We Love Catania

April 11, 2023

Could he be more cool?!

We had a morning with Ettore, where he vacillated between incredibly sweet and brilliant humor to being a creature with horns. I was half laughing, half crying, because this is reliving raising my kids! Sometimes, between 3-year-old speak combined with it being a second language, it takes me a few tries to understand what he’s saying. Today he actually slapped his palm on his forehead, and showed me in sign language. I tried really hard not to laugh. It was brilliant. Yes, he acts out sometimes. But, he’s three years old. He speaks two languages with a proficiency denied to most three year olds in their native tongue alone. He can put together a 50-piece puzzle on his own, and is almost there on writing out his name. He’s a problem solver. And, a baby brother is just learning to walk and is pretty smart himself. It’s hard to share the kingdom. That’s a lot of stuff packed into a mini human. Sometimes it comes out in big obnoxious bursts. But, as my kids’ pediatrician once told me, “This is hard; yes. It’s easy to raise the dumb ones”.

After Elena came to get him, we took off to Catania. Beautiful Catania—some people really hate on you. But not us. There is a quiet beauty in Catania, and the Catanese people are calm and kind and sweet. Beauty is everywhere, if you have the eyes to

see it.

Our main purpose today was to restock our wine cellar. We parked the car then walked in to my favorite enoteca, Wine & Charme, to order wine for shipping home. When I walked in, Caterina gave me a warm welcome, asking why it’s been so long (I’m a good customer). We explained we had needed to be in the States for a while, and are back here only several more weeks. But, we’ll return. Perhaps with Joe’s sister Linda for her birthday!

She helped me choose a nice selection of wine, some for gifts, some for me (thanks mom; this is how I spent the birthday money you sent). Joe thinks it’s ridiculous I spend shipping money for Italian wine since we can get it at home (not the ones I like, however), but, a.) As Vincenzo says, the wine bottled for the US isn’t what’s sold here (he’s heavily involved in the agri business; I believe him); and b.) I said fine, then you don’t have to drink it!

Caterina set us up on the patio with a nice Grillo and some snacks while she packaged up the wine.

After that shopping spree, we walked to the amphitheater, which is smack dab in a city intersection—you just have to look down.

It’s a sunny, warm, beautiful day—perfect for exploring little pockets we hadn’t yet seen of this familiar town.

We walked the appropriately named Via Etna to get to the amphitheater

Next, on to the Odeon ruins a few blocks away. It was a fun back-street meander to get there (photos in random order).

I want the apartment with huge windows overlooking the ruins.

Cat

There is a delivery truck for everything. This one, firewood.

I liked the row of lights and the motos, with the archway in the background.

Sorry. That was a lot. Sometimes it’s hard to edit, and I’m tired.

We left Biancavilla today at lunchtime (i.e., we missed lunch), and took care of wine business (and getting a gift for Mariella) first, but we were hungry. At only 5:30 pm, just the tourist places were open. I had a list from TripAdvisor which named one such touristy restaurant as good. I think we were just a couple more gringos in with the mix of people in shorts, backpacks, sportswear, caps, and slogan t-shirts.

After the antipasto (sarde beccafico) and primo (linguine coi ricci), I was ready to leave. The sarde were terrible; the ricci were nonexistent in the pasta course, both in appearance and flavor. The house wine, a local Grillo, was good. But the main course, the orata, was fabulous. Not enough to ever make me want to return, but it saved the evening with its ka-pow splendor.