So after another ridiculously early morning we successfully got ourselves to the airport on time, had our cafe forte (thanks to Jo's ingenious flask idea!), paid for our overweight luggage (ouch!) and caught our flight to Catania.
We then caught a bus to Messina (tropo caldo- no air con?!) where we were picked up by Sara and Andrew's (our travel buddies) family for the last leg of our journey to their home town called- Massa Santa Lucia... A little town of 400 inhabitants in the hills north of Messina, looking down to the sea and across to Calabria!
We were greated with the well known hospitality of the area- a beautiful lunch was prepared of pasta, crumbed meat balls (my description gives this food no justice!!), fresh salad, home made bread and wine, freshly picked figs and then to top it all up... Cafe fredo (goes by the name of "Shakarado" or something like that... We have Australianized it by saying "Shake it up" with a thick aussie- italiano accent!)...
One word- delizziosa!
What a contrast to Rome! This little town is dead quite except for the church bell that goes of on the hour, half hour and quarter hour... Luckily I sleep through anything and everything!!
We went for a walk in the afternoon and checked out where Sara's dad and Andrew's grandfather (who were brothers) grew up... We were taken to the sheds where the have an oven for the bread, and a barrel for the home made wine... They have rabbits, chickens, an old 1950's baby blue Vespa and all kinds of random things in those sheds (which used to be old houses but are no longer safe to live in!)...
Since the town is so small, visitors are a pretty big thing- especially if they are all the way from Australia... We went to the town's tiny Piazza and everyone came out, curious to know who we are... Sara and Andrew got to meet people who knew their parents/ grandparents... Some said they even went to school together! That was pretty cool, watching them discover their family "roots"!
My little buddy Federico (Sara's cousins son) is a little photographer in the making... He followed me around, asking me all sorts of questions about my camera in Italiano... I wasn't able to give him any good answers unfortunately but I helped him take a photo of his Nonno and I think he was pretty happy with that!
What a cutie! Bello!!
Such a cute shot, you'll have to study up on Italian photographic terms!
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