Sicily Day 2 Ciao! Cefalu

After 13 hour pilgrimage to Sicily, we arrived in Palermo, rented our car, which unfortunately turned out to be a Volkswagen van instead of the smaller car I originally ordered. There’s no “Farfegnugen” (driving pleasure) in Sicily with a big car. We enjoyed a relaxing hour drive along the coastline to Sicily. It was a great anticipation of what most our visit will be like. From the look of the map, we will probably drive about 75% of the Sicilian coastline, all providing beautiful water views and landscape. Upon arrival we checked into our hotel, the “Villa Magara” and opened the bottle of wine on the table, skipping the nap we were really seeking.

After soaking in more beautiful scenery, literally everywhere is water and beauty, we freshened up and walked to my cousins home, which was ironically at the end of our road, 10 minutes away. Perfect planning in many respects from the location and view. Angelo, my cousins father, prepare an beautiful meal, which consisted of neonata, baby fish. We also had anchovies, amazing bread, local cheese and cured meat.

It was a great to see some of the cousins which included Giuseppe who will be 103 years old on Monday. Daniela who I was closest to in age growing up, her 2 children Alessio (3) and Gariele (2 months), Angelo their father, and I was able to meet Ina who is Angelo’s girlfriend who has been a blessing since the passing of his wife, Maria Pia several years ago. Maria was the relative of my grandmother’s and the reason we are connected to Sicily. All my life growing up, my grandmother would talk about her and Angelo, and their children as they were born. It was a beautiful night in their home, and from there Angelo dropped us off for a long night of rest.

The Neonata was prepared similar to salmon cakes, the olive oil is made at the family olive field, the small dish has anchovies. The dish with a plate over it is a vegetable similar to bok choy.

Monica and Gabriel

In the background is a painting of Maria Pia, which my grandmother painted. It was nice to see some of her artwork around the house still