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I am a retired English teacher and department head, the mother of three grand mother of four, and have been married to the same man for 52 years. I subscribe to Dr. PM Forni's concept of Civility. I was born in South Philadelphia and grew up in the 'burbs. I love soft pretzels and cheesesteaks, the Phillies, the Eagles, and San Diego. I love being Mom, Aunt Kathy, Nona Kathy, and Teacher. I spend a lot of time in my gardens in the spring and summer, and in the winter I plan what I'm going to plant. I also am an avid reader and photographer.

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Friday, October 12, 2012

How Rude!

It seems I've left you all in Naples... like a couple of months ago.  I'm so very, very sorry. (Mi dispiace!!)  Hope you had a chance to try the pizza.

After Naples we sailed for Catania, Sicily, complete with Rick Steve's recommendations and maps provided by the ship, drawn and labeled by a seriously dylexic person.  We had visited Sicily previously -- Messina and Taormino both lovely and interesting.  Catania, one of our new favorite places in the world, is very different from the other cities, and remarkably quaint; the people very friendly; the food wonderful!

Catania seems very much a fishing port.  And since the port was right in the city, we were able to leave our ship and walk through the city on our own.


We met up with Margie and David in San D'Agatha Square.

Which was no where near where the map said it was.  Thanks to Richard's ingenuity, however, we found them.


The city featured a market -- replete with seafood, cheeses, pastries, and beautiful vegetables.




We feasted on fresh seafood at a restaurant right in the middle of the market.  Just a note -- for regular spaghetti -- one orders "spaghetti normale" as 'marinara' means from the sea and includes octopus like the ones above.

I would have taken a photo of the caponata we had, but scarfed it down fo fast -- didn't have a chance.  It's the best I've ever eaten.

David had sepia (spaghetti with squid ink) and Marge had swordfish.  Here's my marinara and Richard's normale:



We walked back to the ship stopping at a pastry shop to buy a few cookies, connoli, and arum cake.  Each item was wrapped like a gift.  Exactly what the whole day was like.

We walked back to the ship docked beyond the fishing boats and nets.  Sad that we were leaving such a beautiful city and such friendly people.


As our ship left the port, we got one more view of the beautiful and still active Mt. Etna.  As you can see -- she's steaming!


5 comments:

Linda Reeder said...

Good to know about the marinara. I'll take mine normal, thanks. Looks like an amazing cruise. What cruise line?

Forsythia said...

Etna is probably steaming about the IMF.

Kay said...

This is just so cool. I remember having squid cooked in ink when we were in Spain. It took some getting used to. Glorious photos!

Bilbo said...

Great photos! I'm glad you had such a wonderful visit!

Cheryl said...

I've never been to Europe. I wonder if I'll ever get there? Thanks for sharing your adventures!