Sogni di Sicilia

Today started slowly, with some tidying up the house and finishing yesterday's blog.  Outside the monestary, Piazza di San Francesco got some Christmas-ing. We decided to have lunch out, trying Red Fish without ordering the pranzo completo , but ordering a tomato and baby shrimp antipasto and a grilled orato (to split) to order. Joe got a glass of house white to wash it down; I had a lovely mineral water. Orata  It was a good lunch, but I think they charged us incorrectly, as it came to twice as much as usual. It was a tough day regarding money things; I had to go for a long walk to clear my head.  The town was hushed. Although that's somewhat normal for the ora del pranzo , It was incredibly quiet today, as if everything was set on velvet. Even my footsteps seemed muffled. It was peaceful. White Castle??! I stopped in one last time at Decò, wanting to get chocolate covered orange peel for Mariella. People we're buying up poinsetta alla   misura del albero -- the s...

You can tell when it's 24 days before Christmas here, because suddenly, everything is Natalizia ! And each day, a little more is added. This morning involved cleaning up yesterday's baking craziness, far more evident in daylight. I stayed in my PJs because I could! My sweeping, mopping, and re-wiping surfaces started the day, but I did sit with Joe and have coffee while we looked at a few things for when Rachele comes to town. While sitting on the sofa, my phone rang. Mariella said you're coming to lunch, right? Of course! Why would we ever say no? I quickly showered, finally washed my hair, then dressed and got ready. We spent some time looking at our Thailand honeymoon trip before we final book. I found a Black Friday Weekend offer where the second guest gets 75% off, so I'm angling to be the second guest! Lunch included pasta with zucchine and cheese, breaded cutlets, a multi-ingredient salad, ficodindia, the pandora Christmas cake, Christmas biscotti and pistacchio...

Today, I wanted to go to Scandura. The service is "ottimo," the caffè and pasticcini  are excellent, the restaurant and pizzeria are top-notch, the setting is adorable, and they make their own chocolate. Is it perhaps heaven? For me, yes. I destroyed the fanciful heart design they made on my cappuccino before I took a picture of it. The pastry and tavola calda station, behind the high top with cute stools. On the way there, as always these days, I'm on the lookout for houses for sale. There are two ways to reach Scandura; we took the slightly longer way there, up via Cristoforo Colombo, far past the serial killer property we saw with the realtor. I noticed some changes since the spring, most notably the changed property that was once weeds and garbage. The weedy plot is now a track and field area for, I'm assuming, the school next door. The scent of these fills the air. I described this pretty, rocky edifice in an earlier post. Too bad the best views of it is from an ...