Miserable Weather

On Saturday there was another meeting and another early start for Christian. Weather chilly all weekend so I stayed in and had a very frustrating time with disappearing photos on the association's website.

Duty Calls

Christian was on the road bright and early this morning to get to a meeting for 8.30am which gave me time to go to my Spanish class and do loads of things that hadn't been done for this evening's AGM. Indispensible or what? Just a plain old workhorse, methinks. Still, all went well as did the meal for 81, so all's well that ends well.

Ciaou!

All good things come to an end and our trip to Sicily was no exception while it's always good to go home, we were left feeling that we'd like to go back to Sicily and spend more time sightseeing. In order to have a contrast from the tourist trail, a couple of days in Syracuse to hang out in the cafés is equally appealing.
We left Joséphine with her Mum for a couple of extra days and luckily we had plenty of time at the airport before our flight as it took over an hour to get the hire car sorted. There was a scrape on the back side which left us with a surprising bill of nearly 300€ once we were home. Of course tye money was taken directly from the credit card and proved impossible to get any details. Just had to grin and bear it.
The weather was cooler on arrival and within a couple of hours of being home, I was trying to catch up with association stuff as it's the AGM tomorrow.

Tempus Fugit

Another day ad another market but this time we had lunch out in Mazara del Vallo in an all-but-empty restaurant opposite the sea. Had a long siesta in the afternoon and then did some cheese shopping to take back home with us. It was our 21st wedding anniversary ..... doesn't time just fly by?

Market Junkies

Today we hit the Market in Marsala and after an apéritif in a small bar overlooking the sea it was time for another lunch 'en famille'. This time langoustines were on the menu to the delight of all.

Donkey Seranade

A day's sightseeing was in store for us and impressive it was too. Juste, our chauffer took us to the old town of Erice, high up on a hill with it's narrow streets and Norman tower. Here we were serenenaded by an old man with his donkey (not the Donkey Serenade)which thankfully, didn't join in. Had lunch back down in Trampani where there was a huge and I mean huge, Thomson cruise ship in port. The restaurants were either "tourist c..p or too expensive so we took a back road and eventually found an empty restaurant serving very ordinary food which didn't turn

out to be that cheap. With hindsight we should have gone for the c..p as at least the view would have been more interesting. Still you can't win 'em all.
The evening meal back at the Mama's was another large affair but the mozzies were active as were the flying ants so we were driven inside. There were 11 at the table with assorted nephews and their wives dropping in and out at regular intervals.

More Festivities

After a lazy start to the morning we all headed over to Rafaella and Antonio's to join in the celebrations of their 1st wedding anniversary. A huge fish couscous was on the menu into which had 6kg of fish and 4kg of couscous. Of course there was also cake and before you are wondering, it was not a boozy affair and we were able to have an early night.

Indulgence is Sweet

Another interesting town nearby is Mazara del Vallo which overtime has been dominated by Catharginians, Romans, Moors and Normans. Wandered around in warm sunshine looking at churches, other architecture and the ceramics. Lunch chez Mama, siesta and then a drive by the sea. On the way home we stopped by a wonderful cake shop and bought some "cannoli".
Crispy pastry open-ended tubes, stuffed with sweet ricotta. Very rich, full of calories but worth every one of them. Found this recipe on the web but haven't tried it (yet!). http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/515414

And while some of us enjoyed the sun, others were hard at work preparing a fish couscous for tomorrow's lunch.

Birthdays Sicilian Style

Started the day with a trip to the local supermarket to by cheese, olives and mortadella and were surprised by the lower prices.Lunch was left-overs from the day before and was followed by a wee siesta. Weather is gloriously warm, 30° or more and doesn't drop lower than 26° in the evening but luckily there is a breeze coming off the sea.drove over to Marsala with its upmarket shops and had, a glasss of Marsala, what else?

Given that Mama has a large patio,Carmello's (the neighbour's father) 86th birthday was celebrated here.The whole family was there ... 19 of us and a huge cake.

A Day Steeped in History

We're all early risers so were able to start for the nearby Roman Villa del Casale (iii & iv century) before all the other tourists arrived, in fact before it was even open. Somehow we managed to find our way to the archaeologists' enterance so ended up having a freebie. What can anyone say other than the mosaics are just Fab-u-lous!

Room after room and the excavation is not yet finished.The most famous are the hunting scenes and young women in bikinis.

Just time for a coffee stop and then it was onto Agrigento and farther back in time to 581BC and the Valley of the Temples. Christian, being over 65, his enterance was free. By now the sun was high in the sky and in deference to Christian's tired legs we took a buggy to the other end of the site, after looking at the Temple of Hera. Bypassed the eerie Catacombes and the Temple of Concord before arriving at the Temple of Zeus and Hercules. Talk about hedging your bets! The site is immense and we didn't do it justice.

After an expensive coffee, the fellas took the buggy back while Joséphine and I walked back stopping off at the Villa Aurea, which had been home to William Hardcastle, militaryman and archaeologist in the 1920's.
Sightseeing is hungry work and as luck would have it, we ended up in Porto Empodocle,where Andrea Camalleri, the author of Montalbano was born.

We found a restaurant called "Grotto di Vigata"which had been a haunt of the author but once again, no sign of the main man.A good note to end our independant travel on as now it was time to head for Trapani and Joséphine's Mum's house where we'll be staying for the next week.
Joséphine had warned us about Sicilian family life but we weren't really prepared to have so many people in and out of the house and at the table all the time. Mama is well supported by her neighbour and her family which is of course great but it means that Joséphine has to take a bit of a b&ck seat which doesn't go down well.Dinner consisted of snails from the garden and delicious meatballs in tomato sauce by the end of which we were pretty tired and so sloped off to bed.