The piscina=the swimmng pool=the money pit!

My only real request to Gino when we bought this house was.........I must have a swimming pool. We started the pool last week. Its quite a procedure with at least 5 different companies involved.

First you pick the company for the pool...and a normal person would think they do it all from start to finish????? no they do not. They supply the design, the pump etc, the lining for the pool. You then hire company #2 to dig the pool..which involves taking out a lot of dirt and unless you have a place to reuse this dirt you pay to have it taken away. We will use some but not all. Then using the measurements from the pool company you mark out the depths of the pool and this has to be precise before you hire company #3 to pour the concrete..then on top of the concrete you put down sheets of metal.....my photos will hopefully make sense of this.

Its more complicated than one thinks and of course lots of $.......I must sound like a broken record but $ go fast here........as I said to Gino....we can always go back to work.

Big announcement....we are going back into to business....we are opening an American hamburger joint here..........the kids here really need it. Just like in America its the kids that seem to spend the $ and in our town I really feel this would be a great spot...a lot like In and Out........we are not opening it tomorrow...but we will do it in the next several months.

Then you have company #4 that spreads the cement......this was two really nice men and this is not as easy as it sounds...they have to work like the devil to get it spread fast and even....quite a talent and fun to watch....wish my grandson Oliver was here to enjoy all this man stuff.

Then comes Pavone once again..... who then adds his own layer of very thin cement this is super super important as we add a plastic lining on top and the smoother the cement the better the pool.....I love Pavone he is doing the best job with his helper grumpy Gino.

This is the point we are currently at.......there will be a part two to this blog.....when Company #5 takes over.....Ciao

Isabella In Sicily

She did not want to come here...that is a well known fact. We have now been here 5 weeks...boy it seems so much longer and if you have been reading my blog you will know why. Lots of work and no time to think.

So....Isabella....5 weeks later she is in school...Schola medio...2nd grade. Subjects: English, French, Italian (not the lanquage) technical, PE, Math, Art & Music. First day was the hardest for sure...she showed up in shorts...the only one in the whole school...in shorts. The Italian kids are great.......she is like Madonna...she is known thru-out the school..the city at this point as the new American girl. She made two very close friends fast Guila and Manuela and Marco Santa Maria...her new boy F.....either she worked fast or he worked fast I have no idea...but she is smiling and boy does that make me happy. All this with little Italian lots of sign lanquage and google translater...somehow it works and she is enjoying school. The school week here is 6 days.....and some of those days go until 4.15.....After only a few days she said..I wish there was school on Sunday.....I cried...I cried.

So just a little blog to say how proud I am of my darling beautiful Isabella. Mummy loves you!

The most peaceful place in Enna

Cemeteries in Sicily are are sometimes small towns. Most people here are Catholics so burial is still the preferred choice after a death. When Papa died last year his resting place was in the family tomb. Politics prevail within families as to who has a spot in the tomb....I still have to understand our family politics regarding this.

Most people visit their loved ones on a Sunday as we did last week. Before Papa died we had been there several times to visit other family members......its pretty apparent who the wealthy are by the size and quality of the tomb.

Its a very peaceful spot and a lovely walk as you meander thru the streets that are all named and numbered like in a normal town.

Its sad to see see the tombs that are neglected but these are usually because families have no more living members or survivors live outside the area. Its fascinating to see pictures, dates etc and imagine who these people used to be....always super sad to see young babies and children in the tombs.

Definetly one of the most interesting places I have ever been and for sure a peaceful resting spot for someone you love.

Top ten worst things about living in Sicily

1.Missing my kids and Gkids

2. My Mercedes parked at home in CA

3. Calling my sisters whenever I feel like it

4. Wine with Janet

5. The drive up the coast to SB or down to Malibu

6. Starbucks

7. Trader Joes

8. All my fav TV shows..too many to mention

9. My Customers at the restaurants

10. Target

Top ten best things about living in Sicily

1.Being with Isabella and Gino...a lot

2. The peacefulness

3. Winston

4. Seeing Mama happy to have us here

5. My house and grounds

6. The Milano family

7. The sky

8.The Crazy entertaining Sicilians

9. Being closer to Scotland

10. Cefalu

Current status at Villa Isabela

Pavone is the boss.....this man is the bunny with batteries that runs and runs and runs. He shows up at 7 am....leaves for one hour for lunch and back till 5. He is a retired electrician but for sure sure a man of all trades. His job this time around was to prepare the house for the plumbers for the new furnace being installed...that means.....knock the hell out of my house and make as much noise and dirt that we could enter the Guinness book of records...is there such a category?

Now he is building the chimney for the furnace...sure to get some kind of complaint from our one and only bitchy neighbor...who don't even live in the house next door....its their summer place....but they have complained about everything else...so why not this. We just smile and we are nice to them..as I so want to buy their property......Gino says I am going to have to turn tricks to get some serious $ if it ever comes on the market.

Side note watching BBC news as I type..its my lifesaver...I stay connected to the world outside Enna....and just cooked eggplant parmigiana and 6 scones for the workers to take home as a thank you from me for all the mess they made.

We broke down and hired an architect as Gino and I kept arguing about the front of the house the pool the grounds etc etc....not real arguing just worried we will screw up...cause when its done its done..and as I keep saying nothing is cheap. So it will set us back week or so as he measure and prepares pictures for us. Then we can go ahead and set the pool and plan grounds for the companies we hired for those jobs...boy this is harder than I thought it was going to be.

So we move forward and overall happy with what we have accomplished so far and getting more excited about the end results....main goal is get as much done before the weather changes.

The Bakery

Did I mention Gino seems to be related to half of Enna? I swear every 5 mins we meet someone and Gino says...he is a cousin on my Mother's side or she is a cousin on my father's side.....its never ending. Funny thing is I remember all these cousins and often have to remind Gino who they are when we meet them up town or at the market.

Today buying bread we discover the owner is his cousin...on his Mother's side. He kindly invited us in the back to see how they make bread....it smelled truly wonderful. We buy fresh bread almost daily here and a small loaf is about 1 $ per loaf. He also makes sweet things and pastries...all yummy and of course fattening.

I am sure we will meet other relatives to blog about.

Visiting Papa.....

Papa Mario passed away last November....he was just the best.....sweet man very kind loving....he is so missed in the Milano family. He worked hard for this family...6 kids and Mama. He used to work down a mine here in Sicily but lost his leg when he was only 40 yrs old in a mine accident.

He knew the land and plants here as only a born Sicilian can. We used to drive him all over the countryside and he would make us stop to pick wild herbs or vegetables growing and we would pluck some and we would eat them that night for dinner. He was brought up on the land in another time when the peasants/farmers worked hard for the Barons who owned the land and the farmers had to give up a portion of their crops to the Baron....add the Mafia to this story and you get the story of how the Mafia began.....I am saving that for another blog

Papa told us many times of the day the Americans marched in to Sicily to free them from the Germans...every single time he had tears in his eyes. He was a very emotional man...he told many stories and sang many songs..had a great strong voice....ever since Isabella was young he would sing her the old Sicilian folk songs. He always shed a tear or two reminding himself of days gone by.

Mama and Papa were married 65 yrs or so........she is very very sad without him........but we all know Papa is looking down on us and sharing a song a joke a story with my Papa....of this I am certain...we visited his resting place this week with Mama who goes often on her own just to sit and be with him. RIP Papa/Nona Mario Milano 1923-2009

Sicily as the weather changes

Its its funny time of year here...one minute hot...then hot and humid....then cloudy........then you hear thunder..then it pours from the heavens. Its quite lovely actually.....the unexpected. Mama can look at the sky and predict the weather......I am sure one day I will too.

It reminds me a lot of Scotland here. The sky and the clouds. What clouds we have here.....never saw clouds like this in California. Its pouring right now but its not cold.

Today was a day for lots of laundry lots of brushing up clumps of broken wall.....God I have never seen this much dust in my life. I love Pavone (our contractor) but what a mess he makes. Pavone has been taking off all the tile from around the base of the wall as we had to cut into the wall to renew new pipes for our new heating system....my Xmas gift from last year.

Now he is replacing the tile with the new ones we just paid $300 euro for..nothing is cheap here and I mean nothing. As we do this job we are finding lots of other things to do...add a sink upstairs on the top level of my house as this is he best time to do it....move my washer dryer from downstairs upstairs and add laundry sink next to the washer/dryer.....add extra faucets around the outside of the house for easy leaning with a hose....its never ending.

quick little re-do

This town of Enna is full of history...you can feel it..smell it...its all around you.......the following should explain just how old this place is:

HISTORYEnna is in a position of splendid isolation: it is the highest provincial capital in Italy, in a beautiful and unusual location. Archaeological finds attest that the area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Later it was an indigenous centre: first Sican and then Sicel. In the 7th c. BC it began to assimilate Greek culture through the influence of Gela, and in the 5th c. BC the town was completely Hellenized. In the 4th c. BC it was conquered by Dionysius I and then by Agathocles, tyrants of Syracuse. During the first Punic war, Enna was occupied first by the Carthaginians and then by the Romans (258 BC), who declared it a free municipium. It was at Enna that in 139 BC, under the Romans, the first Slaves' Revolt in history broke out, led by the slave Eunus. When at the end ofthe Roman period the town passed to the Byzantines, tbey made it a stronghold in their system of defences, in view of its advantageous strategic position. This explains why the Arabs were not able to capture it until 859 BC, and tben only through an act of treachery . In this period its original name was changed to Castrogiovanni, which it kept until1927 .The city flourished under Muslim rule: agriculture and trade were once again tbriving activities. This continued under Nornan rule (1087), when Count Roger left a strong garrison and increased its fortifications. In the Aragonese period it received particular privileges and it was here that Frederick II of Aragon assumed the title of King of Trinacria (1314) and summoned the first parliament (1324). Testimonies of this age still remain the Castello di Lombardia and the so-called Torre di Federico ("Frederick' s tower"). In modern times Castrogiovanni followed the general vicissitudes of Sicily. In 1926 it was raised to the status of provincial capital.

I get to be part of the history moving forward from today......

Enna...back home.....Villa Isabella

This town of Enna is full of history...you can feel it..smell it...its all around you.......the following should explain just how old this place is: HISTORY

Enna is in a position of splendid isolation: it is the highest provincial capital in Italy, in a beautiful and unusual location. Archaeological finds attest that the area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Later it was an indigenous centre: first Sican and then Sicel. In the 7th c. BC it began to assimilate Greek culture through the influence of Gela, and in the 5th c. BC the town was completely Hellenized. In the 4th c. BC it was conquered by Dionysius I and then by Agathocles, tyrants of Syracuse. During the first Punic war, Enna was occupied first by the Carthaginians and then by the Romans (258 BC), who declared it a free municipium. It was at Enna that in 139 BC, under the Romans, the first Slaves' Revolt in history broke out, led by the slave Eunus. When at the end ofthe Roman period the town passed to the Byzantines, tbey made it a stronghold in their system of defences, in view of its advantageous strategic position. This explains why the Arabs were not able to capture it until 859 BC, and tben only through an act of treachery . In this period its original name was changed to Castrogiovanni, which it kept until1927 .The city flourished under Muslim rule: agriculture and trade were once again tbriving activities. This continued under Nornan rule (1087), when Count Roger left a strong garrison and increased its fortifications. In the Aragonese period it received particular privileges and it was here that Frederick II of Aragon assumed the title of King of Trinacria (1314) and summoned the first parliament (1324). Testimonies of this age still remain the Castello di Lombardia and the so-called Torre di Federico ("Frederick' s tower"). In modern times Castrogiovanni followed the general vicissitudes of Sicily. In 1926 it was raised to the status of provincial capital. I get to be part of the history moving forward from today......

Cefalu continued

We came to Cefalu for beach time.......we have had very little beach time..its been hot and humid with lots of rain.......its been good though..Isabella and I got to spend some great time together and have a few laughs. People watching is fabulous so many tourists many nationalities all interesting to watch.

We had lunch at the water and the waiter was speechless when I sent back the over priced fruit salad....I was not paying 5.50 euro for 50 cents worth of fruit. They don't call the Scots thrifty for no reason!

Now we are back to enjoy our balcony view of a great little street...I have a very old lady right opposite me who speaks to me all the time in Sicilian and somehow we get our points across....she has a balcony view of life down below....its times like this I really with I could speak Sicilian......One day.

Tonight we will wander thru the crowded streets and mingle with the tourists...which I am not anymore. Now a full fledged Italian resident and have my papers to prove it.

We have already picked our choice for dinner after many trips here we have our specials spots where sometimes they remember us and tell me Isabella is growing up.

There seems to be so many elderly people here.....living alone being checked on by their families as I have been observing from the lady across from me.........

Tomorrow we head back home to my very dirty house I have no doubt and our little Winston who I know will be glad to see Isabella and I.

This Sunday we have another festival in a near by town and yes of course I will be blogging about it.