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ALL WENT WELL!!!
Oct. 17th, 2005 03:31 pmElizabeth and I got to Taormina in one piece, had an awesome time, and returned safely! On the train ride back, I made friends with the five Sicilian men in my compartment, and there was much miscommunication (due to my Italian) and laughs and philosophical discussion in broken Italian/broken english and mad hand motions and shared peaches and coffee.
It was glorious. It's funny, how Elizabeth attracted all the skeezy men this weekend but I got all the older fatherly types who lit up when they asked where I was from and if my family was italian, and I told them "New York" and "La mia famiglia e` siciliana".
Sicily felt incredibly homey, oddly enough. In Taormina, and on the train, the people I did talk to felt like family, but that's just cause they acted like my family acts. As if Sicily is a mediterranean Brooklyn-of-my-childhood, back when everyone was still living a few blocks from each other and we'd drive in to visit for Sunday dinner. People ask me if it's odd, hearing all this Italian everywhere, but that's how I grew up. People may say people want to return to the comfort of the womb, but hearing old people talking/arguing in Italian is my comfort zone (as long as no one expects me to join the conversation, of course. Hearing Italian is the comforting part, not the attempting to speak or comprehend it). If you want to see what makes Antonella regress, sit her down in a group of older Italians and just watch her look like a wide-eyed five year old.
Oh, and FINALLY, I was able to eat GOOD bread, none of this crap they make in Florence without salt. I have been DYING for semolina bread, and I finally got some in Sicily, as well as a veal cutlet just like grandma's. AND DELICIOUS BRIOCHE WITH GELATO.
*DIES AND GOES TO GASTRONOMICAL HEAVEN*
This weekend was a good weekend. Now midterms can start, but at least I'll die with left-over happy Sicilian vibes.
It was glorious. It's funny, how Elizabeth attracted all the skeezy men this weekend but I got all the older fatherly types who lit up when they asked where I was from and if my family was italian, and I told them "New York" and "La mia famiglia e` siciliana".
Sicily felt incredibly homey, oddly enough. In Taormina, and on the train, the people I did talk to felt like family, but that's just cause they acted like my family acts. As if Sicily is a mediterranean Brooklyn-of-my-childhood, back when everyone was still living a few blocks from each other and we'd drive in to visit for Sunday dinner. People ask me if it's odd, hearing all this Italian everywhere, but that's how I grew up. People may say people want to return to the comfort of the womb, but hearing old people talking/arguing in Italian is my comfort zone (as long as no one expects me to join the conversation, of course. Hearing Italian is the comforting part, not the attempting to speak or comprehend it). If you want to see what makes Antonella regress, sit her down in a group of older Italians and just watch her look like a wide-eyed five year old.
Oh, and FINALLY, I was able to eat GOOD bread, none of this crap they make in Florence without salt. I have been DYING for semolina bread, and I finally got some in Sicily, as well as a veal cutlet just like grandma's. AND DELICIOUS BRIOCHE WITH GELATO.
*DIES AND GOES TO GASTRONOMICAL HEAVEN*
This weekend was a good weekend. Now midterms can start, but at least I'll die with left-over happy Sicilian vibes.
