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| Approaching the Casa from the entry Road |
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| This is one of the out buildings on the farm. |
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| This is where the wine grapes were stomped and stored. |
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| Easter Lunch with the Family! |
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| Homemade Cannolli - Ricotto or Chocolate! |
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| Stairs to upstairs room and rooftop terrace! |
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| I loved the kitchen! |
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| These lights are called Bombolino's! Also Herb Changers! |
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| Dining by the Ovens. Too Windy at Easter! |
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| What a great oven, and the food! Wow! |
The plan had been to go to Pallazollo for the Easter Procession, then Dinner, and an overnight at the B & B in this small town in the hills. But alas, there were NO buses that ran on either Sunday or Monday (Easter Monday is a full holiday in Italy as well as Easter Sunday). So we went off to the market and bought great things to make a good meal and I was going to go off to Ortigia for one of the Easter Services. Yesterday we got an invitation from one of Serafina's friends Maria. She and her family have a farmhouse in the hills, it is an active olive grove (also some figs, fruit trees, and more!). They invited both of us to have Easter lunch with their family. We would be picked up at 10:30 a.m.
Rafael and Johanna (Rafael is one of Maria's sons) drove us to the farm. They each speak English quite well. Johanna is Polish and partners with Rafael, she is also Serafina's Italian tutor. They know each other well. The drive was delightful, the weather was blustery, the most chilly day since I have arrived and windy. We all had heavy coats in tow and scarves around our necks and we were ready for our outings up into the hills.
We arrived, and what enchantment! The farmhouse was built in 1903. Peppe, Maria's husband took great delight in showing me around the farm and the house. Although he knew as little English as I know Italian, he was delighted in my delight. He clearly loves the land and this space. Peppe was in charge of most of the cooking! We watched as he charred and roasted the red peppers, huge and long - and they were so good! In the ovens was beef stack, and young goat, and sausages. Later the artichokes went into the oven gloriously filled with olive oil!
There were nine family members, 3 big dogs (2 black labs) and 2 (2 month old) beagle puppies. There was lots of ball tossing and kicking and chasing around, as Maria and Peppe showed me wonderful spots in between the chores of getting ready to eat.
We all gathered around, there was local tipico new wine (from just down the road), potatoes with mozzarella and proscuitto, all of the meats from the oven, the red peppers cleaned and sliced and they were SO good! We brought a salad. Bread freshly baked. Roasted potatoes. Peppe kept putting food on my plate and his son sitting next to me, kept laughing at my delight and that there was someone who still delighted in Peppe taking full charge as the host!
For Dessert there was the cannolli --- it was so good! Maria sent two home with us, and I am eating one more for supper. There was also a custard like dessert with many strawberries.
What an experience. Everyone has said to me how welcoming the Sicilian people are and my day with the Da Vita family reinforced every positive thing I could have imagined. What a celebration of spring, of rising above, of rebirth.
I am going to roll off the plane in Minneapolis on Wednesday!
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