On a bright sunny early afternoon we arrive at Catania airport with Mt Etna greeting us from outside our plane window. The Alitalia flight from Chicago to Rome was 9 hours and the movies were in Italian. We picked up our Fiat auto and started off to our first stop, Syracusa where we would stay three nights at the LaCasa di Melo agriturismo. Our plan was to visit the Island of Ortigia.
Our first night in Sicily we had a wonderful dinner of pizza for John and pizzoli for myself. The owners of Blume Pizzeria in Cassibili, are a young couple who both speak English. He came out behind his brick oven work area to greet us. Once he knew we were American, the always asked question "where" came out. We are learning to say "Chicago" because we then have an air of familiarity with the asker because they light up and say ......... "ah, Chee-ca-go"! Although many have never been there, they certainly know of it!!! He was very proud to show me the picture of the boat his grandfather came to America in and landed at Ellis Island, 1913. I in turn showed him a picture of the immigrants in America after their arrival in the early 1900s.
We find that people are drawn into our story to find more history on those that left their country. Some tell us families from that time period also left and their history is now lost to the ages or that they know they have an unmet cousin or two in America. Or that the next generations from those who left do come back for visits. Others share family who left as immigrants, did return to Sicily.
After dinner we return to the nearby agriturismo for a long awaited sleep. We both hit the pillows softly and slept hard !!
No comments:
Post a Comment