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Catania & 3-year Anniversary

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Uhhhhh Thanks to Susan, girlfriend of Joe's brother Tom, for wishing us a Happy Anniversary on a Facebook post. We both completely forgot! There's something about that I just love. After Susan's prompt, I followed up by posting this picture on Facebook, celebrating our third anniversary. Having already planned to go to Catania, and discovering it's our anniversary, we made a day of it — once we got there. A lag in real-time GPS made it more like fake-time GPS; I was the navigator, so GPS failed me, and I failed Joe. He was pretty calm about it, but by the second loop to get back on track, I flew a couple of deletives toward my phone at high volume. We saw a long plume of smoke on the drive to Catania. That wasn't the end of the car drama. We parked in one spot, decided to move, and embraced the car behind us. We found another parking spot; I asked a gentleman in the street if we could park there, and he shrugged, saying everyone else has! I told him that was our con...
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Mercato & Sara, Delta & Cristal

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Colorful produce, grown without chemicals  I woke at dawn again today, using the quiet hours to sip an American coffee and get my ducks in a row as far as calls that needed to be made later. The sky is soft and lovely at this hour; I should consider being a morning person. Nahhh. Sara and I are meeting for a caffè at the new Makea on viale Europa at 9:30. Then I'll see what interests me at the market. I'm in search of a decent carry-on bag, and yes, this little market has had them! Yes; it's both safe and yummy to buy fish from the back of a van. Cheeses and chicken roasted on a spit More fish from a different truck You don't want to set down a cigarette while getting people their produce, right? Sara is great to converse with. She seamlessly corrects my language errors without dropping the conversation. She's had a tough year — daughter going through cancer diagnosis and treatment, mom dying. She asked about the Minneapolis ICE Gestapo, because she knows informatio...
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No Catania, Giordano's last day, Scandura dining

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Crudi del mare Up early today, I should have captured the sunrise, but here are pics of the moments shortly after. Etna was wearing a fuzzy gray stocking cap this morning. Baby pink sky Etna's plume behind the rooftops, through the balcony screen. As we arrived at the vineyard to switch cars for our trip to Catania, we learned that Giulio has a well-baby check up, so Elena and Mariella are using the available car (the Clio is soaking wet inside, from windows being open during the storm) and Luisa and Ciro were having their last lunch here today. We switched plans, and decided to hang out at the vigne, and reschedule Catania for Thursday, when less is going on. We had some time to kill while at the vigne. Joe was able to work from his phone, and I went for a walk. Last night's downpour cleaned the air, but left slushy puddles of volcanic ash. I shuddered in recollection of college time cigarette-smokers' ashtrays, except the liquid then was beer in the ash, not rain. This ve...
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