Pau

We thought we would add a quick blog before we return to Canada. Our finishing days in Italy were great. We were fortunate to get pretty high up on Mt. Etna and feel the hot, venting rocks. We were at about 2500 metres, and there were rocks that were too hot to touch...can't imagine how hot they would be close to the primary craters.
Our days in Pau are winding down and so far we like what we see. The town is much larger than we had expected; probably 200,000+ when you include the surrounding communities. We have had plenty of opportunity to speak French, and it is quite a struggle at times. We drove to Spain yesterday, and as soon as we saw yet another language on the signs, our heads hurt. We had tried hard to learn as much Italian as possible, and with now trying to speak French, just thinking about trying Spanish was a bad idea! And these crazy French computer keyboards! Thankfully, Gilles will be able to use an English keyboard at work.
It is hot and lush here. Incredibly green. The temperature has reached 30 degrees every day that we have been here, and we've been sweating like crazy! We drove to the coast on Saturday to escape the heat and had a great beach day. The beaches near Biaritz get a lot of waves, and are a surfers' dream. It made for fun playing in the water, waiting for the next big waves to come.
We have had a fantastic trip, and assuming we have not developed lung cancer due to copious amounts of second-hand smoke (Europeans don't seem to have received the cancer memo...or they don't care), it has been a huge success. Off to Paris for an overnighter tomorrow, then off to Halifax. See everyone soon!!

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli

Yesterday we visited two hill towns, Savoca and Forza D'Agro, where scenes from the Godfather movies were filmed. It is amazing how many Italian villages are built on top of a mini mountain! It is a real challenge getting our Fiat Punto up to them! In Savoca, the Bar Vitelli looks exactly as it did when a scene was filmed there 35 years ago. The waiter dresses up like Michael Corleone's bodyguards and plays the film's soundtrack...it was hilarious!
While in Savoca, we got a brief view of the top of Mt Etna, it's north side full of snow. It's amazing looking at this mountain, 3320 m high, from sea level. It takes up a huge part of Eastern Sicily. Unfortunately, we have not been able to get close to it yet as it is cloudy and rainy here. Hopefully it will clear up so that we can get onto the mountain tomorrow. It is still a very active volcano, so the areas around the main craters are inaccessible, but one can get on aspects of the lunar'like top and roam around areas of old lava.
This will be our last posting from Italy. We fly to Paris Wednesday, then down to Pau to see our future home. We'll be back in Canada before we know it!

Fertile Sicily

We've driven Sicily from Palermo to Syracusa so far. We've been surprised by how green and lush the island is. There are crops planted in every conceivable place, and in great quantities: olives, vines, lemons, almonds, pistachios,.... Sicilians consider their products to be the best, and so far we cannot argue this. Gilles' favourite wine grape, Nero d'Avola, is native to Sicily and relatively hard to find in Canada and most are not familiar with it. But in Sicily, it is considered King. If you ask for red wine, you get Nero d'Avola or Nero d'Avola. Gilles is in heaven! They are serious about their nuts also. There are two town that are famous for their nuts...it has somewhat of a cult-like status here. Noto has almonds, and Bronte has pistachios. We have eaten this in every possible dish, from gelato to cornetto spread to seafood pasta dishes. We bought types of nuts from the market today and they are like no other we have tasted! The seafood here is amazing! We have never seen it so fresh. It's displayed in the restaurant's entrance on ice and most is still squirming. And how will we return to a life without arancinis? These balls of fried rice, the size of an orange, stuffed with ragu, prosciutto and cheese or spinach and cheese are to die for!
The culture in Sicily is very different than that of mainland Italy. The people we have met here are incredibly friendly, perhaps because they have no rush in life. It has been an interesting experience driving. Picture roads with no rules, traffic lights that do not work, and polizia that can't be bothered to pursue anything. The horn is a communication tool that we have not totally grasped yet. We checked on our vehicle this morning to ensure that it was safe to find that we were blocked in by three cars! It's a good thing we had no plans of leaving.
We're staying on Syracusa's little island called Ortygia. Unfortunately, it is raining today so our views are limited. Tomorrow we head for the resort town of Taormina with some side trips to Godfather scene locations and Mt Etna. The volcano has been active recently, so we may not be able to approach it very closely. Hopefully the weather turns, as we're looking forward to another beach day. We spent the afternoon at a beautiful sandy beach near Agrigento last Thursday. We were the only ones who entered the water, and pretty much the only ones on the beach. I guess what Canadians and Italians consider hot weather are two different things!

Octopus Juice on my Glasses!

So far, Sicily has been everything we had hoped for. We enjoyed two days in the capital, Palermo. We were fortunate to arrive on a Saturday when the street markets are in full swing. They go on for blocks and blocks. The vendors yell out about their wares, trying to attract buyers. The vendors are broken down into type: cheese, olives, anchovies and capers, bread, fruit and veggies, and fish...many, many fish vendors. Most things were still sqirming. And evey kind of tuna imaginable! Often, most of the tuna was laying on the table, and the fishmonger would cut a huge slab off it when needed. It was crazy!!
In Jamie Oliver's most recent cookbook, he visits several towns in Italy and writes about their cuisine. One thing that he loved about Palermo was the variety of street food; that is a guy preparing food on the streets for sale, to be eaten right there. So, when faced with the street cooks, often having questionable methods of hygiene, we would ask "what would Jamie do?". Of course this would always equate to eating whatever was to offer. First, was boiled octopus. Goes in live, comes out dead, chopped and lemon juice squeezed on it. Apparantly, the head is the best part, which we also managed to try. We would argue that it is NOT the best part. So, after getting juice sprayed on my glasses, we moved to the next vendor. Gilles liked the octopus so much that he later ordered it in a restaurant--without the head! So when we approached the vendor selling boiled tripe and spleen in a bun, we jumped right in. Everyone else was doing it! Then came the vendor selling grilled bread with pepper, olive oil and tomatoes on it. This looked harmless. Then, they offered us local wine. Great, you think. As we're sipping the wine out of a plastic glass, they bring over the jug of wine--a 2 L reused water bottle, and insisted we have it. So, we sat on the sidewalk and drank our jug of wine (before noon!) while the proud locals looked on.
The people in Sicily have been incredibly friendly. We're in Marsala today and have some vineyard tours scheduled. We picked up our rental vehicle yesterday and survived the drive here...hopefully that luck will continue!

Front Row Centre!

This post will likely only interest other Dave fans. We have come a long way from our first Dave Matthews concert when we were behind stage left in Denver, to front row centre in Dublin!! It was unbelievable! The venue was quite small compared to standard venues in North America. We were no more than 10 feet from Dave. The fans there were awesome, and made up in sound for the smaller size. Apparantly the band does have a good following in Europe. The Band seemed so into the concert. Perhaps they were happy to be in Europe? Honoured by their fan-base there? Stefan Lessard had a permanent smile on his face (usually quite solemn), and Dave was picking up flags & t-shirts the crowd was throwing on stage and showing them to the other band members. Very unlike other shows we've attended. We felt so fortunate to make it there! The song list was quite vintage--opened with Don't Drink the Water, and closed with Ants. Also the first time we've heard Dancing Nancies. Gilles has yet to hear his favourite--the Song that Jane Likes...guess we'll have to keep going to concerts until he does.
We're back in Italy, but justify our side-trip by Guinness and Dave. Definetely worth it!

Guinness

Well, we've made our side-track to Dublin...barely. We arrived at the Rome airport yesterday to discover all flights were cancelled due to an air traffic controllers strike. We positioned ourselves in the line to get a refund or reschedule a flight, but no one knew if they were going to reschedule flights. It was starting to look like we would have to cancel our Dublin trip, but then they announced that our flight was leaving and to check in ASAP. We were one of the only flights to depart, and we have no idea why! What a great feeling that was!
We left hot and sunny Italy, and got exactly what one would expect here--cool, damp, and cloudy. It's strange walking around the city of Dublin; it reminds us often of home, both Calgary and the Maritimes, in different ways. We visited the Guinness factory yesterday and really enjoyed the tour. The smell coming from the factory hits you when you're several blocks away, and it smells awesome--warm molasses, with coffee mixed in. Gilles was in beer heaven! We enjoyed a pint at the bar on top that has an awesome panoramic view of the whole city. We then went to the oldest pub in Dublin for another pint and supper. After, Gilles managed to find a gelato place in Dublin so that he could keep his count up--he's now at 14.
Tonight is the concert, then we fly back to Rome tomorrow. We have so many languages in our head that we no longer know when to say grazie or thank you or even merci.
Hope all's well at home!

The Roman Empire and the Catholic Church

Rome is exceeding all our expectations. We arrived here yesterday, and I do not think the temperature has fallen below 30 degrees. Today we had to honour the siesta plan (especially after Gilles' liquid lunch!). We did an awesome walking tour yesterday that oriented us to the city and taught us plenty of necessary history. The Roman part of the city is incredible. The Pantheon is much more amazing than expected. That concrete structure is still an architectural marvel. I loved the cat sanctuary. We've yet to really explore the Colesseum and Forum.
The city is much larger and greener than expected. It is a delight to stroll around in the evening. Every 5 minutes by foot is another busy piazza, or the Trevi fountain, or the Spanish Steps.
Today we started our Catholic Church sights. It's not really that hard, since they pretty much declared everything their own, including all the Roman ruins. The Sistine chapel was anticlimactic for us, but St Peter's is amazing, if not over-the-top. We have to return later this afternoon as Gilles took too many photos and killed the battery.
Don--we have two of the funniest ping pong stories to share with you when we visit.
Gelato awaits...it's all you can do to beat the heat!

PIZZA!

We visited Napoli, the home of pizza the other day. The guidebooks certainly give you strict warnings about going there, but we wanted to check it out. There are a couple of million people in this city, they live in very tight quarters, and many of them are unemployed. Traffic is crazier there than anywhere we have seen. It was crazy!! Red lights are mearly suggestions, as are which lane you wish to drive in or where you park your car. We always chose to cross alongside a local while there...they seem to understand the chaos. Gilles appreciated the city more than I did, simply because I was more apprehensive. We visited the archeological museum, which was fantastic. It has most of the valuable items that were removed from Pompeii and Herculaneum. Amy--we got to see the secret room. The Romans sure had wild imaginations!!
The most exciting part of our trip to Napoli was the pizza reward at the end. We went to a very old (1870) and arguably the best pizzeria in Napoli, hence (again probably arguably) best in the world. Two pizza options: marinara or margerita. And about as many drink options. One pizza and beer was $5. It was one of our best meals in Italy. We love the traditional style pizza, and it gives us a bigger appreciation for what Pulcinella's does in Calgary. Fortunately, we'll get to sample it again when we return to Napoli to catch a ferry to Palermo. To add to the experience, Napoli was playing a football match while we were at the pizzeria. The workers could barely peel themselves from the tv to take orders. Good thing the pizza only takes a couple of minutes to cook!

Thrills on Amalfi Coast

Hold on tight! We took the bus ride down the Amalfi Coast yesterday, and somehow avoided crashing into an oncoming vehicle, or better yet avoided plunging into the Mediterranean far below. What a breathtaking ride! The engineering feat of building that road is incredible! It reminded of of the Going to the Sun Road in Montana, but where that road disallows anything larger than a van, this one is full of large buses, and it may even be more narrow!

We visited the ancient city of Pompei that was destroyed by a volcanic eruption from Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD. They were smart people! It's amazing how their civilization does not differ that much from ours, including the brothels, bars, bakeries, and beware of dog signs.

Tomorrow we're off to Napoli for original pizza! Can't wait!

The Land of Lemons

We arrived in Sorrento yesterday after a fairly long train ride from Vernazza. What a difference the South of Italy is! It is very populated. We are staying at a Villa above the town, which gives great views of the Bay of Naples. The top of Mt. Vesuvius has been trapped in either clouds or smog since we arrived. We visited the Island of Capri today. It is beautiful! The lemons here are ubiquitous. There are some the size of a football! Well, must run...today is our first laundry day.