Nancy and Peter in Sicily
Nancy Bellantoni & Peter Galipault
early june update
Anagrafe Part II
As you may recall, the Anagrafe, is the equivalent of the registry back stateside. This is where we have to go to get our residency cards. We had our pictures taken and brought the prints and the cash to pay for the cards. They took digital scans of our index fingers, filled out about a half dozen forms. Then they said to come back in a week to pick up the cards. Of course when we came back in a week the cards had not arrived yet. No biggie, we just had to wait until after Caren and Emanuele’s big wedding.
The shipment from boston finally arrived
Luckily, when we got the notice that the boxes we had shipped from Boston in February were scheduled to arrive June 5, we had no plans. We could be at home to accept the delivery. The guys had driven all the way from Rome with our seven boxes. It took them 11 hours. They had to stay somewhere overnight on the way. Then they got caught in a three-hour traffic jam somewhere near Catania due to a major accident. These guys were originally from Venezuela. They didn’t speak English and only spoke a little Italian, but they got the job done, turned around and headed back to Rome. I think I may have over-tipped them. Oops.
U sposalizio, finalmente!
Wow! What an amazing few days in San Gregorio di Catania. We arrived at Casa La Carrubbazza an old nineteenth Century residence in San Gregorio. Formerly it was a winery, nowadays it is a hotel surrounded by a typical Sicilian garden. The concierge, Marilu, showed us where to park and got us settled into our room. It was a very large, antique room made of rocks with a peaked timber ceiling covered in bamboo slats, a gigantic armoire, a writing desk and a very nice bathroom with a walk-in shower that you could fit six people in. We met Chris and Greta, who live in London. He’s Caren’s cousin from Ireland. Greta is originally from Northern Italy. Their room was right next to ours. We got changed and went down to the pool and hung out for a couple hours.
The next day was the wedding day. There was a nice breakfast buffet for the hotel guests. Then, for most of the day, the wedding party, the bride and her bridesmaids, the groom and his groomsmen, was spent with hair and makeup for the women. The guys played cards and lots of photos were taken.
Meanwhile the rest of us hung out at the pool, relaxing.
Hours later, suddenly everyone was dressed in their finest. There was a kind of meet and greet for a while, everyone mingling, kisses and hugs. Then we all went up to the veranda for the ceremony. Caren looked like a princess in a fairy tale. Her lace dress was exquisite, like nothing we had ever seen before. It was both traditional and modern, just gorgeous. There was an officiant who kept things rolling. Then there wasthe mayor, who was extremely nice and seemed to be a bit emotional who conducted the civil ceremony.
Finally, Emanuele and Caren were pronounced man and wife (they have been together for 13 years)! They kissed and exchanged rings. It was a beautiful scene on the veranda with exotic palms and bougainvillea way up above the bay of Catania. It was hot but not too hot. Then came the speeches.
After all the speechifying, the couple was showered with yellow rose petals, and we were released to the shadier part of the villa. The first thing on offer was granita. Yes, that hit the spot alright. There was a small bar serving Aperol spritzes and hors d’oeuvres being passed around. Just delightful!
Then everyone went down below to the pool area where there were four large tables of more antipasti, plus another four stations creating small hot and cold plates, there was a delicious cold thin tomato soup with sliced shrimp crudo.
The caterers had created a giant cage of twinkie lights with a dinner table set for the approximately 80 guests. There were another three courses to go before the fruit and dessert buffet. And of course, wedding cake. Finally, the open bar serving grappa, liquors, coffee and digestifs. I didn’t discover it until later but there was another bar serving vodka and gin cocktails.
People were dancing, people were hanging out watching the dancers. Then suddenly around 10pm it was lights out! I guess the Carrabazza has an agreement with their neighbors not to let things get out of hand and go too late.
The next morning was pretty mellow. We indulged in another excellent breakfast buffet. Then it was time to check out and head for home. But wow! What a wedding weekend. We put it right up there with any of the best weddings we’ve ever been to. And we’ve been to quite a few (one of them was probably yours).
A lovely visit on the seaside in Isola (near Plemmirio)
On Wednesday, after the wedding, we drove up to the peninsula just south of Siracuse to visit with the newlyweds. Staying with them were; Caren’s brother Simon and his wife Alice with their one-year old, Leonardo (they live in Brussels and both work for the EU), Anne (she lives in Sicily), and Chris and Greta. They rented a beautiful villa on the water facing Siracuse to the north, with a lawn that had some great shade trees. It was a short walk down to the pebbly beach, while we waited for the away team to arrive with supplies for lunch. Then it was a feast of locally grown mussels, sausage, tomatos, cheeses and fruit.
Back at our beach; bikinis, butt cheeks and bling
When we were looking for the right town or city to live in Sicily, we weren’t thinking of a beachside home. But here we are, right in the thick of it.
It is truly astonishing how much Sicilians love the beach. They’re there before eight in the morning (yes, swimming) and many stay until after sunset. There’s all kinds of beach toys; stand up paddle boards, pedal powered boats that look like cars, a pedal powered barge with a slide on it, inflatable canoes, volleyball and everyone is playing soccer.
At our favorite lido, Calè, they serve coffee, granita, beer, wine, prosecco, cocktails, panini and salads. As well as some sweet pastries. You can rent an umbrellone (a big umbrella with two chaise lounges) for anywhere from €10 to €25 a day. The drinks are inexpensive as is the food. They have an outdoor shower and a lifeguard on duty. Sometimes, a DJ.
There are six lidos on Spiaggia Pietre Nere (the name of our beach). From east to west, they are called Chiringuito, Bogotà, Paloma (very chi chi), Calè, Kraken, Enrico and U Calandra. They all offer more or less the same things but there are some big and some little differences between them that distinguish. For example, I can hear through the open window that Kraken has a live band this evening. It’s a symphony of cacophony out there right now.
I can only expect that once August comes, one will not even be able to walk down the beach for the amount of people that will be here. Even today, it being a Sunday, Calè was totally booked. The only way we got an umbrellone was because we had become friendly with the owner, Giudi. She says to call first in the future.
Anagrafe Part III
The nice lady told us again that the cards hadn’t arrived. But then for some reason, she let us into the office and checked the envelopes in a box and lo and behold there was an envelope for each of us. We are finally card-carrying citizens of Pozzallo!
The singing dentist
I broke a tooth over the weekend just before La Festa Della Repubblica, an Italian national holiday celebrating the end of the monarchy 80 years ago. It’s a major holiday. Kind of like the 4th of July in the US or Juillet 14 in France. The holiday fell on a Tuesday and most Italians were making an extra-long weekend out of it. Enrico gave me the number for his “funny” dentist (he sings) and surprisingly Dottore Di Martino agreed to see me that same day, Monday afternoon at 5:30. Once we found his office in Modica, no thanks to Google maps, which kept trying to send us in the exit of a parking lot for a giant grocery store, he got right to work on whittling what was left of the tooth into a kind of post for a crown (corona in Italiano).
They have some very sophisticated equipment at Dottore Di Martino’s office, including a Dental Cone Beam CT (CBCT) scanner and some sort of wand that does 3-d imaging to create digital impressions of the patient's teeth.
So I had a gap between the post and the rest of my teeth, that for a week and a half trapped nearly everything I ate. It was kind of uncomfortable. Then a week later they finally called and said that the crown was ready. Yay, coronation day!
We went in and, after seeing a couple of emergency patients, the singing dentist was ready to do the installation. They had modeled that section of my mouth from t4h scans. Then from that they 3-d printed the crown. Which fit perfectly by the way. Amazing, right? It cost €400.
By the way, we love getting the email notes you've been sending. We're glad to know that you're enjoying these updates and it is so wonderful for us to hear about what you guys are up to! Thank you a gazillion, grazie mille.
Ciao for now!
Peter & Nancy in Sicily
