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Family in Sicilia!

May 7th, 2011 amguar12

Hello,

So the weekend of the royal wedding was rather long. We did not have class on Friday because of the wedding, and Monday was a bank holiday, so Sussex was also closed. So, instead of sitting around an empty campus, I flew to Palermo in Sicily, Italy! My dad had flown in earlier in the day, and we were going to visit some cousins whom I had never met before. Exciting!

I flew out the day after the royal wedding and my flight was a bit delayed, so I did not get into Palermo until late. Completely tired, I walked through the arrivals doors after customs to find my dad as well as my cousin Valeria, her husband Davide, and their children Carlotta and William. Such a nice surprise, and as soon as we exchanged hellos, we made our way to a restaurant for dinner. Although we were eating at like 11 pm, my seafood risotto was pretty spectacular.

The next day, Sunday, I was introduced to several other members of the family, which was also very fun! We saw their houses in Palermo and went out for a big family meal in the early afternoon. In Italy, as in many European countries, a dinner-sized meal is held in the early afternoon, followed by a siesta and a light meal at night. This was an exhausting day because not only were there a lot of people to meet, but also only a few of them spoke English. The rest spoke only Italian. Having studied Italian for one year at Holy Cross, I was able to converse with them quite well in broken Italian, as my grammer skills were a bit rusty. However, i definitely enjoyed putting my language skills into practice!

Monday morning, while Holy Cross and the rest of America was rejoicing over Osama Bin Laden’s death, I travelled with my dad and our cousing Massimo to the Sicilian countryside to see the small town where my grandma’s family is from. We drove from Palermo to Polizzi Generosa, a small mountain-top town that was a bit chilly despite the nice views. We met up with a couple other people there, toured around the town, met the mayor and had lunch at a nice restaurant. Pasta in Italy is really worth it’s outstanding reputation. I think I was so completely exhausted from all this that I fell asleep for the whole car ride back to Palermo! That night we went over to Mondello, a seaside area near Palermo, for some pizza with the family.

Tuesday was an interesting day because my dad and I had originally wanted to set out for Taormina, which is on the complete other side of the island. Realizing that it was too far to manage in one day, we explored the surrounding towns and area closer to Palermo. In the morning we saw ancient ruins at Segesta, and after having lunch in a seaside town, we drove to San Vito Lo Capo, which was a peninsula sticking out into the Mediterranean Sea with a very pretty beach! That night, after we had drove all day through winding hills and countryside, we met the family at Floriana’s house for an extravagant, multi-course home-cooked meal. I will remember that forever as it was truly amazing with all of the food – sushi, smoked salmon, fresh pesto pasta, other fish, traditional Sicilian casatta cake with lots of ricotta cheese and frosting, and homemade strawberry ice cream, just to name a few items. This was also one of the highlights of the trip as it was great to be around so much family!

I flew back to England on Thursday. The last day was spent mostly touring around Palermo. Massimo drove us to some excellent views of the city and sea, and showed us his summer villa. The weather, which had been rainy and cloudy the previous days, was finally getting sunny just in time to leave. We had one last family dinner, a good way to round out the trip.

So, now I am back to England, back to Flat 27, back to my mates. It was such a good experience seeing Sicily (I had been to many places in Italy before, but never Sicily). I can’t believe that week 2 at Sussex is over now!! Everyone here is definitely feeling the pressure of work, and I have one last trip planned before exams start at the end of May. Stay tuned, and for those of you at Holy Cross – enjoy Spring Weekend, I am sad to miss it!

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