It's "Aci" Day

Greetings

Today was “Aci” day: Acitrezza, Acicastello and Acireale. All are towns on the eastern coast of Sicily. We had been to Acireale and it is a good size city. Acitrezza and Acicastello are resort towns. They all are built into hill and cliffsides overlooking the Ionian Sea,

Acitrezza harbor boasts the Island of the Cyclops (Isole Ciclopi).




This is also a fishing village along with its appeal to tourism. Rockport, MA comes to mind. Of course it being January it is fairly quiet here. The waterfront is filled with condos, apartments, hotels and restaurants. During a short rain squall we stopped and had pizza in a small place where the guy serving showed us a souvenir from his trip to Galveston, TX. The pizza reminded Chris of the kind his grandmother made. The dough was very substantial like Grandma Rienzo’s. She used a scissors to cut it.

Here is an attempt to capture Acitrezza in panorama:


The streets, of course are extremely narrow and those climbing the hillside are very steep:



Gini and Chris have found a little pensione that needs a little refurbishing only a block from the harbor: The car is included if you buy now.




The streets, so far, in Sicily are not the clean byways that we remember from Tuscany. There is a lot of stray trash. There are ubiquitous recycling bins. These bins stand about five feet tall and are color coded for the appropriate deposit. There are ones for paper plastic, glass and other trash. This is similar to many places in Europe. However most of the bins here are overflowing and seem to be spewing the overflow to their immediate surroundings. Many places along the country roads seem to have generated Alice’s Restaurant logic with garbage whereby many small piles have joined one big pile because it was easier.

Ironically people are constantly sweeping their steps and walkways. The assumption being, well my space is clean, what about yours?

In the harbor we ran into soccer buoys that would definitely appeal to Yankee ingenuity:




Further down the coast, almost in Catania, is Acicastello. Perched on the water along the waterfront is the old castle. We did not take a tour so we can make up whatever history we want about it:



If you look north up the coast you can look back on Acitrezza:




Funerals seem to be a big deal here. Each day as we drive into Riposto there seems to be a funeral happening. Today in Acicastello we encountered mourners in a drove moving slowly through the narrow streets, stopping all traffic. Our New Orleans funerals would be quite similar.

A common sight in the streets, on the roads, in yards are fruit trees. Here along the streets of Acicastello we encountered another nymph displaying her wares:





At the end of our waterfront walk we looked north at both sites along the coast:



Now if you can imagine Mount Etna breathing over your shoulder to the left you can imagine the visual drama here. Ah, a picture you say, well when the clouds and traffic behave there will be one forthcoming.

Our ride home brought us through Acireale where we patiently waited for workers to return from lunch at about 5pm. Presumably the stores had been closed since 1pm. The guys in the delicatessen were kind to Chris when he said, in Italian, how bad his Italian is. We were successful in obtaining freshly sliced prosciutto, salami and asiago cheese. Meanwhile Gini collected the rest of the groceries and we were able to put it all on a credit card. What, money? Ha!

Our foray to a butcher was only somewhat successful when our veal really turned out to be some less constrained beef. However on the ride home we stopped in a tiny town for our fifth attempt to find cannoli. As we entered we were again disappointed to not see any cannoli displayed. Chris spoke up since everyone in the place was looking at us and explained we wanted cannoli. In a few chaotic minutes he realized the reason they were not displayed was because they made them fresh for you while you wait. Caitlin would be jealous. Eventually we were safe in our apartment with our pictures and our purchases. Now to enjoy Gini’s caprese, stuffed beef and eggplant extravaganza. And then – cannoli!

Siracusa? Ah…domani! Buona sera and buona notte.