So I am waaaaaay behind on blogging! Many things have been going on since spring break and this includes apartment hunting, which is a whole different ball game here. Hopefully we will have news on that soon!
Anyway- for spring break we took a trip to Sicily. There were 6 of us. We rented a house and a car and had many adventures over the course of the week. This will take two posts!
We decided to stay on the east side of Sicily outside of Catania. When we arrived, we picked up our 6 passenger van and headed to our house for the week. The realtor and owners met us and showed us the way to the house. It was about 20km outside of Catania in the country. To get to the house, we drove down a dirt road past an orchard filled with lemon trees. Luckily, our friend Kira was with us who could speak Italian, which leads me to the name of my post- Southern Hospitality. We had so many instances of Sicilians going out of their way to make sure we felt at home. The mother and her son left us cookies, salami and wine for when we arrived.
They offered to show us around Zafferana, the small town where we were staying. They showed us the family butcher and gave us veal and sausage! They took us to the town square with a beautiful view of the ocean and we went to get lunch at a local pizzeria where we met another friend. Gaetano took good care of us and told us he would deliver pizza to us if we needed. He even pinched Kira’s cheeks! He was adorable and we would pay him a visit later in the week.
The next day we took our first road trip to Syracuse. We visited the ancient ruins which were beautiful and went to get lunch nearby in Ortygia. It was a beautiful town where had a great lunch and got to witness a gorgeous sunset.
We had to do our grocery shopping for a few days because it was Easter weekend so we loaded up on food and wine in preparation for spending time at the house. On Easter Sunday we took a walk around the property to take pictures and collect some fresh fruits and vegetables, since they told us that we could use whatever was on the property. As we were walking back an old women called down to us from her balcony and asked who we were because she didn’t recognize us. When Kira told her we were on vacation she offered us their desserts that were left over for lunch. She was VERY persistent and offered it to us at least 4 times but we had just eaten and had so much food at the house. She was not very happy with us and told us she was just a nonna who wanted to help us! More southern hospitality!
Easter morning, we even had our own little “egg hunt”
We decided to make lasagna and some appetizers. I was able to do my own little cooking class. It was fun to show everyone how to make sauce and have so many extra hands in the kitchen! We enjoyed a great meal together and laughed and played games late into the night.
Our vacation was definitely a relaxing one. Everyone got to sleep in and we weren’t in a rush to get places. We played games every night, mostly Celebrity and just enjoyed each others company.