EvainSicily

Autumn sea Autumn sea in the evening...it's so relaxing! When it's quiet , just watching the horizon and don 't think anything.. just breathe and take power...

I found this piece of paper on the door of an old house in Modica alta (Modica uphill- Rg)... Today, everybody has a mobile phone..with some  rare exceptions. like the person who wrote it If I forget my phone at home, I immediatedly come back if It's possible, and if it's  not..hmmm I always think to what I need to call or who needs to call me. It's a disaster....and since I lived alone I don't swicht it off. at night.I'm just learning now, how to relax and not depend on it...I  often swicht  it off at night and I don't watch  the screen for  some sms..but it's not easy and I don't like I still do that.  I'll learn .. So, when I saw and read this piece of paper..I smiled...first of all for some funny grammar mistakes, a mixture  of Italian and Sicilian ..but then...I went on smiling and thinking how wonderful time we had when mobile phones were not existing , or at least, when they were not  so essential!

 malva  variegata  The first kitchen garden in Sicily is going to open next months near Scicli. In a wonderful location , between Cava D'Aliga and Scicli (Rg) the first kitchen garden is opening now! Enrico , is one of the owners toghether with his family. He welcomes visitors at his house, or better say greenhouse,  and shows and explains innumerable kind of plants and herbs . lavanda pinnata   I spent a lovely Sunday morning with some friends totally immersed in wonderful flavours of officinal plants and aromatic herbs , with a magnificent seaview. I confess, I'm not good in botanic and memorizing the names of flowers and plants...but I really liked the place I visited.  gersanium with the fragrance of citronella(lemon-like)  A beautiful idea.......this is also Sicily...........the real flavours of Sicily!!    Enrico, very proud of his project!!  visit Enrico's company webite:   ...

 Today....is a lovely sunny day.  The temperature is quite mild and the laundry .has already dried!!!!

It's still time for artichokes! There are innumerable recepies to cook artichokes , here in Sicily. Mammy today has called me and told me she has prepared artichokes as usual. As usual? Yes, my Mom's favourite recipy is cooking artichokes in a pan after having stuffed each with: toasted minced bread, piece of garlic, local cheese, presley, black pepper and olive oil and salt. Please don't forget on the fire as I did once!!!!Mamma mia..........overburnt!!!!!!! a disaster!

cannolo siciliano Hmmmm! Bellissimo (beautiful)..which in Sicilian stands for Buonissimo  in Italian, or better in English "very good" In any language the cannolo with ricotta cheese cream  is really delicious. It's one of the (many) things you have to taste when you come here!! Remember ! when you enter in a pastry shop and you don't see any on the window, ask about cannoli! They will stuff them at the moment , so that the crust has a best taste!!

Are we really free? Free to live as we like, always in the respect of the others, anyway?? I was convinced , that , more or less, it was possible to do it. No, it's not true. This is my thought , today.. I was convinced I was free to love , to work , to do what I like most, to write my thoughts.......I'm so sad.... It's terrible to defend your rights and simply your way of living...it's terrible to have to prove you are right in what you're doing....to explain what I have done in my last four years... sorry, but these are my thoughts.....I have to defend myself...just because I live. Is not a right foreverybody?

Frequently, here you can find the doors of churches open, also in winter..so, it's still possible to see wonderful screen  to defend "privacy"... This is an elegant screen painted in XVIII century for the church of St. Charles (the church of the Jesuit friars) in Noto.

Our Lord will call you, wherever you are but , for sure He will never call you on the phone!!! Please switch your phone off!! and someone commented: Never limit the Divine Provvidence!!!! I found this piece of paper hanged on the doors of a church in Ragusa Ibla.. It was funny to me..but thinking about tourists , Italian tourists in particular...beh...it's something good to write. If there's something which make you understand if it's a a group of Italian tourists , well, I think two basic things can be noticed: mobile phones and cigarettes.Italians don't give up smoking and talking on the phone also when they follow a guide. And, as you can see, that announcement was written just in Italian.No English translation.Not necessary! Unfortunately, some guides also like smoking and answer to the phone when they're working. NO, it's not nice. I don't smoke or answer to the phone..It's unpolite and not professional!!

I've never liked hats..or at least, I've never liked hats on me. BUT, working as a guide, very often under the sun over 34 ° , I have accepted the idea to put hats on and now I like them. In Ortigia (old Syracuse) there's a lovely shop,near Archimede's square, which, among other things , sells nice hats... I have many hats and many  forgotten and lost all around.. But autumn has arrived, and winter is coming...so now it's time of umbrellas and forget them all around!!! Che sbadata!!!

It's going to rain ...and my mammy has not called yet....quite strange.... I don't know, but it's very common for sicilian mammies to be worried about rain... It's true, in Sicily we usually have less than 50 rainy days per year, BUT, this year things are changing. WE already have the rain we usually have for an whole winter...and my mammy's calls have increased.. why? It's 16 years since I started to work as a tourist guide....and it's 16 years since my mammy calls me and asks me: " Lucia have you to work..with all this rain??" - " Si mom, of course, tourists don't care about rain and they have already paid travel agent in advance..bla bla bla.."- " Sure, at least..copriti!!!!" That's always the dialouge on the phone early morning when it's raining....... Strange??? maybe not....here rain  almost seems stops daily routine......maybe beacuse we are not so used to it and we don't do anything to be.. .....it...

Bridge or not bridge..anyway, just crossing the Straights, in Calabria you find a marvellous mountain, The Sila . There's la grande Sila (and Villaggio Palumbo is a delicious area) and la piccola Sila (Camigliatello is the most touristic place there). If you want relax and have nice walking, escaping from  the city life...that's what we can do .No flight..just 4 or 5 hours by car from the south east of Sicily and you forget all!!! n.b. Pecccato !  the highway Salerno - Reggio Calabria is always under construction ..or better to say under riconstruction  and you take more time than you really need!!!

  the sea and the sky between Sicily and Calabria.....between Messina and Villa S. Giovanni.. It's only 3 km about and the ferry (private company Caronte and Bluvia the traincompany) leaves every 40 minutes..at least now in winter..and by car and two passengers you pay about 33,00 euro for a return ticket available within 3 days. It's years now since we started to talk about the construction of THE BRIDGE on the Straights of Messina. There are opposite opinions but nowadays il ponte is not just a project. It's among the priorities of Berlusconi Government and next June 2011  its construction will start. DO Sicilian people want the bridge? DO we need the necessity of it? For sure...a lot of people will work on it..and that's good For sure...I remember some experts not advise the construction of the bridge on that area (sismic and exposed to currents) For sure it will be easier and faster to drive on the bridge..but very expensive, too Some believe that ...