Where is Kari

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  • Sunny Selinunte!

    April 13

    I left Sciacca this morning and headed west – ultimately for Trapani, but I planned to make a few stops along the way.  First up, the temples & ruins of Selinunte.  The guide books & websites praise this place and many say it’s better than the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento.  I don’t agree – while it’s pretty cool to be able to actually walk inside most of these ruins (rather than around them), they have for the most part been reconstructed by dedicated & well-intentioned archeologists (the Agrigento Temples persevered on their own).  Regardless, very worth seeing AND the views of the Mediterranean from this site are MAGNIFICIENT!  I would have chosen to build here as well!!

    I arrived a little after 10am and the sun was already heating up.  I park, buy a ticket & walk into the park.  I follow the small crowd up to the first temple, which is you can actually see upon entering, and start to snap pictures galore.  As I mentioned above, it’s pretty cool to be able to go inside the temple & walk around to see scale and detail.  These suckers were huge!!! 

    I see another temple far off in the distance and start to walk down the path.  I see a piles of ruins (apparently an earthquake wiped out this place, rather than a conquering nation as previously thought) and continue walking.  I start to realize that this place I want to go to is pretty far away and I’m already getting pretty warm and really don’t want to spend 2 or 3 hours in the sun.

    So . . I turn back to the entrance and pay the fee for the electric golf cart tour.  Best 12 Euro I’ve spent so far.  I luck out to get – Massimo the driver!  He speaks enough English to tell me what’s what & where’s where and I actually start enjoying this place even more.  He takes me out way past that temple I saw (which is actually the acropolis- the main city with what was the most beautiful temple of them all) and to some other sites as well.  At each, he asks how long I want to explore so he can shuttle others back & forth.  Rest assured, he’s back when we agree and we move along at a pretty good pace.

    After I spend about a half hour at the Acropolis, I return to the parking lot and no Massimo.  It’s OK – there’s a very well dressed man selling granite (like sorbetto, but better!) and I am going to have to have one.  And guess what, he’s got the brioche buns, so I have lemon granite in a brioche and wait for Massimo.  When he arrives soon afterwards, he sees my granite and just smiles.  Typical tourist . . I’m sure he’s thinking!!!

    This is the ONLY way to see this huge park.  If you go, don’t hesitate to go the cart route.  Trust me – there were so many people attempting to hitchhike on the trails, that I’m sure they wish they’d done the same.  I told Massimo if he stopped & picked them up, he could make a lot of money.  He laughed!

    I left the park and drove down to the waterfront to find some lunch before heading to my next stop of Partanna.  I found a bunch of little spots and picked the cutest one with yellow tablecloths.  Nice staff and I finally got some spaghetti vongole (clams) and finished with an insalata mista (fresh salad of the day).  I have to say, this salad was the strangest thing I’ve eaten in Italy thus far.  It was butter lettuce, tomatoes, olives (all OK so far) – and corn . .yeah, corn!  I couldn’t quite believe my eyes.  I tasted a couple of kernels and I’m pretty sure they were fresh, not from a can – but still, strange, right?  Where do you even get fresh corn at this time of year and since when is corn Italian?? 

    I head up to Partanna to take a few quick shots of “our castle”.  Remember, Pippo had told me that the Graffeo’s have a castle in Partanna.  It’s actually called Castello Grifeo, but Pippo insists it belonged to the Graffeo’s.  It’s a pretty impressive place – or at least it was in its day.  Nice views, nice architecture, pretty commanding presence in a nice neighborhood.  Apparently, this is where the Graffeo Family Reunion will be held.  The GPS puts me onto a wild goose chase for my next stop – Castelvetrano.

    Really, I have no real reason to go to Castelvetrano, except it’s close and I want to be able to say I’ve been there once.  I’m sort of a maniac for Castelvetrano olives and this is where they come from.  I once ate close to 50 Castelvetrano olives (no judgment please) in a single sitting! I drove through the countryside after leaving Partanna and saw olive groves galore!  Task completed!

    Another 1 ½ hours and I’m in Trapani.  I’ll be here for Pasqua (Easter) and I’m told by the owner of the B&B to be prepared with my camera – cause the crazy is about to begin.  The car is parked by the waterfront – it’s staying there for the next 4 days – and, I’m taking the bus!


    Click Here for Great Pictures
  • Just so you know . . .

    Just so you know . . .

    This is where I did my daily mediation yesterday!  Lucky me!!  This is Fabrizia’s Smelling Garden at the Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School in Vallelunga Pratemeno.  Truly a magical, zen place.

    I just wanted to let you know that I have not given up trying to get pictures online for you. Scott bought me this great new phone before I left and it takes GREAT pictures.  Sherine has told me that I’m developing an artsy eye – so I’ve been encouraged to take pictures – and I have – LOTS of them.

    Since WiFi is not really cooperating, I’m looking at how to make my Google Picture folders viewable & linkable to others.  If I’m successful, I think I’ll be able to create a shared folder for each day and/or place that I’ve been and put a link into the blog post.  That way you will be able to see ALL the pictures I’m taking, rather than just the few that I’ve been selecting to include in the post.

    I hope to have this figured out by first part of next week.  In the meantime, I plan to just keep writing & putting up new posts for you to read.  At least this way, you’ll know what I’m doing.

    So, stay tuned . . .

    Thanks for following my posts & sharing this great travel experience with me.

    Ciao, Ciao!!!

  • I don’t think this Pensianato thing is going to work!

    I don’t think this Pensianato thing is going to work!

    One of the things my Italian tutor had me do was to put together some sentences that I could use when people asked me – “what are you doing in Sicily?” and “what do you do for a living?” and “what do you do for fun?”.  I haven’t used many of them yet – but did try out one (or “part” of one!).

    We’re in the Archaeological Museum in Napoli & we’ve toured most of it at this point, but come to this room at the end of the hall that has some official looking sign on it and some language about “children can’t enter” (at least that’s what I thought it said – but that seemed a bit strange since there were kids all over the place).  As we walk through this room, I’m noticing phallic symbols, suggestive paintings, sculptures of questionable acts.  Then there’s this little window and as I get down low to peer inside, I see a ton of stones that look like scrotums.  Bingo – we’re in the section of the museum with all the recovered artifacts from Pompeii. . . and if you know anything about Pompeii, it’s that they had quite a bit of wild, sexual behavior going there and this room is tangible proof!!!

    At the entrance, there are these two older men (probably in their 70s and more than likely docents).  One of them is very friendly and comes over to talk to me when he sees me peering into the scrotum window and starts to talk to me in broken English.  He wants to know if we’re Americans (duh!), if we’re enjoying Napoli (I mention the driving is a bit crazy; he laughs & motions “crazy” with his hands), then we get into this whole broken Italian-English-Napolian conversation about the fact that we’re going to Sicily, I’m looking for info on my great grandparents, and they’re from Sciacca (oh, Sciacca he says smiling with a few missing teeth).  He keeps saying Se-chee-lee-ah (that’s how Italians pronounce Sicily[KR1] ) and seems very excited that I’m going.  Then he wants to know where we’re from (loves the whole San Francisco thing) and starts telling me how pretty I am.  Then . . the shit hits the fan!

    So, the line that I’ve prepared for this question is “Sono un pensianato occupato . . viaggiare, cuchinare e divertirsi” . . which translates to “I’m a busy retiree . . traveling, cooking & having fun”!  Since it didn’t really seem appropriate to answer more of the question than what I was asked, I simply said “we’re both pensianatos” and with that he turned around and marched off in disgust (and to tell his friend what I had said).  We high tailed it out of that room fast – knowing we were no longer welcome.

    That night at dinner we discuss this and Sherine decides that I need to find a new story!   

    On Thursday, we’re taking a “down day” and I’m going to work up a new gig for myself (new sentences and all).  Sherine’s decided that I should be a travel writer and that I should tell everyone I’m working on a new blog for the American market (not too far from the truth).  But after further thought, I think I’ll just work up some lines that I’m looking for Nonnas (grandmas) to help me get my Sicilian cooking immersion program off the ground.  Something tells me that helping the Sicilian economy is going to get a lot more smiles & friendly welcomes than telling these seniors that this “young gal” is retired!!

    P.S. – By the way, I’ve decided to abandon the fact that I’m from and/or live in Seattle too.  Just saying “San Francisco, California” over here makes everyone smile & ask questions about California.  I think these Italians have a whole lot of love for San Francisco and not much understanding of Seattle!

     [KR1]