April 26, 2010
Tragedy in the bathroom.
Remember those beastly expensive Italian glass tiles I naively ordered?
These are them, installed.
When I sprayed glass cleaner over my new sea-blue walls, wiping away the obscuring film of white plaster the mason had left, I could not believe my eyes. Not a single straight line! As if an ill-tempered four-year old had been hard at work.
How could I have allowed this to happen, you ask?
Well, early in the day, curiosity kept prompting me to run down two flights of stairs and check on the work. After 30 minutes of this, the mason said I made him nervous, and would I please go away and cease to bother him? The work is molto delicato, he said, and it is necessario to concentrate and be left solo.
And so away I went, full of cockeyed hope that I’d soon have a useable bathroom.
I returned to the house after two days, descended into the winery-cum-guest quarters and beheld anarchia. Thousands of tiny mosaic tiles stuck willy-nilly onto the wall. I felt like I’d been gored.
But I refused to face reality. Don’t panic, I told myself. It’s rustic. Rustic is good. It fits the theme of the wine cantina. Molto rustico! Charming in its own way. Isn’t it? Isn’t it?????
I called over a few friends to have a look. Horrid, they said, daring to utter the bald truth. Really horrid.
It doesn’t look bad from afar, though, does it? If you kind of … squint at it?
Now what do I do.
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April 15, 2010
It’s that time of year again. The ripe time. The jasmine is sweet; cows low in verdant pastures; a soft breeze blows from Africa.
It’s time for Sicilians to begin doing what they most love doing: eating gelato.
Sicilians claim to have invented ice cream by mixing citrus syrups with the snow of Mount Etna. According to Mary Taylor Simeti, though, the reality is more complicated.
The place to go for ice cream in Southeast Sicily—besides the wonderful Caffè Sicilia in Noto—is Gelati Divini in Ragusa Ibla. You won’t find any icky Baskin Robbin’s flavors (no Cotton Candy, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Oreo Cookies ‘n Cream). These are Old World gelati for grown-ups: Rose Petal, Cream of Marsala, Jasmine, Honey of a Thousand Flowers, Fennel, Persimmon, Moscato d’Asti, Nero d’Avola. Rosaria, the charming proprietess, will always let you sample before you order.
Gelati Divini
Sicilian gelato has much less fat than American ice cream, so indulging is not really a sin.
Chocolate and Vino Cotto (Cooked Wine)
Taylor Simeti also recommends the Gelateria Cappadonia in tiny Cerda as the best gelateria in western Sicily. (Cerda is about an hour’s drive east of Palermo). In season, they make an artichoke gelato! Do you have a favorite gelateria in Sicily? Or maybe a great Sicilian gelato recipe? Please share!
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April 5, 2010
…
Like spun sugar.
Snow white.
Sicilian lace, full of grace.
It’s women’s work, an eye-straining affair.
Twenty years ago Sicily’s shops brimmed with handmade local lace. Now it’s often made in China.
Sicily’s art of lacemaking is dying, and isn’t that a shame?
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Note for tourists: There’s a fine little museum of Sicilian hand embroidery and lace in Chiaramonte Gulfi in southeastern Sicily (a hilltop village also known for its olive oil museum and pork restaurant, Majore).
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March 27, 2010
To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is to not have seen Italy at all, for in Sicily lies the key to everything.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Italian Journey
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Thanks everyone for all the great comments you’ve left in the last few weeks. It was hard to choose a winner in the contest, but finally, with my husband’s help, I narrowed it down to Melissa Muldoon, for the comment she left here. Congratulations Melissa! She’ll receive DK’s Top 10 Sicily. Melissa is a super (or as she says, “crazy”) student of the Italian language, and blogs in Italian, often about Italian cultural topics. Check out her blog here.
And watch for my next book contest coming next month!
March 24, 2010
1. The buttercup sprouting from stone
2. The lovely laundry
3. The layering of history
4. The little truck
5. The arched doorway
6. The coppola
7. The ice cream sandwich
8. The stuffed scaccia
9. The sacred olive
10. And, (drum roll) … the Sicilian!
What are your favorite Sicilian things?
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All photos and text on BaroqueSicily are Copyright of Jann Huizenga ©2009-2015, unless otherwise noted. Material may not be copied or re-published without written permission. All rights reserved.
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