A Scrap of Life

H appy Fat Tuesday! The boys had school today so we were off to adventure with just Jimmy & Gin. Today we celebrated Fat Tuesday with a trip to the nearby bakery for some Italian breakfast pastries. I had a delicious one with Nutella inside, Brian enjoyed his filled with ham and cheese and Jimmy and Virginia split two pastries filled with sweet ricotta - one baked and one fried. It was a tasty start to our morning. We also saw these  boob pastries. The story of Saint Agatha, the patron saint of Catania, says that she was a 15 year old girl who made a vow of virginity and refused to wed. In response she was tortured and they cut off one of her breasts. So all around you'll see breast pastries with cherry nipples  and it makes us laugh each time.  Our plan today was to go to Acireal to see some of their Carnavale displays. Our fist Carnavale visit on Sunday was to the city that has amazing costumes. Acireal is known for their amazing parade floats. We arrived in time fo...

Another busy day in Sicily with Jimmy & Gin. We started out early for the drive to the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. It took a couple of hours to get there, as it’s on the central southern side of the island (they live central east side). It was a gorgeous drive and we got to see a lot of different landscape along the way. Agrigento is an amazing group of Greek ruins. Unlike the ones in Greece, these were built of sandstone so they haven’t held up as well, but are more red in color. There were ruins, some amazing statues and a few spots where they helped show how the temples were built, so I walked away learning something new. It was especially beautiful and fragrant with the almond trees in bloom. The almond trees were blooming while we were there so we had to get a few shots with those as well. They smelled really good. While there I took a picture of the nearby city with the same name. It’s interesting because the Sicilians love living packed like sardines in these hil...