In 1968 a 6.1 earthquake rattled the Belice valley in Sicily, destroying Santa Margherita di Belice – where my grandfather was born.
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Caving In. Puglia Sea Adventure
More from Grotta Palazzese. A memorable evening in the Puglia seaside town of Polignano a Mare. If you plan on going, make sure to check their schedule as it varies with the time of year.
Time and Time Again
So I’ve now been flying over 10 hours and I have to say its really not been that bad thanks to my trusty iPad. I have spent many hours watching “The Good Wife”, a television series I hadn’t watched before. I don’t watch much television so these kinds of trips give me an opportunity to…
All My Bags Are Packed. One Hour To Go.
Excited? Over the moon!!!
Italian Word of the Week from Gemelli Press: Arrangiarsi
Gemelli Press has a great new weekly series featuring a new Italian word every week. Here’s an excerpt from their first entry. Well done Gemelli! ARRANGIARSI [ahr-rahn-JAHR-see]: TO ARRANGE ONESELF This is one of Italian’s famous reflexive verbs, so “si arrangia”means “she arranges herself” or “he arranges himself.” OK, minds out of the gutter. That…
I before E…. except after C
This is a rhyme all of us learned in school when studying grammar. Not too hard to learn and it pretty much holds true. Receive. Perceive. Believe. Yes. It works. Enter, the Italian language. So many grammar rules with so many exceptions. It goes on and on. Makes me dizzy trying to understand the rule,…
Mondays at the Marketplace
A couple of years ago I became interested in learning about my Italian ancestors. With Bavetta being the family name, I set out to find them in Sicily. This has proven to be more difficult than I thought. So I built a webpage Bavettas.com and started building a family tree – thinking I could figure…
So much to see, so little time……
So, last night I had dinner at my mom’s house and thought I would take that opportunity to ask her what I should see while I’m in Florence. She used to teach art history so she knows a thing or two about it. While I knew that Florence has a remarkable treasure trove of interesting…
Finding the perfect walking shoes…..and other fairy tales.
In a perfect world there would be perfect walking shoes. Or so I keep thinking. A while back I noticed that the shoe stores had stopped carrying my shoe size. “Do you have this one in a five and a half?” I’d ask, dangling my latest find under their nose. I wasn’t prepared for the…
The map tells the story……
Here’s a map and description of the wonderful tour Nada Vergili of Nada’s Italy has put together for us. If you click on the blue markers you can see a description of what we will be doing. I have a few days on my own before and after the tour – not sure of where I…
Italy....and Me 