Sicily: Questura

It appears that our Italian visa officer in Vancouver was correct, and we will be able to get Christopher a sort of permission to stay as she had told us. Unfortunately, it appears it can only be granted by the Questura in Palermo. I have a sneaking suspicion we are being shuffled off to the next office up the chain of command because what we ask is complicated (read; requires paperwork to be completed). Our local Questura officers have become very familiar with us, but not on first name terms - two cheek kisses though! I am hopeful that tomorrow we'll finally get the paperwork, but not optimistic. We are being sent to the Questura immigration offices in Palermo. sigh.

Washrooms of the World: the Bidet Line

Italy has the 'butter line', above which butter is the dominate cooking oil, below which, olives take centre stage.

I believe there is a less advertised, but equally important line, that of the bidet. It is absent, until suddenly present; but never in a public washroom, only in private homes. It astounds me that Italians, who are obviously so particular about the bathroom habits at home that they have a special washbasin only for their private parts, would (when in public) urinate on street corners and defecate in the filthy excuses for lavatories I've been exposed to. Some unobserved wrinkle in the national psyche I believe.

Our Swiss cottage didn't have a bidet, but our Italian hook-up joint did. Go figure.

Sicily: Segesta & Erice

Its Saturday so it must be Segesta! Christopher has been kind enough to entertain me and go along on my crazy schemes, including my desire to see some of the amazing sights/sites of Sicily. We missed some of these in the past because transportation was challenging (read; I was too lazy to ride my bike up a mountain). Saturday we had a wonderful picnic under the shade of a century old olive tree. It being Italy, lunch included vino. Che Bella! The sun was a bit scortching - despite a shirt and sunscreen, seldom viewed parts got a bit scalded - I was wearing a strapless sundress... The best advice I ever got for travel in hot places was to bring an umbrella (thank-you Monica!).

Erice has been on my must see list because of the allegedly world famous sweets made there. Having now sampled them, their fame is well deserved; but they are not my taste. I believe they fall into the 'bella figura' of sweets - very lovely to look at and extremely sugary to eat. The world famous chocolate of Modica (also Sicilian) is, on the other hand, deserving of its fame.

Sicily Food: Little Fish + Brunch

Today we were a little late getting in to town - my fault for being a lazy, sleepy, layabout. It being friday, Enzo's fish was all done, so we went to the other fish monger. He had those lovely little clams to make the Sicilian clam pasta. He also had a variety of other little fishes, medium fishes, long fishes, well, you get the picture. I was attracted to the little colourful fish - they looked like they'd taste good just quickly pan fried. And lo! They did!

 The fresh Sicilian strawberries smelled so amazing we had to have some - with pastries and espresso on our deck. Yep, that's our view!

Sicily Food: Polpo, Carchofi and Fava - Octopus, artichoke and broad beans

As I mentioned we finally got up early enough to see the fish monger recommended by our landlord. Enzo is the fishmonger's name. When I expressed interest in the octopus he eagerly poked them to show they were still alive, which i admit was interesting at the time, but disconcerting now in retrospect. I was more interested in finding out how to clean them. My other octopus experiences were with previously frozen cleaned octopus.

 Here's Enzo showing me how to clean the octopus. A very messy business I must say. And he left the eyes and beak, unexpectedly to me. I do hope the octopus had expired by the time they lost their brains.
Situated beside the fishmonger's van was a green grocer's. I can't remember what we were laughing about, but we had a good time. Sadly, there's no photos of the beautiful assortment of fruits and vegetables we got for 15E, including some purple carchofi that didn't have a choke. Those who've met artichokes fresh know that inside the delectable vegetable is a furry, spiny centre, called the 'choke' probably because those furry spines feel like they'll choke you if you swallow them. Anyway, these little purple ones didn't have that.

I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with all this stuff, just that I had to have it. For lunch we had an amazing sandwich with sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, cheese (local sheeps' cheese of course) and anchovies. Accompanied by fresh asparagus. That left me with the octopus, artichokes and some broad beans that our neighbour gave us. Here's what they became;

Christopher has a deft touch with the octopus - gently lowering the tenticles in boiling water makes them curly.

Octopus, artichoke, fava, lemon, spring onion, salt, pepper, parsley and Extra virgin olive oil.

Balestrate to Scopello, Sicily

 we'd been in Scopello before, on our cycling trip here in Sicly,  so we wanted to go back.

Washrooms of the World: Castelmare del Golfo, Sicily

If I could remember the name of this cafe, i'd add it to the posting, just to keep unsuspecting cafe goers away. The honoured tradition in Italy is to pay the $1E for the coffee and use their washroom. This one was particularly foul.