Imagine beauty. Imagine Sicily

Castellammare d. Golfo, photo, K. Iuppa 2018


I went to Sicily with my sisters and their children and my brother's oldest daughter, and my youngest children. We stayed in Scopello Sicily, which is near this vista of Castellammare d. Golfo. We (my family)stayed in  a cozy villa  perched on a cliff that overlooked the Tirreno Sea. My sisters and their children and my Brother's oldest daughter (all first cousins) stayed in a very glamorous, modern villa, with a pool, that slept 12!  Truthfully, I loved where we were staying and didn't want to leave it. My sister Andrea made this family trip possible.  We celebrated her upcoming "wisdom" birthday.

I kept a travel journal, with small drawings.  I was faithful to entering the day to day experiences, large and small. I wrote some creative work while I was away,; but, since I've returned, I have been writing every day. Poems, essays.  My perspective has changed completely, and I feel utterly calm.  Not sure if that's a jet lag hangover or not, but I think I have come to terms with a lot of life that I can't change.

I swam in the Tirreno Sea with my sisters and nieces and daughter!  The shingled beach was hard to nagivate bare foot, much less with flip flops. I persevered, tho!  Walked the beach collecting small lentil-sized stones of blues, tans, and whites, and sea glass mostly green; some amber. When I came home, I decided to make keepsake lockets with my collection.  So far, I have completed four in rose gold and silver. I think I have enough for one more.  Then, I went to the garden store and bought an assortment of cacti and succulents that resemble or are related to the cacti in Sicily and have created dish gardens with the  larger stones I pick up from the shingle beach.

I miss Sicily.  So does, my husband. As we begin to play catch up with our planting here, we talk about our trip and what it meant to us. We have two countries stamped into our passports. Soon, we will have more.  I love history and culture. I loved being in crowds where I looked like the people.
A salesperson in Castellammare d. Golfo asked me what town I was from. I think Peter and I could settle into that landscape and thrive. There are no street signs, anywhere. Yet, we were able to find our way, even in the dark!  At first, we  turned around a lot; but then, we became quite certain of the right direction.  Even, called lost travelers "tourists," when they  had to turn  their cars around. Too funny. We made our own mental maps, with landmarks.  The roads are actually quite good, but narrow and "blind" turns.  Many corners had  mirrors.  So you had to look left, right, up, around while driving. Thankfully, in Sicily, they drive on the right side of the road. So, that was a shared
driving expectation.

I will be a bit more faithful to this blog, now that  it is summer, or nearly summer.