Nicolosi Halloween 07

Ok, so you're invited to a Halloween party and you aren't creative enough to think up a costume. At least Maryellen and I had her two black cats, Pete and Repeat, for props, but we had to leave them home. Maryellen's shirt said "I don't do costumes." She wears it every year.

Isn't this scary? Where is my Oil of Olay when I need it? The only secret to aging is giving up closeups and looking in the mirror!

The Sicilian Old Boys' Network

In almost every piazza in every town in Sicily, the old men leaves their wives at home and meet and sit on the bench. What do you think they are talking about??? It must be a universal "guy" thing.

Here's one with a slow but determined stride. I bet you any money, he's headed for the piazza to join the other guys. I'm sure he wouldn't want to miss the gossip. . .

Cappuccino, Dolce, and Me...Perfect Together

From the day I stepped foot on this island, I have been enamoured with the bar culture. Uh, not what you may be thinking. This is a place where you go for coffee and sweets. True enough, you can also slug back an alcoholic drink, but why do that when you can drink cappuccino? Truthfully, it puts Starbucks to shame. Two cappuccini and a dolce for about 3.50 euro, which is under $5. And it tastes so much better. The locals stand shoulder to shoulder at the counter, drinking their espresso. Just when you think you'll never get served, they all leave because they only take a minute to down a shot and then they are outta there.

Every town has many bars, about as many bars as Catholic churches in Sicily or Baptist churches in Atlanta. One on every corner, or just about. Not only are the pastries delicious, but they are prepared with an eye for food art. Just look at them all! Remember, presentation is 9/10 of the law.

Not a bad Sunday morning ritual. I worship the goddess of cappuccino and dolce, and am eternally grateful for them coming into my life. You would, too!

Vino! Vino! Vino! Gambino

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting the Gambino winery, high up on the eastern slope of Mt. Etna on the outskirts of a town, Linguaglossa. A group of us went to do some wine tasting with a light lunch included for a modest 12 euro. A short but informative tour of the winery was led by a true gentleman with a good command of English. Wine is to Sicily as water is to Atlanta, only there is much more wine in Sicily...It is a way of life, part of the culture, and a part of every lunch and dinner.

There is enough known and published about Sicilian wines to fill a 128-page book, Wines of Sicily. Again, depending on the region, climate, and soil conditions, many different and distinct wines are produced from many varieties of grapes. Vino rosso, vino bianco, and even white wine made from red grapes! Table wines to fill your own jug, DOC wines, and dessert wines. One can easily purchase a liter of table wine for one euro ($1.40 and way better than two-buck-chuck).

The Gambino winery sits in the middle of 111 hectacres of grapevines ranging from 5-25 years old. (The single plant in the photo is 25 years old). Rows and rows as far as the eyes can see, picked by hand.

The grapes are pressed and the wine stored in French oak barrels for 6-9 months before being transferred to large stainless steel vessels for further aging. The first wine to ferment in a new oak barrel is called the first passing and is aged for 6 months. This is where the wine aficionados say, ah...it has overtones, or is it undertones, or a finish? of...oak. So I guess you can't go wrong saying you detect a slight oak flavor. You will sound so smart. As you can tell, I'm anything but a wine snob, but I'm learning.

We tasted two whites, two reds, and enjoyed antipasti of salami, cheese, marinated mushrooms, artichokes, and two varieties of sun-dried tomatoes. Did you know you can sun-dry cherry tomatoes? They were also kind enough to give us some chestnuts. Thinking they were cooked, I peeled one and took a big bite. The lesson I learned there is no matter how much wine you've tasted, a raw chestnut is awful and makes you want to clean off your tongue with your finger! Yuck, yuck, yuck. Don't do it.

So, when in Siciliy, do as the Sicilians do...drink lots of vino! Why not? I'm old enough!

Cold Pressed Extra Virgin?

Olive oil, that is. . . Olio di oliva. 'Tis the season for harvesting olives in Sicily. I finally got to see the pressing of olive oil! I've always been fascinated by how things are made and have enjoyed watching craftspeople at their craft, so this was perfect. It was a big weekend for all things olive oil. I was able to visit an oleificio one day and visit with some folks who have several hectacres of olive trees the other day.

Italy is the world's largest producer of olive oil and Sicily is said to have the finest, both in fragrance and taste, due to Sicily's particularly rich soil, some of which is volcanic in origin. Within Sicily, different varieties are grown, depending on the region, climate, and soil. From what I've gleaned, the extra virgin olive oil (EVOO to Rachel Ray) is derived from the first cold pressing of the olive. In Sicily, only the first pressing is sold and used. Anything after that is considered "less than" and is extracted from the leftovers with heat. The sheets of brown husks after the pressing are actually recycled and used for fertilizer.

The process goes something like this. Olives are harvested mostly by hand or machine "rakes" that shake the branches, allowing the olives to fall into nets. The olives are then brought to the oleificio, where the leaves and small branches are removed by hand. Then they are placed into a machine that pulvarizes the olives into a chunky paste-like consistency, and then spread by machine onto porous disks. These disks are stacked on top of each other until the stack is large enough for the press. With the machine applying pressure, one can actually see the oil dripping down the sides of the press.

People can bring their own olives in return for a certain amount of oil, or the oil can be bought outright from the oleificio. The desired cold pressed, unfiltered extra virgin olive oil is green and murky, with a distint olive aroma and a fresh olive taste.

Our friends in Noto, Denise and Christopher, who own hundreds of trees, have recented harvested and pressed their own oil, and netted 350 liters after giving the harvesters half the yield. They talked about their experience as ex-pats, and admittedly their choice of where they want to live is driven by where olive trees grow. This a love affair indeed! They generously gave us 3 liters in addition to a wonderful home-cooked lunch. Yes, bread dipped in olive oil was the first order of business.

Next time you buy olive oil, be fussy. Look for Italian (if not Sicilian) olive oil, cold pressed, first pressing. The greener the better. OK, I admit it. I've turned into an olive oil snob!

I Portali Grand Opening

Window shopping in Sicily was never more fun than today, October 25, 2007, at 10:00am. It was the precise time of the grand opening of a new mall in Sicily. OK, picture this. . .hundreds of Sicilians lined up outside the door, waiting for the mall to open. Well, not exactly lined up, because there is no such polite organization here. You just think you're in line until someone pushes ahead of you without apology. It was more like a mad rush. And I do mean rush. Were the stores giving away there merchandise on the first day? Was a celebrity waiting inside? Perhaps a rock star? It turns out that word travels fast and the diehard shoppers browse the previously seen brochures, studiously memorizing the bargains.

Apparently the really, really big deals were to be found in the electronics store (Sicily's answer to Best Buy). We pushed our way into the store like salmon swimming upstream, and observed that the hottest buy was a blowdryer for 3.90 euro. That's about $5.50. I might add that as we entered the store, a man, in his exuberance, clipped me with his arm across my throat. Could this be the origination of the term "cutthroat?" No such thing as "one per customer" here. People had stacks of them in the arms, walking rapidly to the cashier. I mean, how many blowdryers can a person use, or even a family? I kid you not when I say that people were dragging huge plastic bags full of purchases out of the store and down the mall. Dragging...

This photo was taken within 15 minutes of the mall opening. They sure didn't waste any time! See the stacks of blowdryers?

Next we walked around to several other stores, mostly upscale and pricey by any standard. How about a pair of silky "Hello Kitty" jammies with bling for $100? How about an entire store of "Hello Kitty" stuff? Does that name sound at all Italian to you? That would be "Buon Giorno Gatto". It just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Another popular and crowded store carried housewares. The prices were pretty good, but again, the problem was that the cashier lines were so long and slow that I'd still be there trying to pay instead of writing this blog.

The mall itself is glitzy and bright with water features, tropical plantings, marble floors, with loud rock music playing (in English). It was reminiscent of when malls started to become popular in the States. My first experience was going to the Cherry Hill Mall in New Jersey, back in the late 60's.

The other general phenomenon that always amazes me about Sicily is there love affair with things that we would consider American. For example, some of the store names themselves bear English names.

Here is a version of the ever-popular dollar store, another madhouse with wall-to-wall people and long lines at the checkout. Notice the Hallowe'en skeleton in the window. This is not a Sicilian holiday or tradition, but anything to copy the Americans and make money seems to be where it's at.

My friends, Mary and Jacque, and I ended our mall experience with. . .you guessed it. . .cappuccino and gelato. The best, most smooth and yummy gelato I have ever had, or do I just say that every time?

Grocery Shopping in Sicilia

Every trip to Carrefour is an experience, and is the hugest grocery store I've ever seen. In fact, you can also buy clothing, household items, toys...Hmmm, it's starting to sound like a Super Wal*Mart! This store is in a large, modern mall (the only mall I know of), and you'd better not go on the weekend or you will get run over by a shopping cart or two, or three, or four.

I think their way of thinking is that if one aisle of yogurt is good, than two aisles is better. Same with pasta, same with meat, same with cheeses, same with seafood, same with veggies. Needless to say, the selection is fabulous. We can learn from their system of self-weighing produce. You put your selection on the scale and press a picture of what you are buying, and it spits out a tag with the price. Cool, huh? Why didn't Publix or Shop-Rite think of that?

I was lucky to get these photos before being stopped in my tracks by the seafood manager, who when he saw my camera poised, commanded, "Non foto!" Well, he saved you from seeing the

photo that was to be. Raw squid, octopus, shrimp, and you-name-it. Gifts from the sea.

Here you see pasta on sale. That's what "offerta" means.

Ottobrata Zafferana Etnea

Last weekend I had the pleasure of going to the Ottobrata Zafferana, a local but well-known and wildly popular annual event held every Sunday in October. The Sicilians have a love affair with the festa, which we call festivals and fairs. There doesn't have to be a darn good reason to have a festa, just a reason. Celebrating the life of a saint, local produce, wine, olive oil...it's all good. This weekend was dedicated to honey and mushrooms.

Booths lined the streets as far as the eye could see, offering freshly harvested local produce (featuring the Etna autumn harvest of honey, apples, mushrooms, chestnuts, and wine), local craftspeople, adult beverages, and live music. The best part is that many offered free tastings of their products, from every flavor of honey imaginable (I tasted honey balsamico that, much to my dismay, tasted like Vicks Vapo-Rub, thus the sour face), to liqueurs, olive oil, and cookies.

A festa, no matter where or why, would not be complete without food. The plate of Italian sausage, greens, and funghi (mushrooms) was the real thing. Italian sausage in Sicily...makes sense, doesn't it? These sausages are cooked on roof tiles. Check it out! Sandy, I didn't see any funnel cakes. Darn!

If you are really into arts and crafts and also have a curiosity about the Mafia in Sicily, look at these renditions of the Mafioso. Looks like they've gotten a wiff of those grilled sausages!

Lava me now, or lava me not

Now that you have the scoop on Mt. Etna, there is more you may want to know about its product, LAVA. The word, lava, is from the Latin, labes, meaning fall or slide. There are three general types of lava, depending on the temperature, viscosity, and mode of eruption. The chemical composition varies according to the amount of silicon dioxide (sand) present. The type of lava emitted by Mt. Etna is called "A-a" and is a basalt type.

This molten rock is explosively thrown out of the volcano with the expansion of gas bubbles. A-a is characterized by very rough surfaces, and takes on many forms, including massively huge fields of rough, black, and chunky lava, lava ash, and cinders that vary in size. At 3,000 ft (Mt. Etna's altitude is 11,000 ft), we have many examples of cinders and ash in the yard. Recall from your earth science class the term "igneous?" That's the type of rock formed by hardened lava. In addition to the ash and cinder visible from the summit, leaving a plume and smoky trail in the sky, I have seen red ribbons of lava flowing down the slope at night.

For centuries, lava flows have caused massive destruction of towns in its path, causing many to rebuild from scratch. I'm glad I didn't live in this hut!

The old saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" can also be said for lava. Sicilians have ingeniously used lava to their advantage is many ways and have created several industries that support the economy. There are lava processing plants that convert huge blocks into more manageable forms to build roads, make curbs, and ornamental stone.

Probably for as long as humans have inhabited this island (thousands of years), they have been masters at building lava stone walls and fences.

One of the most artistic applications is making lava tables, tiles, and other art objects. Slabs depicting all things Sicilian are painted with a special enamel glaze, and then fired at a high temperature in a large oven. The final product is heavy, durable, smooth, and profoundly beautiful. Your choice: lemons, grapes, pomegranates, scenes of Mt. Etna, or all the above can be found on one tabletop.

Uh, did I mention that lava cinders can also be used to prop open a gate? What a great example of recycling, huh?

Lava me now, or lava me not...it's HOT!

Mt. Etna

This posting was inspired by and is dedicated to NGG, Nana's Grand Girl. She is none other than the great Chloe Heavey, who lives in Marietta, GA. When I relocated to Georgia from New Jersey 11 years ago, it was simply because this, my first granddaughter was born on September 26, 1995 early in the morning. Rushing to Georgia from New Jersey and missing her birth by just two hours, I decided within the first week of her life that I must completely change my life around to watch her grow up, with no regrets ever since.

Chloe is now 12, a middle school student, who has achieved straight A's since third grade and aspires to attend Princeton University. She plays academy soccer and is a dependable and loving person to her many friends. She loves her family and her family adores her! In response to my last post, Chloe added a comment, suggesting that I write a blog about volcanoes, so here goes, Chloe...

I am living at 3,000 feet on the southern slope of Mt. Etna in Sicily, Italy in a charming little village, Nicolosi, a town that was historically wiped out by the fury of Mt. Etna hundreds of years ago. The town was rebuilt but Mt. Etna still looms above Nicolosi as a constant reminder of the power that Mother Nature can wield at a whim.

Mt. Etna, at an altitude of almost 11,000 feet, is the largest active volcano in Europe, and one of the largest in the world. Visible from many miles away, its circumference at the base is 150 miles. It is was formed 500,000 years ago as a result of continental drift and the clash of two tectonic plates (shelves). The impact of the two shelves caused compression of magma deep below the sea, spewing forth hot molten lava and gases to form the volcano. Over the centuries, it has remained active, with several major eruptions occurring as recently as 2002. I have personally witnessed red ribbons of lava flow at night, have seen the fiery flashes resembling fireworks that the craters emit, have swept the volcanic ash from the patio, and heard the booms of the explosions. Fortunately it is this very frequent activity and releasing of pressure that keeps the mountain from posing a threat to nearby villages.

There are four main craters at the summit, but the slopes are dotted with lesser cones resembling small mountains or hills, where other smaller eruptions have taken place. The height and appearance of Mt. Etna constantly changes, as new sites of eruptions alter the profile. Every day tons of gases, including sulfur dioxide, are emitted. In 1669 a major eruption almost completely devastated some of the small towns and one major city, Catania. In 1992 partially successful attempts were made to divert the lava flow away from threatened towns in its path.

The lava of Mt Etna, at a temperature of 1000 degrees centigrade, is more fluid than some other volcanoes, allowing gases to escape more quickly. The upside is that it allows the gases to escape more quickly, but the downside is that the lava flows at a greater speed.

The name comes from the Phoenician "attani" (furnace) or the Greek "aitho" (burning), to which is also connected the Latin "Aetna". The mountain has inspired many poets and writers with mythological references. Although the noun for mountain is masculine, Mt. Etna is referred to as feminine.

Although no life is present where recent lava flows have occurred, many life forms are present at areas of old lava flow activity. Many towns and villages dot the slopes and subsist from the culture, the ecosystem, and the mystique of the mountain. The ecosystems vary according to the altitude, from orchards to olive, pistachio, and almond trees, to hardwoods to scrubby broom plants, from bottom to top. Above 6000 feet only very hardy plants survive. Wildlife include porcupines, foxes, rabbits, wild cats, hedgehogs, and vipers. Large birds of prey, including several species of owls, inhabit Mt. Etna.

There is an entire culture that is informed by the volcano, like a goddess present in peoples' everyday lives, a mostly silent presence watching over them. In Nicolosi, there is a very nice volcano museum devoted solely to a very scientific and historical presentation about many aspects of the volcano. Local boutique shops appealing to tourism are filled with all things Etna-esque, including wines, liqueurs, jams, candies made with pistachios and almonds, mushrooms (funghi), and trinkets made from lava. No list would be complete without mentioning the extra virgin olive oil, or as Rachel Ray would call it, "EVOO".

Mt. Etna also provides opportunities for recreation for tourists and locals alike. The Sicilians love to go up in the snow and ski, sled, and build snowpeople. Hiking is very popular, but going with a guide who knows the current conditions is recommended. One can take a cable car and then a jeep-like vehicle to the higher points, lead by a Sicilian guide. At this point, warm lava can be picked up in your hands.

Looking at this splendid mountain, whether snow-covered or not is an experience not to be missed. But make sure you take in all that Etna has to offer.

Chloe, my dear NGG, I hope you learned something about volcanoes!

Return to Pippo

Today the sky is a deep, clear blue, there is a slight breeze, and the temperature is is the 70's. It is a perfect day for working out in the yard, at least for those who enjoy it like I do. On our way to Sigonella yesterday, we found Pippo again, displaying what he had remaining of his plant offerings. Two more magenta bougainvilleas made there way inside the car, with a promise of work to do. There they are, waiting to be planted.

Ok, so after I trimmed the vines off the fence, cut back a century plant, and used the new Toro leaf blower to blow the volcanic ash from the tiled patio, I planted those beauties, now totalling 4. I love these plants! In Sicily they grow en masse by the sides of the road and in people's yards; yellow, magenta, purple, white, and orange. Here is a closeup just so you can see how much I REALLY like this plant!

The century plant is a mean guy, who pokes you like a dagger every time you walk by it, so off went the bottom leaves with a saw, only to reveal bambini, baby plants just waiting to become menacing big guys. I might as well show you the basil, which we have already used in shrimp pasta and a Greek-style salad.

The island is both a semi-arid and tropical ecosystem, with palm trees, cacti, succulents, and an array of fruit and nut trees, some of which the economy depends on for income. The soil is enriched by the presence of lava ash, making it easy to dig and fertile for growing. Just like Georgia clay. NOT!

The Aeolian Islands

Less than a two-hour drive north on the autostrada and we arrived at the ferry in Milazzo, a town on the north coast. For a departure spot as popular as this is with tourists, you'd think the parking situation would be well-organized and easy. Well, uh, no...this is Sicily, remember? Luckily we found a spot right on the street, and even luckier, the car was still there when we returned, no ticket. There are two different types of ferries, the slow one (two hours) and the hydrofoil (one hour). We took one of each.

The Aeolian Islands are comprised of an archipelago of seven distinct islands of varying sizes, volcanic in origin. Two of the islands, Vulcano and Stromboli, are still active volcanoes. These islands rise sharply out of the Mediterranean Sea, forming a mountainous topography. The resident population subsists on fishing, farming, quarrying volcanic pumice, and tourism.

We explored the island of Lipari, the largest and most visited and popular with tourists. The scenery was breathtaking, with blue-green water shimmering in the sun, dotted by fishing boats and ferries. One of the highlights of our stay was a private 1.5 hour tour of the perimeter of the island in a taxi, driven by an area entrepreneur, eager to make a few euro in the off-season with his 2-day-old Fiat van. After stopping for many photos ops along the way, he sold us a bottle of homemade dessert wine out of the trunk, Malvasia, made right on the island.

We also ate great food, drank local vino, toured an archaeological museum, visited the inside of a few churches, and took plenty of photos, as usual. We resisted the temptation to rent scooters, deferring to the younger, more daring crowd.

After returning to the mainland, we drove to a beach area in Oliveri, where I could not resist the opportunity to plunge into the warm, clear water, "Euorpean style", for a swim, before leaving for home. It's funny, the moments one remembers after a trip... Shameless! Ciao Ciao!