I'm in Sicily with the annual UMass- Hartford Art School painting, writing and photography class. There are 44 people altogether in our group and we're traveling all around the island on a bus which has been quite an unusual experience for me. The scenery is spectacular, the people are friendly -- Rosa, our vivacious Sicilian tour guide compared it to the "deep, deep South" -- the desserts are spectacular. More later!
Our guide Rosa and students Sahar and Sarah at dinner. The students are making the most of the trip!
Mario, our bus driver, who knows a lot about native plants picks some wild fennel.
Mario driving the bus.
Mia cara amica Mary Carey. E 'bello sentire da voi, mentre siete in viaggio in Sicilia. La mia famiglia viene dalla Sicilia, la famiglia! Spero vi piaccia il paese e la gente. Se si va alle spiagge a sud vedrete dove il volo 82 caduto sulla strada per liberare la Sicilia e poi invade la terraferma. Le truppe dell'asse era bloccato il volo verso il basso e l'hanno dovuto lottare non lontano dalla spiaggia. Provare tutte le specialità locali e ci dicono che quelli che vi piacciono.
ReplyDeleteCIAO Mary! Come stai? (my mother speaks fluent italian and some rubbed off on me). Hope you are having a wonderful time.
ReplyDeleteLauran
Nice. Get a chance to get into the ocean? Are you hearing from any Italians about life and times (e.g., the world economy, their quality of life, views about the U.S....)?
ReplyDeleteJEALOUS. That's all I can say. And "Have so much fun!". I can't wait for your report after you come back.
ReplyDeleteElizasmom's Mom
O'Reilly, I always imagined you were Irish. I translated your message via Google. We did see the area where the battle you describe. My favorite local dishes were the incomparable desserts -- fried ravioli, pannetone with manna on top and a delicious pistachio semi-freddo at a wonderful restaurant named Kitch in a little town outside Syracusa. And Lauren? You're also Italian! I never knew. Brian, we did talk to Italians -- we talked English and they spoke Italian, so I missed the finer points, but I had a great time conversing nevertheless. Eliza'smom, I got my hair colored, as you recommended many months ago.
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