I Like Thursday: Snow and Sicily

Today I'm linking to my friend Lee Anna's weekly "I Like Thursdays,"  at  Not Afraid of Color.

I really liked the near-perfect snow storm we had Saturday night into Sunday.  It thoughtfully held off until our Saturday night fun was over, snowed while we were asleep and then some more on Sunday, and left about six to seven inches behind.  The first real snow of the season!  It was also very cold with temperatures in the 20's, so everyone scrambled for their sweaters and boots.  But neither the cold nor the snow is here to stay quite yet;  we're now enjoying a stretch of sunny skies with highs in the 50's.  

For our trip to Sicily we packed very lightly, each of us having just one small roll-on bag for carry-on  and a small backpack for our personal item.  Yes, it was hard to put what we needed for two weeks in this small amount of luggage, but I really liked it once I got used to it.  Clothes weren't a problem since we were dressing casually and two of the four places we stayed had washers.  Toiletries were more of a problem since they had to get through the TSA checkpoints.  That was solved by ruthlessly culling what we took and replacing some liquids with solids (like cold water laundry soap which you can get in "leaf" form).  It was a relief to travel light, especially when one of our flights cancelled as boarding was underway and we grabbed our bags and raced to customer service for rebooking.

Speaking of laundry, there may have been washing machines but apparently hardly anyone has a dryer.  I loved seeing all the ways that the Italians hung their laundry out to dry.  We did it, too.  One of the really fun little moments for the trip for me was rinsing out some clothes in a stone tub out on our lovely patio in San Vito and then hanging things up on our drying rack.  Ah, bliss.

Have you ever used packing cubes?  I hadn't but I did on this trip and loved having them.  I liked organizing  my clothes by type (one cube for shirts, one for pants, etc.)  and I found they made unpacking easier.   One place we stayed in had a narrow spiral staircase up to our bedroom, so I just grabbed my packing cubes and took them up, leaving my suitcase downstairs.

I loved the food in Sicily.  The large photo is of olives growing; I don't think I'd ever seen olive trees before.  The top right is a chocolate and pistachio pastry; then cassata (a white cake filled with ricotta cream and topped with frosting and sugared fruits); then Pasta con le Sarde (pasta with sardines, fennel, and bread crumbs); lower right is fresh fish at the market.

Sicily is very agricultural and we saw quite a bit of countryside covered with vines, fruit and nut trees, and eggplants and other vegetables.   At our agritourista, a nice woman showed me how to take a rock and smash open a walnut shell and dig out the nutmeat inside.  Food can bring people together, in more ways than one.  

 Did you know that Sicily produces ceramics? Not just bowls and platters, but also architectural tiles.  I love ceramics and had to remember that I couldn't hold much in my little carry-on bags.  But I did get a few things home  :-)   (I still want that table!  Should I get it shipped here?)

Decorative tiles are used in homes and businesses throughout Sicily, even in the kitchen of our low-budget room in Cinisi.    

As we looked at art and architecture on our trip I was reminded of how much I enjoyed studying art history back in my undergraduate days.  Seeing frescoes, paintings, church interiors,  amphora (painted vases), and statues from Greek and Roman times was real eye candy and I loved it.

Venus Landolina, Museo archeologico, Siracusa  

Of course, as this cartoon that my sister gave me reminds us, a big part of the success of a trip is who you travel with.

I was lucky to have two great companions for this adventure, my husband, Ben,  and our good friend, Lotus.  Within a day or so of beginning our sojourn we had quite naturally split up the main duties:  Lotus did the car driving, Ben did the navigating, and I was the tour guide.  As such I suggested the next day's itinerary and provided info from three guidebooks and TripAdvisor.  We had anticipated some challenges in traveling together and worked them out ahead of time.  For instance, when he could, Ben liked to chill for a few hours in the late afternoons.  That gave me and Lotus time to do some sightseeing on our own.  Lotus preferred a lighter evening meal, and that gave me and Ben the opportunity to eat out on our own a few times. 

It's always nice to come off of a trip still liking your travel companions, and that's how it happened on this trip. 

One last thing I loved was the beauty and animation of the Italian language.  Our itinerary and accommodations put us close to the Italian people and we liked to just observe and listen to them in the restaurants, parks, markets, and on the streets.

To give you a little taste of this pleasure, click on the video below, which I took at the Siracusa fish market.  It's only 44 seconds, so turn the sound up and enjoy.   (Click here for the video on YouTube).