Sicilia!!!!

Well, friends, here we are again, the morning before I'm leaving on another trip and still trying to catch up on things that happened approximately two weeks ago (even though it feels like a million years). I can't say for sure that this post will in any way entertain, due to the haphazard nature of....everything I do. Okay, so I went to Sicily for Easter, I think we all know this. Since I had to catch a 3 am bus to Milan in order to catch my 7 am flight, I did the same damn thing I always do and stayed up the entire night before, getting important things done like my spring break blog (but don't worry, I'm not like tied down or weighed down or dragged down by this blog, so that's good) and so I blundered around the apartment getting ready, waking up all the normal sleepers and finally getting in a taxi at about 2:30; had a fun 20 minutes of awkward conversation with my taxi driver who didn't really get that my mother could be Sicilian, even if I wasn't born in Italy. Hopped on the bus obviously exhausted, but discovered that I'd picked the same bus as a group of perhaps 8 rowdy young men who were going to Amsterdam (FORESHADOWING? no, just coincidence) and who felt the need to yell and tell jokes and whatever the whole time. Also, one of them had a girlfriend he had to say goodbye to for the WHOLE WEEKEND, so that meant they had to make out for half an hour outside the bus before it left. So anyway, the bus left and despite the ruckus, I fully passed out. Got to Milan and it was freeeeeezing, it made absolutely zero sense. Got through the security check, found a cafe that wasn't open even though it was 6 am (jeez, Italy) but people were crowded outside it like they were ready to bumrush the place, so I guess the employees smartened up and opened the place, I got a cappuccino and an apple pastry (even though I thought it was chocolate), went to my gate, passed out again until it was time for the flight. Got on flight, flight was fine, maybe I fell asleep and got a crick in my neck, who knows. Got off the plane, walked out and was met by Liborio and Angela. I guess here is where I should mention that I was going to visit my mother's cousin Liborio and his whole family, because it is Easter and Easter is a time for family.

So yes, I met them and we hopped in their car and we caught up on my existence. Another thing I should perhaps mention is that they speak zero English, so I had been nervous about being able to communicate with them and actually have things to talk about. Anyway, it was basically fine since they are good at asking questions and it's not that hard to answer them. I even understood everything, although pronouns sometimes tripped me up. First stop was at a gas station because I mentioned I hadn't eaten for three hours (unacceptable) so we stopped to get me another pastry. Then we made it from the airport (in Catania) to Agira, where they live and also where my mother was born. First thing I did was meet Mario and Grazia's children (Mario is Liborio's son and therefore the kids are his grandchildren), since even though I've been to Sicily twice already, this was the first time I'd been since their births. So I met Marta (3) and Liborio (10 months), who were SO SO SO CUTE. Everyone already knows that I love babies and small children, and they were also funny and really smart...Marta basically knows everything that's ever happened, so needless to say, I was obsessed with them. After dropping off my stuff, we headed back out to the market to buy a few things to make lunch, including sardines. Since it was Good Friday, we obviously couldn't eat meat, so we went back to their place and had pasta with sardines/fennel/breadcrumbs that was so FREAKING good. If I weren't entirely inept at cooking, I would have tried to learn how to make it...I guess Michael can give it a go when I get back home. Fell asleep on the couch while lunch was being made, ate this amazing lunch (by the way, we don't just eat the pasta, we also have bread and a fish of some sort and then fruit and then dessert, because it's not lunch if you don't do this), and then I was basically passed out at the kitchen table, so they sent me to bed for a quickie nap which turned into two hours. Naps would turn out to be a major feature of the weekend.

After I woke up, went back downstairs to hang out with the babies (oh yeah, so Liborio lives in a giant double house, kind of like a duplex but separated into upstairs/downstairs instead of side-by-side, so Liborio and Angela and second son Filippo live upstairs, while Mario and family live in the downstairs house, which was built for them when they got married), and that was fun. Then it was time to go to the Good Friday procession! Love me a good procession. Basically there was a giant Madonna on a pallet or whatever made it possible to carry her in a procession, which Liborio had taken me to see earlier in the day (in that church, I met a guy who was friends with my grandpa, actually he was the priest of the church....he met me, asked how old I was and then asked if I was married....) and also a Jesus in a glass case that was also portable (obviously a dead, post-crucifixion Jesus) and then a billion inhabitants of Agira (a few hundred). Anyway, it went how most processions go, people in front, some singers, a marching band, Madonna and Jesus, people (like Liborio and Filippo) in purple robes carrying said religious figures, and then as they passed us, we were supposed to get in behind them and join the procession. Which we did! It was VERY cool, I've never been in a Good Friday procession before, but this felt like a pretty good one. Every so often the whole procession would stop and we would sing a song or say the Lord's Prayer (all in Italian, IMPRESSED?) and then keep on walking etc etc until we got from the base of the city all the way to the top where there was a piazza where one random church was (not even the biggest or the coolest church; the biggest is one whose name I can't remember, the coolest is the one whose interior my nonno painted), and then we all stood there and there was a church service for like an hour, I guess. Lots of repetitive singing and prayers, which was good because now I cant say/do these things in Italian. Also, it was cold as balls. So Cold.

Followed the procession back down to the bottom of the town and bailed in order to go eat dinner. Since it was just me and Angela (Liborio and Filippo were still proceeding), she apologized and just said we'd have a small, quick dinner.....we ate asparagus frittata, chicken with potatoes, fish from lunch, and further bread/fruit/desserts...so yeah, just a light dinner. Possibly visited with the babies some more, and then went to bed and passed out for the millionth time that day.

Woke up the next morning to my own alarm (responsible, I know) and ate breakfast of cassatelle and pineapple juice. So good. Then went to the open market about half an hour away to poke around a bit. I came away with a shirt and an Italia jacket (don't worry, I'm not a cliche), and was lucky not to have to come away with more, since Angela felt that my bringing gifts was far too much to have done on my part, so she wanted to pay me back, but after two items I couldn't let her keep buying things. Two guys at the market were walking around with a fancy video camera and a microphone, and they came up to me and asked to interview me....possibly about this particular open market? But then Liborio explained that I was foreign and they were suddenly less interested. Left the open market and possibly had lunch. I feel like a fool for forgetting what I had for lunch, since every meal I had was amazing, but I'm sure I liked it very much and was forced to follow it ...OH I remember! Okay, so Mario and family came upstairs and we had a big family lunch, with pasta with meat sauce and peas, and salad, and meatballs and then the usual things after that. Marta was apparently not hungry, which caused much ruckus, as not wanting to eat is very much unacceptable around those parts.

Had another nap, as had already become the custom, and then woke up to go grocery shopping with Grazia, which was good fun because the way they all shop is by going to like five different supermarkets and only getting a few things at each; aka, if one has cheaper fruit, you buy your fruit there, but get your chicken at Pam where it's slightly cheaper there. Marta rode one of those mechanical horse things, she also bought some comically large gum that was apricot-flavored, because this is just how things are in Sicily (magical). Then we went over to my nonno's cousin Angelo's house to catch up with him; Angelo is about a million years old, but still a really sprightly, funny old man (hey, kinda like my nonno); so we had drinks and cassatelle of course, and I socialized with his wife/daughter/son-in-law/grandchildren, the wife is a psychologist or something in Rome, which is pretty cool and they invited me to come visit them in Rome which I WISH I could because they were so nice, but I just don't have time....three weekends left in Europe :(

After, Liborio drove me around the town a few times, showing me the house where my mother was born, where my aunt and uncle were born, where my grandpa was born, the church where my mother was christened, etc etc. Apparently my family has left its mark all over the town. Then we went back home because it was already time to eat again. This time, Filippo (who's a chef in Sardegna half the year) and Angela used their basically professional giant oven to make giant pizzas (rectangular, of course). One with mozzarella and rocket, the other with mozzarella and chips (fries...) and they were both DELICIOUS. There was also sausages and potatoes and other things that will make me die of fatness. And then we had granita, and the other things. It was basically overwhelmingly good, and we spent the rest of the night watching the Guinness World Record TV show, which I guess is popular here and was on literally the entire night....like the show was maybe three or four hours long, super crazy. But it was cool because I got to learn Italian that wasn't being simplified so that I could understand it (which, by the way, I appreciated very much, since I otherwise wouldn't have been able to communicate at all). Aaaaand then it was bedtime again.

The next day, and it was already Easter! Aka my last day in Sicily....ALREADY. I feel like this post is soooo short because I spent too much time there sleeping or playing with the babies (seriously, half my time was spent with Marta, who was basically obsessed with me, and the other half with baby Liborio, who is easily amused by balloons). But I suppose hanging out with family is a good enough reason not to have the most exciting blog ever. They can't all be winners, you know. Anyway, so I woke up and got ready and went downstairs to play with the kids. Then Liborio drove me around some more, and we happened upon another procession (people were carrying down a pallet thing of the resurrected Jesus, which would feature later in my evening), and we also ran into a guy from Australia who is Sicilian but was also visiting again for Easter and it turned out he knew my family (for family members reading, Frank Ensabella), which was cool. And then it was time to go to Angela's sister's house for Easter lunch. There were more little kids there, all impossibly cute, and the meal was unbelievable in both scope and quality. Antipasto of deviled eggs and these fun crackery things; primo piatto of big pasta shells filled with bolognese, peas, etc; and then a million secondi: chicken cottolette, rabbit, lamb, polpettone with a combination of all three and a boiled egg component; and whatever else I'm forgetting. And then dessert: pineapple, gelato, a TOWER of profiteroles that Filippo made filled with dark mousse and topped with cream and other fancy, exotic desserty things. And then I exploded because I ate everything that ever existed in the world.

No, not really, but I was sooooo tired from my eating marathon that I was forced to go take another nap. But not before I met a billion people who may only be vaguely related to me, one of whom was both my age and actually spoke English. So yeah, nap. And then woke up and it was time to go to another event, this one called the incontri, or something similar. Basically we went to one of the biggest piazzas, and there was a giant crowd of people and basically there was the pallet Madonna from Friday at one end of the square, and resurrected Jesus pallet at the other end (but no they were not going to rumble, but close). So then at some predetermined time, the people carrying these pallets would run at each other full tilt and then the Madonna would bow to the Jesus and then they'd retreat and they did this a few more times. I didn't really get it, but it was incredibly fun to watch, and I think it was supposed to convey that Mary was pretty pleased that her son wasn't dead after all, since those sorts of things can't really happen to sons of God anyway. And after this was over, there was a fireworks show!! It was super loud and very cool, they have different fireworks in Italy. Really! I can't say how exactly, but they were genuinely completely novel to me. After this, the crowd basically dispersed and I took lots of photos and the whole thing was good fun, then we wound our way back through the town to get back to our car. And I liked it all quite a lot!

We came back home and Grazia and Marta came over to say bye to me and to give me a present (bangin keychain, very pretty) and then Marta figured out I was leaving and had a MELTDOWN, and basically wouldn't stop crying until they promised that she could come to drive me to the airport tomorrow (not true, this is why kids learn not to trust their parents and their souls die). But anyway, they left and then it was time for bed for me.

Woke up in the morning, had my last breakfast with them (a bowl of warm milk infused with espresso and then biscuits), and then they drove me to the airport, which was sad. At the airport, they did that thing you see in movies where they wait for you to walk through security and then you turn around and they're still there on the other side waving at you, which was very nice and touching although vaguely depressing, since I get upset every time I have to leave family, even if I've only met them three times. But anway, went to my gate....my plane was delayed. COOL. I was all flustered about it, but honestly it wasn't THAT big a deal, although I missed the bus back to Torino and had to do a bus/train combo instead. But no big deal, I made it back.

i guess this is ending rather anticlimactically, but it is really time for me to leave for AMSTERDAM and I promise I'll put up Sicily photos when I get back from there. Only three weeks left in Italy, gang. Can I handle it? (NO, I CAN'T) So that's about it, ciaaooooo xxoxo