Well, the pizza just gets better after the sun goes down. Aliyah and I are daily customers at one of the wonderful little bakeries in this simple little town. They make the most incredible zucchini and white sause pizza about the size of two healthy slices for only $.70 Euro. (1.00) The only trouble is that the store down the street from them makes a better one. The one common thread throughout all of Italy seems to be a love of carbohydrates. Protein is hard to find, let alone order, unless you want to step into the pork and beef world. Breakfast means some form of cappucino and a pastry. The cafes are the backbone of the gastronomic world here. They cover all needs from morning until late at night: The cappucino scene turns into the pizza scene, then the gelato scene, and then the alcohol scene, and then the late night dinner scene. Of course, we are here in the tuna capital, and the tuna is ridiculously fresh, served with drizzles of olive oil and a bit of oregano. (Aliyah did point out that they never seemed to use oregano in Tuscany, but here it is used extensively.)
On Saturday night the one piazza in town and all of the surrounding streets are blocked off from the little traffic there is here, and it seems as if everyone brings their kids, dates, grandmoms etc. to hang out and eat. The cafes, gelaterias, and restaurants all have outside seating, so it is quite an enjoyable time, made even more enjoyable by the animated conversational style and potentially explosive nature of the Italians. Aliyah loves to hear the kids talking and working things out, because they seem to use so many words and hand gestures, and are so flamboyant. If our communities were built around piazzas, we would have much greater social networking with our neighbors. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to have numerous outdoor eateries either.
Today Aliyah and i rented a Vespa for the day and took off to explore the island and find some beaches. The island is mostly jagged rock shoreline, so the beaches are not everywhere. The island itself is a floral wonder, and even the weeds seem to boast the most brilliant colors. There are lemon, orange, olive, almond, and countless other fruit and nut trees, and the farming is extensive with the freshest artichokes ever. We have also not had a tomato that was not perfect since we have been here. The Capreze salads are amazing, some are even served with the freshest and lightest ricotta I've ever had. Aliyah also pointed out that she never had so many dishes or sweets with ricotta in Tuscany, but she is making up for it in Sicily and the Egadi Islands. I can eat and eat, but I call her the Little Horsey That Could because she is holding her own and enjoying every moment of it. After all, this is the culture that exists here: To eat a little now, eat a little later, eat a little bit more, and then maybe even a little bit more after that!
I know I keep trying to describe the island and our activities, and instead, I keep digressing about another gastronomic pinnacle, but please bear with me and don't run to the refrigerator everytime you read a post. Yes, the beauty of the beaches is all you could want. These are not the endless pristine sand beaches that you would expect, but they are gems with carved out caves and grottos everywhere. I can't imagine the Romans or Greeks making much headway over this jagged stuff. On that note, there are still many fortified, concrete bunkers from WW 2 around the island. I know Sicily and her surrounding islands were quite a battleground, but I will defer to Grandpa Syd Posner to get the real story.
We have taken many, many pictures, but I cannot post them until we return to Sicily in two days. Then, we will be able to use Aliyah's computer. On that note, we did have some outstanding photo ops today, and we pulled off most of them. I did get to shoot an almost exact duplicate shot from the movie, Gladiator. It is the final scene when Maximus dies and he is walking toward his wife and son in the afterlife. Maximus is walking toward them in a golden field of Italian wheat with the wind blowing, and his wife is standing at the opposite end of the field looking radiant. Today I made Aliyah jump a fence and walk into the most golden field of Italian wheat imaginable and I took some beautiful shots of her. She has never looked more Italian, and of course, she is a lovely subject.
They are very strict about computer usage here. In all hotels you must either buy an access card with so many hours on it, or use the office's computer, which I am doing now, and even then you must fill out a form and log sheet. Also, this computer is not American, so some of the key positions are in different positions: the slash and vertical line are where the number one usually is- the dash and underline is at the bottom- the apostrophe is under the question mark on the top line- far right- but the most frustrating thing is the capital letter key is not to the left of your left pinky finger- whatever!
Well, I will sign off for now because the cigarette smoke is killing me where I am sitting. Ciao from beautiful Favignana.
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