Catania and experiencing the most time consuming and chaotic airport ticketing and screening process known to mankind.  Although we had what seemed to be a very early start to our travel day, we immediately realized we were challenged by the clock for our check in and security clearance from the Catania Airport.  Thanks to some quick maneuvering by cugino Roberto, who was able to identify a police officer friend of his in the terminal who swiftly escorted us through a private security lane.  We dogged a major schedule issue thanks to Roberto only to arrive at the Roma airport to experience more of the same slow, complicated, chaotic ticketing and screening.



We are now on US Airways enjoying our American food and American flight attendants, eagerly anticipating our landing in Boston to once again be among our wonderful family and friends. We are excited to get back to the routine of everyday life that we sometimes don’t appreciate as much as we should. Even though the US is experiencing major financial and political troubles, we clearly still are the luckiest people in this world. We are sometimes guilty of taking our freedoms and “rules” for granted but the simple luxuries that many of us are afforded in everyday life are still only dreams to many others in this world. We are truly blessed!



Our 25^th Anniversary/50^th Birthday Italian Invasion has been a dream vacation filled with beauty that we’ve never expected. Italy is a long, narrow, fruitful country that is blessed with majestic mountains, rocky and scenic coastal vistas and people have showed us how to take a moment and live “Dolce Vita” –sweet life. We have enjoyed our travels and will forever have memories of the many we met, the places we so happily traveled and our great fortune of being able to share this time together.


Dolce Vita,

T and Renee

September 16, 2011-October 3, 211