January 14th, 2017

Thought it'd be a good time to update my mom's health status.  Not much to say other than she seems good as before her fall...at least when I talk to her.  Doing all the things she used to do, with the exception of driving her car, which all of the greater Palo Alto area should be thankful for.  She misses the freedom it gave her but is taking her first Uber ride tomorrow.  Think she is gonna like that once she gets the hang of it.  Pretty damn amazing and infinitely better than where I thought she'd be at this point.

At the end of the last post, we had just finished enjoying some fresh buffalo mozzarella (and head banging on 2,400 year old Greek temples) on the west coast of Italy.  We wanted to make Palermo in Sicily our final destination so we looked at the map and talked with some folks in search of some interesting destinations in between.  Not a ton of people we knew had been south of Rome, and even fewer south of Naples.  Betty is a major follower of Conde Nast and she fed me a steady diet of "best of" Italy articles on line.  We landed on two cities in the Puglia region...Alberobello and Matera...before we headed south to Sicily.

These towns are both at the same latitude as Naples, but are on the east coast in the Achilles tendon region of Italy.  Took about 4.5 hours to drive to Alberobello.  I hadn't heard of this place prior to our trip and it is known for their Trulli. 

These became a popular form of architecture in this region of Italy in the 1800's and they can only be found here.  The town is designated UNESCO.  It is a quiet place but the charm factor is set to fairy tale.    We got in late one evening and planned to spend the next day walking around.  There was a very local outdoor market that sold fresh produce and knockoff jeans,  and throughout the entire town, speakers that played music....Christmas songs at this time of year all of which were in English.  At night, with the music still playing, there was a constant light show being played out on these buildings.

We stayed in one that we booked off of Trip Advisor (who knew they had their own BnB page) and it was a quiet day.  I stopped in for a spicy cappuccino from this dude that really played up the Devil inside.  His store was all things hot pepper, he was dressed in his red outfit and had cultured the whiskers in just that certain kind of way.

It was also a good stop for laundry.  I am in charge of doing the Imbros and AM had some for her clan.  We had scouted a laundromat prior to the trip and was about an 8 minute walk from our Trullo.  We went early and no one was there, so we tried to navigate the automatic machines.  We quickly realized that they didn't give change and we only had bigger bills.  AM and I did a quick rock/paper/scissors to see who was gonna go and find a place to break our bills down.  I won (hot tip...people always throw paper first) and off she went.  As soon as she turned the corner, the laundromat proprietor Barbara walks in, speaks English and says she'll finish off our laundry for us and to come back in a couple hours.  Barbara was funny...told her we live in Taiwan and she said she had been there.  Of course she hadn't as she confused Taiwan and Thailand as everyone does.  Took AM a good 30 minutes to get back with the broken down bills so I had a chance to grab a cafecito or two with the locals.  Never lose rock/paper/scissors.

Not only are the Trulli unique to the region, but they eat a dish of pureed fava beans and chicory that is served everywhere in town.  It was fine, the consistency of finely whipped mashed potatoes, but understand why it hasn't swept the globe.  We also encountered the local grape and enjoyed it.  They called it Primitivo and upon later research is a zinfandel, which I like.  Drinking wine in Italy is awesome cause they don't have massive wine lists and every bottle is close to 14 euros,.  I'm not picky and only care that it is red so usually ordered up the house or local specialty.  Sometimes, they'd come in an unmarked bottle, but there was something about drinking a wine called Primitivo that made me feel less evolved.

When in Europe, the kids were allowed to partake.  The moms were not as liberal as I was in offering the kids wine.  I looked up the local law and you are allowed to buy alcohol when you are 18, but are allowed to be served wine and beer in licensed establishments at the age of 16.   Babydoll (13) had no interest, but the Boy and Chiquita (17 and 16 respectively) wanted to play.  Kinda sucked as they would take some of the contents away from me, but my philosophy is that they should see how booze can be a fun thing and learn how not to abuse it while under a responsible adults supervision.  As long as the two moms were there, there would be at least two responsible adults at the table.  Chiquita's mom would make sure the pour for her was smaller than the rest of us and that she didn't get a second glass, until the last night, which was New Year's Eve, when she got two big glasses.  Noticed that she was getting a bit louder as the second glass emptied and someone said that she was getting drunk.  In a louder voice, she said/slurred 'I'm not drunk'.  I told her that is exactly what a drunk person would say (and sound like). 

The food was getting better the further from Naples we went and we had some nice meals here,  The best touch on the second night in Alberobello (restaurant was in the basement of an old Trullo that used to house an olive oil processing factory) was the chopping block of chocolate they brought at the end of the meal.  Have got to get me one of those.

Our destination the next day was Matera, but we had time to pop into another town on the way.  The two choices identified prior to the trip were Ostuni and Polignano a Mare.  Seemed like a coin flip and we decided on Ostuni.  Polignano is on the coast while Ostuni is a hill town and we thought it a better destination in December.  Ostuni has an interesting history...destroyed by Hannibal in the Punic Wars, attacked by the Turks, etc....but the main attraction was that all of the walls are painted white.  They are that way because during the plague, the locals started whitewashing their homes with quick lime and the plague started abetting.  They thought it lucky and didn't connect the facts scientifically that the quick lime suppressed the virus until centuries later, but the tradition was kept.

More of a summer destination  so it was sleepy, but charming and old.  The main attraction is the museum which houses the remains of a 25,000 year old pregnant woman.

 Olive groves leading to the sea. 

Arrived Matera late afternoon.  Betty had co-workers that went there and raved about it with good cause.  Said to be "one of" the oldest consistently inhabited cities, the towns dwellings are carved into the sides of the hill in a narrow canyon.  We learned what a Rupestrian church was...one that is carved out of rock.

 This one had remnants of frescoes from 1200ish.  The remnants were due to the fact that when the town was abandoned in the 1960's, some Germans came in and stole them off the walls.  The southern part of  Italy has seen domination since history began by a host of civilizations from the Phoenicians to Nazi Germany, and they all left there mark but it doesn't feel like there is any lingering animosity towards them.  The Spanish get shit at various places as they were big on tearing down old buildings to make new ones (even more than the Inquisition), and these German thieves were the only ones people seemed big on being pissed about.  Learned something  (I didn't know and found) interesting.  The frescoes depicted saints and such holding up two figures and the lady walking us around this morning said that the two finger depiction was Byzantine (Eastern Roman Catholic Empire) as that part of the Christian faith believes that Christ was both human and divine.  Western Roman Catholics depict the figures with three fingers, signifying the holy trinity.  And subtle yet major difference that was part of the great schism between this Catholics. 

Matera's history fascinated.  8000 years old with people still living in the same cave dwellings.  In the 1960's, the government of Italy forced the inhabitants of the caves to move to the city at the top of the ravine as living conditions had not changed in 8000 years.  No electricity or running water, people living in their caves along with their animals, whose dung they collected to provide heat.  Cholera and malaria was still rampant.  They later realized the cultural marvel they had and have wired/plumbed a good part of it and now the ravine has hotels and restaurants.  It's biggest claim to modern fame was that it was the location where Mel Gibson filmed Passion of the Christ as it looks like Jerusalem of 1AD.  Have never been able to make it through that film, nor had any of the Catholics in our party nor our Catholic tour guide.  Stunning...and look at that weather.

On our tour, across the valley were a ton of caves that you had to hike up/down to and across a sketchy looking rope bridge.  No way was I going down there with my knees already barking, so we sent the kids alone.  They said it was freaky

The mom's and I took the opportunity to have lunch at the place that Mel Gibson frequented when he was filming there.  The owner was so proud of this and he comes out to show us the picture of he and Mel over a pot of sauce and gives us a commemorative postcard depicting the event.  I might just have to watch that pile of garbage.

We knew we had a long driving day at some point so arranged it for Christmas Day to take advantage of the closed businesses and light traffic.  6+ hours in the car that day.  I decided to break up the run of KEXP live shows with an episode of the In Our Times podcast about the Black Plague.  Picked that one as it starts off saying that in 1349, a ship arrived in the port of Messina carrying the plague, which started the chain of events that killed 1/3 of the European population.  As we were to cross onto the island of Sicily to the port of Messina, thought it would have some resonance.  Don't think they loved it as much as I, and Chiquita said she knew the whole story  from a video they showed her at school.  I was skeptical as it was done to Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl, but watched it and totally nails it.  Worth 3 minutes of  your time.

Have never met a soul that doesn't enjoy a peaceful ferry ride.

We made the Sicilian city of Taormina our destination.  In the literal shadow of very active Mt Etna, it was a delightful place.  I picked the hotel based on the reviews saying it had a fine view of the mountain.  Indeed it did.

 I thought that after Matera, we would be done with the mountain goat part of our trip.  I had privately been dreading this aspect of the voyage....I really hate complaining, but my knees have been getting worse and it is now affecting the hips.  Impossible to go up stairs right leg first and coming down is torture.  I knew that Naples, Amalfi and Matera were stair climbing areas and was hoping for relief the second half of the vacation.  While the hotel I chose was situated in a great spot for views, it was straight up hill for 20 minutes to town.  We made one of our few navigational mistakes this first night and the 20 minute walk up the hill to dinner turned into an hour long stair-fest that rendered me useless for the rest of the trip.  Dinner was quite good that night as I discovered spicy pasta for the fist time in Italy.  I always add some chili flakes to my sauce for a bit of a kick, but there is this oil they have that is infused with hot pepper that you can add on top of any pasta dish to bring the heat.  Since, have told some people about it and they are all like "sure, of course they do...knew it all the time."  So why hasn't anyone ever mentioned it to me before?  Dolts.

We had not only hit our stride gastronomically, but we were in full sprint.  All Italian menus have an antipasti, primi and secondi section.  Getting a plate of pasta and then a meat dish for one person was tempting, but ultimately impossible, so each meal, we'd start going around looking for partners to share one of each.  There were some natural allies...the mom's, Paul and I, and the girls usually, but we would be flexible enough to switch gears when the menu demanded.  And of course we would get an appetizer or three to share.  Truly brilliant cuisine, but they aren't into a vast selection from other places.  We saw an occasional Chinese joint, a kebab shack here and there, and there must be places the immigrants frequent, but it was a lesson for me to not rail on the local Taiwanese (or anywhere) penchant for only liking their food their way and is a reminder as to how lucky we are in the States to have every cuisine at our fingertips all the time.

We spent a day (the day after Christmas) walking through the heart of Taormina.  It felt like the whole town was out and the main drag was chocked with families just doing the same people watching as us.  It wasn't a big town, but we managed to kill the whole day diving into shops and sampling the fine treats.

 Pistachios...a huge part of southern Italy's diet.  They have sauces made from them and are put in all dishes.  But it is what they do with them for the desserts and pastries is what make them special.  These little balls were amazing and think the shaving of them on a freshly squeezed cannoli is my favorite use of them.   

 My purchasing goal this trip was to find a nice apron that meant something.  I know what your saying..."Gomez, did you have your testicles removed?"  No, they are still dangling, but I do a lot of the kitchen work here and I am a sloppy cook.  Basically have to change my shirt after every meal.  Have discovered that aprons are useful for me and wanted one that suited my personality.  Had been looking all trip and they had a ton at the souvenir crap shacks.  The Godfather, hot nurse, even one depicting a guy mounting a sheep from behind.  Walking this day, stumbled across a shop that had good quality blanks and the ladies would hand embroider whatever you wanted on them.  I got one that says "Gomez" on it with a chef's hat below.  My prized possession now and will put it in my will for the Boy.

 Almost bought this shirt but knew I'd never wear it.  It is a translator of Italian hand gestures, all of which I knew

 Except for this one.  I have looked for it on line and have not been able to figure out what kind of insult this is.  Am open to your interpretation.

Syracuse (Siracusa) was our next destination, but budgeted the next day for the drive down hoping to take in some of the coast in between.  One of the first things we noticed once in Sicily was this symbol of a woman's face surrounded by three legs.  We quickly learned that it was called a Trinacria and is the symbol of Sicily.  The island is like a triangle with three promontories at major cities.  A dude in one of the shops drew us a picture to help us understand...

My wine buddy told us that we should go to a winery on the slopes of Mt. Etna as they had some lovely local wines and this same shop guy recommended Gambino Vini.  How come every name in Southern Italy sounds like it could be out of the Sopranos. 

After a leisurely drive through still sleeping mountain villages, and getting stopped 4 times by the train that runs around the mountain (a 5-hr trip that I would do next time for sure)

 We arrived at the winery.  A hearty Polish woman named Hanna gave us a tour of the cellars and described their process of turning their prized local grape Nerello into some delicious bottles.

A delightful experience.  First time the kids had ever visited one.  We popped into another little town and grabbed our favorite lunch of a sandwich (fresh mozzarella and cured pig on a flakey roll), enjoyed it looking 360 degrees at the mountain and sea and thought ourselves lucky.

We did one other stop on the way, but my photos from there are on the other camera whose cord I have still yet to locate.  Aci Trezza is a coastal town and its claim to fame is this is where the Cyclops in the Odyssey did some damage, and you can still see the stones he threw at the ships in the harbor.  You can read a bit more about that here.  Or watch it below.

 

Will cut it here...maybe can get another in and finish off Italy this weekend during the Divisional Playoff games.  Go Hawks.