it”s been so long since i last wrote and so much has happened. As most of you know, we were in India for 6 weeks, learning music in Varanasi. In a spur of the moment decision, we decided to help out Giovanni”s family with some moral support. They were in the middle of trying to decide whether to stay living in Germany, where they”ve been for the last 2.5years or to move back down to Sicily, to the parent”s hometown, where 30 years ago they built a house in which they have only ever used for holidays in the summer.( apart from a few years when Gio was a teenager-most of his childhood was spent in Tuscany).
So we, as usual, made a spontaneous booking to leave Varanasi the very next day.(One of my favourite feelings of freedom while travelling, the chance to be spontaneous!!), to take a 12 hr train to Dehli, where we waited for a midnight flight. It was a great price last minute ticket which made things easier financially, but it was cheap because it was one of those never-ending flights.We flew for 8 hours and then waited 11 hours in the airport in the United Arab States of Emirates. Then it would be another 10 hrs flight to Europe. Giovanni had picked up lovely Indian stomach bug on the last day which he had to see the airport pharmacist about. He took it as a last embrace from India and knew that it would have been too lucky to not get sick at all in India!I also was very sick the last 2 weeks in India. I had a double whammy of two bugs, giardia and amoeba which apparently needed to be treated, not with normal tablet antibiotics but with 5 days of injections! The rest of this tale continues with terrible side effects 1 week into our stay in Sicily. Anyway, we were very excited as we finally arrived at Frankfurt airport and took the 2 hr train ride to Mannheim.(We noted immediatedly the price difference between India and Europe!! ay ay ay!) It was really exciting to see the family after 20 months! Even if seeing them regularly through skype helped to bridge the time gap. The girls were shy at first, so cute in their matching pink pyjamas, so fresh and smelling of talcum powder. Emily had grown so much) she"s now 2.5 and Mischelle is nearly 4.) Mischelle remembered us from our last visit and warmed up to me quickly. For some reason, she was intimidated by Giovanni and was too scared to say a word to him for the first week! She talked with me , unless Zio ( uncle) Giovanni was in the room!
Anyway it was like stepping back in time, as the family is always the same, the house super crisp and clean, with the smell of freshly washed floors and delicious food in the oven. In fact, the first thing we ate when we came in the door that night after our tiring flight was Mamma"s homemade pizza( which Giovanni had ordered from India!!) We had both lost a few kilos by being sick in India and Giovanni was determined to put them back on. It was bound to happen in no time!
The next day after finalising packing bags we headed off on the big drive down to Sicily. The plan was to go for a holiday over the August summer break and see how they felt being there. If they wanted to stay to live there permanently, some of them would return to pack up the house and drive back down again, sending a removal truck with all their things and tying up loose ends in Germany. Mamma had been working there doing a very strenuous cleaning job but had been off on sickleave for 3 months and was still feeling waek. Without her salary, they couldn"t afford the rent in Germany, yet here in Sicily they have a house waiting for them. Here, they are all able to live better and integrated into the community as they speak the language and have heaps of friends and family. They fit better here because things are old fashioned down here and they are certainly not up with the modern age of technology. It seemed like the best decision for everyone, although things in this family are extremely complicated and nothing seems to run smoothly or easily.Anyway!!
The trip down here was extrememly long and tiring. It"s a 27hr drive which we did in two cars, with their little annoying dog called Lucky( who is actually very unlucky becasue he suffers from epilepsy and heart conditions), 2 small kids, 7 adults( 6 of whom have hot Italian temperaments)!, only two drivers and no working stereo! We stopped alot and as you can see in the photos to come, on every rest stop we enjoyed another slice of mammas pizza or un panino ( gormet bread rolls). It was a great trip with plenty of time for chatting and catching up on the last 20 months. I swear Giovanni talked for 26 of the 27 hours( pausing only while napping)! he said it helped him to saty awake at the wheel. Giovanni and i were shattered already from our long trip from India, including jetlag and recovering ffom our various bacterias!
The trip is more than 2000km and passes through Germany, Switzerland and the entire counrty of Italy, down to Calabria where there is a car ferry to Messina, Sicily. From there we drove to Campo Bello di Licata, near Agrigento on the map. The landscape here is dry and arid, the countryside divided into family plots of land. There are olive trees, oranges, peaches,figs and almond trees, as well as fields of tomatoes and melons. The land is rocky and dry and amazing that anything grow at all. It some places it looks like north africa, morocco with hazy rocky brown hills stretching to the horizon.
The first few days was a huge mission to clean the house which had not been opened in 5 years!! There was so much to do with dust everywhere, insects and moisture.Luckily, the Stella family cleaning agency love cleaning, poliching, washing floors and dusting, but even so with the help of all of us it took three full days to get it sparkling, every nook and cranny having been arranged in perfect order!!
After the house mission, we were finally able to go to the beach. It"s a 25 min drive from town and it was glorious Sicilian summer weather, extrememly hot dry heat and a bright blue sky. The water was beautiful, the mediterrean sea being much warmer than the southern australian beaches.
It was the first time to the beach for the girls, so it took them half of the day to cope with the sand between their toes and idea of getting their hands dirty while playing with the bucket and spade. At first they were too scared to go near the shore but slowly both of them warmed up and ended up enjoying the experience. It was great to finally, for the first time in all the years of visitong the family, to be together outside in natue. We hsd only ever spent time inside the house, which after a while drives two free spirits like us crazy with cabin-fever! Finally we were enjoying the famous summer holiday at the beach in Sicily that we had talked about for so long.We pent most days at the beach in those first 2 weeks, while the weather was good, each evening meeting more and more extended family. Cousins, aunties, uncles, cousin"s children ect. What a huge Sicilian family Giovanni has. Up until now i hadn"t met anyone because the family has always lived far away and isolated from all their relatives, in Tuscany, the Germany.
Everyone was really happy to finally meet the Australian ring-in that they"d heard so much about. They were so happy to see Giovanni after 8 years that he hadn"t been back to Sicily.He had heaps of stories to tell and things to explain about our life in Australia. He is considered quite a novelty here as he is so different from traditional sicilians who have short neat hair, are clean shaven and dress very smartly when they go into town.( they also are very closed minded and macho!)
He had to get used to again, the way his relatives pry into his life asking the famous questions......when are you going to cut your hair? or shave? at least most of the questions they don"t need to ask anymore because they have been fulfilled....like when are going to buy a house? when are you going to find yourself a nice wife and settle down?
They still have one question they ask us both......why we still don"t have children! and they can"t understand that we are still free spirits travelling the world together! Maybe they are jealous because here girls still get married really young 18 or 19 years old and have children straight away and barely travel to the next town!
It"s still very traditional here( most people don"t even know where Australia is and think it"s part of America!)
We were lucky to be here for the big event of the year for the town of Campo bello di licata. It"s called "La festa della Madonna" (mother mary"s festival) and for a few noghts they light the facade of the town cathedral with coloured lights, set up a stage with music, traditional sicilian sword dancing, markets down the main street, everyone parading in their best clothes and highheels, out eating gelato and pizza and enjoying the balmy summer evenings while they last. It was a really lovely atmosphere in the piazza( town square) with people eating in big family groups at tables, oldies dancing to slow italian songs, kids playing on the merry-go-round and teenagers gathering to eat gelato and flirt out of sight of their protective parents!
It was such a Sicilian summer atmosphere with fireworks and all. As you"ll see in the photos there was also an amazing parade of traditionally dressed horses and carriages.All dresses in pompoms, bells, mirrors and feather head pieces, pulling carrieges intricately carved and painted with traditional sicilian scenes. This tradition apparently originated from Arabic influences in Sicily hundreds of years ago. The horses did a few rounds of the town, with throngs of villagers out in their best clothes to watch and cheer their friends and family. It"s not a race but more like a paprasde and the best dressed horse and carriage win. At the head of the parade is a float with a statue of the Madonna mother mary crowned in a halo carrying baby jesus, which is taken around the town and then placed back in the cathedral with honour. It reminded me of carnivales in South America where catholicism is still going strong.
It"s been great to meet all of Giovanni"s cousins who i had heard so much about and to be welcomed into the family so warmly. I really felt the warmth and hospitality of the Sicilians in the last 10 days as Giovanni hasn"t been here and i have not been well. Giovanni headed back up to Germany with all but Maria( his older sister) and the kids, to help with the long drive and to pack up the house in Germany. They neede to fill the removal truck and send it back down to Sicily, so they decided to drive back up in one car and i offered to stay here with Maria to help with the kids. This was becasue at that stage half of the family had decided to transfer permanently in Sicily. In the meantime they have decided to all move here, so there has been alot to do up in germany.
They hope to arrive together with the truck in the next few days and in the meantime i!ve been a full-time nanny for the kids while Maria has been cleaning away, organsing the house for the two families to live separately on the two separate floors. The kids have been getting used to my discipline and rules and are becoming easier to handle. They are so gorgeuos but are very demanding and clingy. They have learnt that by being sooky, grumpy and thowing tantrums they2ll get there way, becasue they"ve grown up with so many adults around. Not with me!!Mischelle especially is learning that if she wants Zia( aunty) to play with her, she has to act differently. It"s been great to spend so much time with them. They really love me and Mischelle asks often if she can come to Australia with me!!
The problem over the last ten days is that I have had a really full-on side effect from the strong antibiotic injections i took in India.I developed an absys in my private parts which caused me unbelievable pain for more than a week. i was taking strong painkillers for a week every 8 hrs just to cope. i couldn"t even walk and could only painfully sit down with a cushion. i couldn"t even sleep for the pain and until these new antibiotics started to take effect after 4 days of trying a cream,i really felt desperate!! It was such a shame that my darling wasn"t there to help me. He was so sorry to be so far away and not be able to help me. Anyway, basically i"ve become a pin-cushion with all the injections i!ve had ( another 7 injections of antibiotics this week!) But luckily the pain is passing and I"m returing to my normal self, even though, i miss Giovanni and can"t wait til they get back. Today"s my birthday and I"m sorry I"ve been so out of touch. Thankyou for your msgs.) unfortunately my msgs seem to not arrive to you!) We"re going to celebrate when we"re all together this weekend.
It!s been a full-on time here in Sicily, but very enjoyable. Hopefully when Giovanni gets back we can spend some more time at the beach and enjoy the beautiful peace of nature. I"ve got cabin-fever from being so house bound in the last ten days. I"ve realised how much we live outdoors in Australia, each familywith their own space in their own backyard or at least with so much parks around and bushwalks to do. here in Europe with the high population, people live so cramped in apartments and everything around is concrete.Travelling always makes me appreciate what i have back home. Of course, I"ve been loving it here, great weather, great people and delicious food. I"ve lost track of how many pizzas we"ve eaten and gelato!! I "m pretty sure I"ve over-compensated for the few kilos lost in India!!
sending all our love to you all!!
may your lives be full of love and light
un bacione( a big kiss)
jess and giovanni!!!
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