A Cupola in my Computer

January 16, 2011

If icicles dangle from your lashes and hoarfrost coats your lips, I’m sorry.  Really, I am.

Here in Sicily the sun warms my limbs as I work on my tiny balcony. And reflected in my computer screen is an image that makes my heart burble:

Cupola in Ragusa Ibla reflected in a computer screen, copyright Jann Huizenga

You know how some people have a zillion photos of their dog, or their kid?

I’m obsessive that way about my cupola.

Cupola of the duomo in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, copyright Jann Huizenga

Cupola in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily at dusk, copyright Jann Huizenga

Cupola in Ragusa Ibla, copyright Jann Huizenga

Cupola in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, copyright Jann Huizenga

Cupola in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, copyright Jann Huizenga

Cupola in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, copyright Jann Huizenga

Cupola in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, copyright Jann Huizenga

What would you like reflected in YOUR computer screen?

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Throw Your Dreams Into Space

January 4, 2011

Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.

Anaïs Nin

May you have the courage to toss your dreams into space like a kite in 2011, dear Reader, and may it bring back all you wish for.

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You can tell it’s the new year here in Sicily. Christmas tablecloths have been hung out to dry.

Christmas tablecloths hung out to dry in Sicily, copyright Jann Huizenga

Aprons have been washed.

Aprons hanging on the line in Sicily, copyright Jann Huizenga

Houses are being scrubbed. Duvets flap in a mild Mediterranean breeze (sort of like kites). A new start for a new year.

Duvet hung out to air in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, copyright Jann Huizenga

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Fasten Your Seatbelt: A Ride Through Sicily

December 7, 2010

A while back I groused about driving in Sicilian hill towns—about the narrowness of  lanes and the stone walls that jump out to smack your side-view mirrors.  Could you squeeze through these streets? I asked.

Now I’m going to show you what I mean. I’m piloting; my husband’s holding the Flip out the window. Put your seat back into full upright position and store your tray table. (click here for video)

By the way, this is the “road” I drive to reach my house.

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You have till the end of tomorrow, December 8,  to enter the random drawing to win Robert Camuto’s Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey. Just post a comment on any of my blog posts. Click here for more information. I’ll name the winner in my next blogpost. Thank you all for playing!

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Sweeping, Weeping in Sicily

July 12, 2010

The street sweepers here wear suits bright as orange rind and dance with twig brooms.

I see them in the early morning as I stumble across the piazza in the direction of a latte macchiato. They clear the streets of bougainvillea petals and the debris of summer weddings: hearts of confetti, bottles of Asti, handfuls of rice.

Street Sweeper in Sicily with Twig Broom, copyright Jann Huizenga

And every morning I pray, “Please Signor Sweeper, hold tight! Hold fast to those twigs. Don’t go all plasticky on me.”

I want to weep when I see the changes sweeping Sicily, her Americanization: the new shopping malls plunked down among the olives, the SUVs, the McDonald’s in Upper Ragusa (though grazie a Dio the one in nearby Modica went belly-up).

So I savor the twigs. Because someday soon they’ll disappear, never to return.

Twig Broom, Sicily, copyright Jann HuizengaClick to comment.

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Sicily, and a Romance with Old Cobbles

May 20, 2010

Shoes wear out fast in Sicily, and so do feet.

Walking on Cobbles in Sicily, Copyright Jann Huizenga

I buy every Dr. Scholl’s pain relief product on the market. I slather callus goop onto the soles of my feet. I wrap them in moleskin. I’m gellin’.

Cobbles in Sicily, Copyright Jann Huizenga

But I gladly suffer the pain. Because nothing can beat the sheer romance of old cobbles.

Cobblestones in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, Copyright Jann Huizenga

When your heels hit these medieval stones, they sing! (The stones that is, not so much the heels.)

Cobbles in Sicily, Copyright Jann Huizenga

I love the texture of cobbles under my toes, and the shine rubbed in by generations of hooves, wheels, and feet.

Old cobbles in Ragusa Ibla, Sicily, Copyright Jann Huizenga

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Readers, can you help me? Will you consider voting for my Sicily photograph in the Islands poll? Here’s the link. The link will bring you to a photo I shot of a Sicilian woman in Capo Passero  (in the extreme southeast corner of Sicily). You can vote by clicking on *My Favorite* underneath the photo. (I could win a photography course and you could win a camera!) GRAZIE MILLE! (To see thumbnails of all 22 photos in the competition, click this link.)

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