Beach Adventure

Heather's friend Carol told Heather about a really nice Beach that her family enjoys. So the search was on. It was to be just past Fontane Bianchi, but it was not easy to find. We did not give up, finally we made the right turn and we were there. It was late in the day so not many of us got into the water. Jordan, Brittany and Riley enjoyed the Ionian Sea and the other would return on a warmer day.

Lunch by the Ionian Sea in Syracusa

Seeing Syracusa for a Second Time

We left about 12:30PM for Syracusa for some site seeing a little different than my first time in Syracusa. We visited the Greek Theatre, which had spectacular surroundings. There is so much History here I could write pages.

Graduation Party

The party was a success and everyone was very generous with their giving of gifts to Mackenzie.

Our Soon to be College Coed

GRADUATION DAY 2010 FROM SIGONELL HIGH SCHOOL

Mackenzie had to be at School early to practice for Graduation.
Heather, Jordan, Ashley and I went to see a Square Dance presentation by Riley's 4th grade Class afterwards they had a family Picnic.
At 1:20Pm we were back to the Catania Airport to Welcome Deni, Mackenzie's other Grandmother ,and Brittany, Mackenzie's Cousin from Minnesota. They , of course, were here for Graduation and their first visit to Sicily.
The Graduation Ceremony was beautiful. It was held outside in beautiful swaying Palm Trees.
Mackenzie, had 30 in her graduating class.

MY SECOND VISIT TO SICILY

My trip began on June 9th. I started out in Indy and met up with Ashley, my Granddaughter in Detroit, Michigan. Our journey together starts. We had excellent seats on our 9 1/2 hours flight to Rome and believe me this is important. When we arrived in Rome we had a very long walk to our next Gate and then it changed a couple of times before we left Catania, Sicily. I had an interesting man that sat next to me who was an Italian/American. Born and raised in Sicily and then moved to our land of opportunity and became a successful business man he owns a restaurant in South Carolina and he had not been back home to see his family for several years. His name was Enzo.

My last Post for this trip.

It has been so much fun doing this Blog. It will help me relive this trip of a life time over and over again. I hope you that followed it enjoyed reading about my Family Adventure. ARRIVEDERCI, BUONA FORTUNA

View of Mount Etna

Mount Etna is the Largest Volcano in Europe its most recent eruption was in 2001 and 2002 it did extensive damage to a ski facility and cable-car the lava came within 2.5 miles of a village.
I did not get to discover all there is to know about Mount Etna, but I hope on my next trip to Sicily I will get to see it first hand. The evening before I was to leave for Home the Sun showed off Mount Etna and I had a perfect view off my Daughter up stairs veranda to take a few pictures. You can see the snow was about half way down Mount Etna.

Neighborhood Truck Route

This is a picture of the vegetable and fruit truck that comes to Heather's neighborhood to sell his very fresh foods.

Open air Market in Belpasso

Every Wednesday in Belpasso, there is an open air Market that I got to go to a few time while in Sicily. It is only open this one day of the week from 8:00Am to 12:00PM. It was so interesting. The merchants were locals and you could find almost anything, the fresh fruits and vegetables were wonderful and very reasonable priced.
I had to have a few pictures of this market.

Leaving Caltagirone

As we were leaving Caltagirone, Heather discovered that she had lost her iPhone. She ran back to the steps and went to the shops we had stopped in and they were closed for the afternoon siesta, so we had to leave without finding her iPhone.
On the way back to Belpasso the rain stopped and a beautiful rainbow appeared.

Caltagirone

Our trip to Caltagirone would be Heather and My last adventure on this visit to Sicily. We knew that we did not have much time, because we needed to be home for Riley to get home from school. When we started out it was a beautiful sun shiny day and Heather was able to take a few wonderful photos for her Digital Art work. We arrived in Caltagirone and it was really crowded with School children. They were on a school trip to see the nativity on the famous 142 steps of Caltagirone. Again there was a parking problem, finally we parked and started to walk to the steps and it started to rain. We made it to the steps and it started to sleet. Our picture taking of the steps and the town was differently going to come to a stand still.
Here is a little history about Caltagirone. This town is built on hill top. The city is known for the ceramics and pottery. The famous steps were built in 1608 to connect the lower part of town to the center of town. At the top of the 142 steps is the former Cathedral of Caltagirone , the steps are called Santa Maria del Monte stairway. The beautiful majolica tiles were added in 1953. I hope you can see the tile in the picture. One picture was taken earlier in the year and the other was taken while we were there with the nativity displayed on the steps.

More Pictures taken at Cefalu

Cathedral of Cefalu

This Cathedral is one of Sicily's major Norman monuments. It has two massive Bell Towers and the unique thing about the inside was that it has 400 columns and our guide said that it is called the Cathedral of Columns. There was so much that was interesting about this Cathedral. Over time there were several different cultures that helped to complete this amazing Cathedral. It defiantly dominates the town of Cefalu.

Medieval Fountain

In Cefalu there was a medieval stone fountain that had recently been restored. In not to many years past it was used for washing clothes for the local people. Heather and I found this very interesting.

Cefalu

We next visited Cefalu with its amazing coastal views. Our time there was short, because of our accident early in the day that took time off our tour. We did get a few beautiful pictures and it is a must to go back to. Our guide told us that it is the place to go to in the Summer months.

Collesano Cheese Factory located in Madonnie Park

For this tour we started out from the Base in two Mini buses. Everything was going along fine when a young dog ran in front of the car in front of us. The car swerved and missed the dog. Our Mimi Bus slowed down to avoid the car and the dog and we all sighed in relief and about then we were rear ended by the other Mini bus, thus disabling the other bus. I think nearly all the passengers had whip lash, Heather hit her head against the window and she had a mild concussion. All of us wanted to continue on , so our Mini Bus took our group on the Cheese Factory and then went back for the rest of our passengers. Lots of Tylenol, Motrin and Aleve was taken that day.
The Cheese Factory located in Madonnie Park (was like a nature preserve)was an organic cheese farm run by one Family. The cheese vats, first produces Ricotta cheese and then from that vat they develop the other cheese like Provolone, Parmesan, depending on time, spices and herbs used. We were served a light lunch of the cheeses made there, homemade bread, olives and fresh milk. This family have about 20 cows that they use for milking and making the different organic products. It was a very clean and well organized operation. Nothing like any cheese factory we have in the States with there high volume to be sold. It was very interesting the owners were very sweet and did not speak any English, lucky for us we had a lady in our group that spoke Italian and could translate for us.
After our tour was concluded the Base had sent another Mini Bus so there were sets for us all . So were off to our next destination.

Our Cooking Class and Instructor

This cooking Class was watching the food items being prepared and we got to sample the different foods as they were ready. While our class was going on they kept our wine glasses filled. After our cooking lesson we got to enjoy a delicious Sicilian dinner around a wood burning fireplace. Heather and I got a few ideas that we think the family will enjoy