Sogni di Sicilia

Joe had to remind me it's Halloween today. Other activities besides Halloween are a-buzz for Tutti Santi , tomorrow, and Giorno dei Morti on Nov. 2nd. We, however, are busy packing and repacking for our trip. It's warm here, but oddly, it is 4-5 degrees warmer still, in Tuscany. Of course, nights will cool off. Which makes "packing light" difficult... walking/trekking all day, fancy dinners at night, warm hours, cool hours, airplane clothes. If I could bring all my shoes, it might work--but I can't. On these intra-country jumper flights, we can bring one small (gym bag size) piece to check, and one smaller (small tote or large purse) to carry on. I arrived from the US with one larger (which won't work) and one right sized, but need something bigger than my tiny purse for a carry-on. Since we could stand to outfit the apartment with a box grater, and I need two tiny travel bottles for my shampoo and a tote, it's a trip to the Chinese store. Joe came with m...

Joe decided to join me at the market after all. I was on a mission to find thin ankle boot-height socks, cheap, and possibly some small silver earrings to go with a necklace that Maria Teresa and Mariella gave me. First, we had our espressi again at A Maidda, though the market push-cart espresso vendor makes a mean cup. Today turned out warm by 9:00 (dang you, AccuWeather), so he had cold drinks for sale as well. We hadn't planned on getting groceries, but there were fiori di zucca and funghi di ferla . I have nice slab-cut pancetta in our fridge. Boom! A risotto will be born. Fiori di zucca  Banana, datterini Funghi di ferla  As long as we were there, I got some beautiful datterini , which are sized halfway between a grape tomato and a roma, but with more flavor than either of those. And, because I try to balance sweets-only breakfasts with healthy ones, I got some bananas. Not to be confused with ananas , which means pineapple. Both of us actually browsed the vendor stalls...

Today started with a morning focused on self improvement: hair coloring, nail trimming and filing, head massage. Joe and I enjoyed some of yesterday's purchase; many lemon biscotti di morti,  with our coffee this morning. They certainly hit the spot. I spent time studying information on some of the areas we're visiting this week, and by that, I mean which foods am I going to try! This is a quest for me; getting a rough outline on the history, culture, and cuisine of an area before I visit. Otherwise, as I said to Joe, it's just a bunch of stone buildings.  Italy has a multi-layered history, so much more than gladiators, pizza, soccer, and pasta. The silk and salt histories alone are fascinating, but I'll save commentary on those until Vincenzo weighs in. They are two of his favorite topics. And of course, there are all of the miracles of the saints. My personal patron saint, for whom I am named (Caterina), is St. Catherine of Siena. It was believed she had the ability t...

Oh my gosh; I'm still tired from yesterday! But today, the apartment and our bed & bath downstairs need a thorough cleaning. I put on my least favorite clothes and loaded up on the elbow grease. We've been here a couple of weeks, and things are looking a little too lived in. There is hard water, so unless you're wiping things down all the time (or if only one person is, LOL), there's some anticalcare work to do. Lugging the bucket, broom, mop, and cleaning supplies, I got both levels shiny clean and fresh smelling.  I handwashed a few things. Joe took his laundry to Andrea, who brought it up, clean and damp and ready to hang on our line. Then I changed into more presentable attire, and asked Joe if he felt like getting wine and other heavy stuff from the store. The Cleo was available, so she and Joe had a joyous reunion. We made our menu and vino decisions, checked out the beautiful fish counter, deciding to wait until tomorrow for that; paid, and packed up. At the...

Good morning! We got an extra hour of sleep, since the end of ora legale happened overnight. Daylight Savings Time finished here. What a treat, getting more time this morning. As much as lolling over coffee in my PJs sounded heavenly, I wanted to walk to Scandura to buy a bottle of Ca' del Bosco for our hosts today. Although the cost tilts close to €40, I am honored to be invited to this event. It's the host's birthday, for one, and it wouldn't hurt to make Giuseppe Uno proud to bring appreciative guests. Besides, where can you go for wine, bubbly, more wine, digestivi, hand-picked wild herbs, chestnuts, and porcini mushrooms; three meat courses, wood-fired French fries, cheese, artisan bread, cake, biscotti di morti in every flavor, caffè, and a specialty gelato -- al aperto in a beautiful hillside vineyard-- for €20 per person? Totally worth the price of the bubbly. Gas here, not so much. Don't be fooled by the price. It's per liter, making it around $6/gall...