Posted by pietro on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

View post on imgur.com

My father immigrated to America when he was 12 years old from an olive farm in Ventimiglia, Sicily.  One of his four siblings stayed behind to live here and take care of the farm.  My family here includes my Aunt Tina, Uncle Sebastiano, Cousin Nino, my cousin’s wife Antonella, and their child Sebastiano (Seby for short).  I have been in contact with my cousin, Nino, to plan a day to visit my family here in Sicily.  On one of our off days Nino drove over from Ventimiglia, around an hour drive, to pick up a fellow classmate, Chase, and I.  Nino works as a vet during the week and tends the olive farm during his weekends.  He first took us to meet one of his coworkers that owns a racing horse up near a lake.  We walked around and petted the horse to stretch our legs before hopping back in the car. Our next stop was the thirty-acre olive farm.  Nino has five donkeys that he uses to eat the weeds that grow one the farm. he does not want to use pesticides to his product is organic.  Olive season is in August and him and his wife must harvest all of the olives by hand.  Nino put a saddle on one of the donkeys, Terese, and Chase and I rode her around for a little.  I have included a few pictures with the donkeys and one of Nino and I in front of all the olive trees.

After seeing the farm we went to Nino’s house for lunch.  It has been ten years since I was last in Sicily so Antonella, Tina, Sebastiano, and little Seby have changed so much.  Seby, specifically, was a toddler last time I met him so it was fantastic to see him grown, happy, and healthy.  For lunch Antonella had prepared first a typical Sicilian pasta dish that I remember my Nonno cooking often.  It consists on little o ringed anellini pasta with tomato sauce, ground beef, peas, mozzarella, and prosciutto.  For the second course we had pork cutlet with marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese, veal stuffed with mozzarella, a salad made from fresh tomatoes, and sliced baked lemon potatoes.  For dessert we ate fresh fruit and then ice cream.  Finally, we ended lunch with espresso.

After lunch we visited the castle of Caccamo.  It is currently a museum with plenty of ancient weapons, garments, and art.  It was similar to American museums, but many of the antiques were far older because Sciliy has had recorded inhabitants for much longer.  One of the main topics of the museum was Giuseppe Garibaldi and the revolution he lead to free Sicily and create a republic.  He is a similar figure to the founding fathers of America who lead a revolution against Great Britain.

After the museum, we relaxed and talked at Nino’s house for awhile.  My aunt gave me a present, a blue and white striped collared shirt, before heading to their favorite restaurant for dinner.  We got a few plates of appetizers for the table and then I had a diavola pizza for dinner.  Diavola is one of the common pizza types of Italy along with capricciosa, quattro stagioni, margherita, and romana.  I have found these types in my other travels to Italy to be fairly standard.  The diavola is my favorite because it is a marinara sauce, mozzarella, spicy salami, peppers, and olives.

It was a fantastic day and I loved to see my family and share a lot of my heritage with Chase.  My family was extremely hospitable.  A lot of the day reminded my of my family gatherings back home.  I’m sure that no matter where you are in the world any sort of family reunion is comforting and joyous.