Splish, Splash in the Water Park

Vroom to Etnaland. It's time to add a little sizzle to our summer — not to get burnt to a crisp by the sun's damaging rays. It's just to cool us down after the heat wave.

getting shade in elephant's butt.

playing, splashing, sliding

Sicilian Art

One of the things that amazed me here in Sicily is their artwork.Sicily has an amazing heritage in art and art history. The island has enormous contribution in Fine Arts.
The Sicilian ceramic master's craft is deeply rooted in time. This timeless art has flourished for millennium, perfectly expressing the essence of Mediterranean culture. Like any other unique work of art, a ceramic piece begins with an idea. That idea is the vision of an individual artist. The clay found in each region of the world is unique. Sicilian clay is just different as it contains a combination of silicates unique to Sicily. This clay, freshly mined from the Sicilian mountains and valleys, molded by hand by ceramic masters and then left to dry under the sun.Various decorative ceramic products made in Sicily are sold around the world. So shopping for ceramics and other artwork here in Sicily is a great privilege. The most important factor in making your selection is a matter of purely personal taste. Picking something that you like and what you think will look good in your home or office.

Painter at work (Caltagirone)

Each town has their own unique artwork. (Sciacca)

'Sicily is an island so full of history, so full of
art and culture, so full of light.'

Pizza, Pizza

Michael and I love pizza. One of our favorite pizzas can be
ordered next door at Tony's "Pizza at the Pines".
In Sciacca, Steve took us to one of his favorite pizza place.
Pizzeria Conte Luna

Pizza with spinach and eggplant

One of Tony's famous house specials 'At the Pines'
One of our favorites in Nicolosi

Benvenuti Sciacca

Our friends, Jacque and Rob invited us for a weekend trip to the western side of Sicily. Early on the morning of June 15 we left Nicolosi for our adventure. We had our maps and Italian dictionary with us, for it's the best thing to do when traveling here or else you will be totally lost on their roads and lost in translation too.

We were told that in about three hours you can get to Sciacca, but five hours later we had wound our way there. We were lost along the way but we were glad to finally see the sign "Benvenuti Sciacca".

Maryellen, one of our friends here in Nicolosi hooked us up with Steve, an American who retired in Sciacca. He met us in town and brought us to his place for refreshing drinks.

After checking in to one of the "B & B " in town , took my power nap and we headed to the town port for a fabulous lunch.

The bed & breakfast place was just next door so after we settled our luggage we then went to the water for a swim.

Steve's place overlooking the Mediterranean

Jacque and I are always fascinated with these big and nice pots. But this pot is just too big for us to carry home. So we just took picture of this huge pot.

It took a long walk to go around Sciacca, shopping for ceramics. Different store, different ceramics style, different color and beautiful artwork.

After ceramic shopping, we end up at the bar for gelato.
Hmmmm Yum!

Mount Etna

One of the greatest natural attractions here in Sicily is the Mount Etna. It is the highest active volcano in Europe. Etna's beauty, frequent eruptions, and long record of eruptions make it one of the world's best-known volcanoes. With hundreds of papers published on nearly every aspect of Etna's geology it is probably one of the world's most studied volcanoes.
Here are some of my collections of photos of Mount Etna.

Winter 2005

Spring 2005

Near Randazzo, off the road connecting Linguaglossa and Zafferana,is the little Cappella del Sacro Cuore on the east side of Mount Etna.
The lava, during eruption of 1809, flowed slightly into,
but miraculously spared chapel from total destruction.

Last November 2006, After Michael came from work, he told me to hop into the VW Golf for joy ride and we will go somewhere for dinner. He said, Mount Etna is erupting and he wants to see it closer. So we drove up to Zafferana and took this picture.

Zafferana

A week after I came here to Sicily, we attended the Christmas party for Michael's work place at Villa Mirador in Zafferana. Zafferana is defined as the ‘Pearl of the Etna' and is only 15 minutes away from our town. It is well known for its production of excellent wines, gourmet mushrooms, tea plants and especially for its honey. Along with Nicolosi, it is now regarded as one of the major tourist stopping points for summer, and winter expeditions to the summit of Mount Etna.

Villa Mirador-Zafferana Christmas 2004

Vatican- The Holy see

On our last day in Rome , we went early to the Vatican City. As soon as we hop off the bus, Michael asked me for my passport. I said, 'I didn't bring mine' and he said, 'Sweetie you're in another country'. 'Si'. It's another country within Rome and the smallest country in the world with no borders at only 0.2 square miles in size.

Sight Seeing Roma

If you are visiting Italy, you cannot miss Rome - the Eternal City. Rome is the city of vivid and unforgettable images. The city is a phenomenon of romanticism and timelessness.
Here are some of our photos. We had so much fun in our five day stay in Rome!

Rome extends a warm and friendly welcome to all tourists.

Castel Sant' Angelo

Tell the truth and nothing but the truth......

The mouth of Truth or 'Bocca della Verita'. According to popular belief, it was said that any one putting his hand in this mouth and swearing falsely, could not withdraw it. The mask is situated in the atrium of St. Mary's in Cosmedin church.

Roman Colosseum

Nono (Grandpa) feeding the pigeons in front of Santa Maria Maggiore

Verse Fernandez and Family in Rome. I know him from way back in college. He is now working in Rome. We had dinner together and it was nice talking to them.

At Piazza del Popolo

Beautiful Taormina

Taormina is on the Ionian coast of Sicily, situated almost exactly midway between Messina and Catania. It has beautiful resorts, magnificent landscapes, breathtaking scenery and I would say an ideal destination for tourists and honeymooners.

Tony And Michael

Castemola

The Roman-Greek theatre is the second largest theater in Sicily.

Joyce in Catania

It was an exciting time for me when my cousin Joyce visited me here. She is married to an Italian from Rome. They used to live in Rome before they immigrated to United States. I had not seen her for about 15 years so it was very exciting for both of us to see each other again. It was so much fun to have her here because she can speak Italian. We took a bus to Catania and spend the whole day wandering around Catania. The day at Etnaland water park was a blast too. She spent a week with us here and we flew all together to Rome.

Elephant (liotru), the city symbol of Catania

Joyce and the city symbol elephant

Catania Cathedral (Duomo)

Catania's Cathedral was built in the 12th century and it was then rebuilt in 1600 after the earthquake and the volcano eruption destroyed most of the city.

Pedara

Pedara is another town just close to Nicolosi. I found it very interesting to hang out there, after I met Pauline, a Filipina from Baguio City who is married to a Sicilian. She has a beautiful two year old daughter Isabela and a wonderful dog Matilda. We met at the Pizzeria next door and we became fast friends. She's been here for 10 years so she speaks Italian fluently. She is a very great help to us. She invited us for dinner, taught me Italian cooking , drove me down to Catania to go to the " Questura Officiale" (Immigration office) to get my "permisso di Sogiorno" (permit to stay) , we go out shopping and do fun stuff together . Our favorite shopping places in Catania are Coin, Rinascente, United Colors of Benetton and Esprit de corp.

We spent our first Christmas Eve dinner here with her family and her in laws invited us for lunch on Christmas day, the food was great! That was our first real Sicilian food. Maria (Pauline's sister in law) loves to cook and she is a very good cook too.

Isabela with her Barbie

With Pauline and Isabela

Nicolosi

Our Casa in Nicolosi

Looking north to Mt. Etna from our rooftop patio.

Living in Sicily is one of the unique experiences in my life. Pretty soon we will be leaving the island and I don't know if I could come back here again. Hopefully I could, maybe after so many years. With collections of pictures and exciting experiences I decided to put it in my blog.

Sicily is a unique island in the Mediterranean full of history, art, archeology, folklore, breathtaking scenery and of course, great food. We are living in the little town of Nicolosi a part of the City of Catania, which is the second largest city of Sicily. For some centuries Nicolosi has been generally thought to be the main 'Porta del Etna' and all visitors that wanted to ascend to the top of the volcano had to pass through it. The town has been shaken by earthquakes and covered by volcanic ash over and over but, it was tenaciously rebuilt and dug out. Our place in town is just perfect for me as I am not driving here. Walking distances to the supermercato, casa del pesce (fish store), the centro, and our favorite bar 'Papaveri e Papare' (the goose and the gosling) we actually call it "the Duck bar". They have the best pastries, dolce, gelato (ice cream), cappuccino, espresso and of course friendliest staff. This little town has an ice skating rink where kids can enjoy skating the night away. The Ristorante Pizzeria is just next door with english speaking owners, Tony and Joe, who used to live in Chicago.

Trinacria, the symbol of Sicily.

The three legs represent the triangular shape of the island.