Motta Medieval: You Wear it Well

Here is the town we lived in for 6 weeks before we found our villa in Nicolosi. It's the closest town to Sigonella and heavily populated with Americans. We arrived in the torrid rains and cold of winter so we didn't really discover the town as well as we could have. Plus I was a total 'fraidy cat and didn't really want to explore Motta (pronounced Moh-ta if your Italian or Mow-duh if you're American).

I always try to pronounce the town right since my mouth just cannot make the right shapes to say "arreviderci" or "carabinieri" properly. If there's a word I can actually pronounce right, I really do try to make the effort.



This mural can be seen year round and depicts a medieval festival. It tells the story of how the castle was built on the "neck" of Etna, which is a cylindrical-shaped landform above ground that's created by magma solidifying in the vent of a volcano. Erosion of the sides of the volcano exposes the neck.



Motta has an innate working class wearyness that clings to its residences and public buildings too. It's part of its charm and its makes it the perfect backdrop for a multi-week medieval celebration.

Motta Medieval: Something Old & Something New

Motta already has a lot of architecture that lends itself well to a medieval festival...like this very cool church.



And eerie statues...



While they do a medieval fest every year, every 4 they do a big huge one. This is year 4 so they built these two faux city gateway arches to welcome festival-goers...

Motta Medieval: Time Warp

The streets were bursting with all kinds of fun at every turn!



This little riddler, jester, joker, funny person guy. Not sure what he was. But he was cute.



And here's the king and queen. As you can tell, even back then...if the queen ain't happy...neither is the king.



...and there were flag throwers...



...and street fighters....

Motta Medieval: 3 Districts of Motta

Here's part of the castle of Motta.



The festival is hosted by the 3 districts of Motta. Kelley and Thomas live in suburbia Motta but their landlord's family is from the Panzera Rione (district).



Here's their district's crest.

Motta Medieval: Pale at the Palio

I don't really care for animals in shows. I like seeing animals in their natural environment, enjoying life with their own kind! But many have raved about the Italian Palio (medieval horse games) so I decided to put my muzzle on and go see the show!



There were a variety of games that day...and the object of this game is to punch the Arab's bullseye with your medieval lance while riding a horse at high speeds.

The black-faced Arab thing so would not fly in the US. You'd have the ACLU, NAACP and whatever else down your throat for racism. But somehow that still works in Sicily.



So as I was trying to drown out the noise of an injured horse in the background....this happened. A man with his falcon walked out..I guess to perform something...only to be upstaged by another animal.

A starving, salivating, emaciated feral dog in the field charged the falcon and it circled the field and then took off.



The owner/handler blew his whistle, waved his signal to desperately try to get the bird to come back. That falcon was gone! And two men were running all over the field trying to shoo this hungry dog off the field.



I...uh...think that was my first and last Palio. And probably the falcon's too.

Motta Medieval: 1 Honker Candle & Jail Bird

The festival went on for weeks...Just when I thought the festa was long since pau, on my way to Sigonella one day a man ran out into the middle of the road. Asked me to stop. Lit a firecracker on the ground in front of my Jeep. And then the marching band began to play. And this huge candelora that took several men to carry was hoisted through the streets.



We've been doing a lot of eating at these festivals....But when I asked Rob to help me lose weight, this isn't what I had in mind!

A Brite Nite on Etna

Ever had one of those nites that just felt like a theme party? Where your mind has focused on doing one thing and then other adventures unfolded that kept with the theme of the evening....this nite was one of those nites.



We ventured up Etna to check out the observatory and learn about astronomy and to get a good look at the bright and beautiful Jupiter and the meteor showers. We didn't see either but we did see this big old, fat honker telescope from the 1960s that reminded me of the water heater in my grandmother's house tilted sideways.



Our hosts were so sweet. They even gathered us all together under the nite sky to offer us a crash course in something astronomical....



As our presenter began to school us....I got really distracted thinking about all that money my parents spent to send me to great private schools, a private college and university. And while I remember going to astronomy 109 at university... I don't even remember how many planets there are in our solar system...or is it universe? It's all a blur...and just as I woke from my self-absorbed thoughts and had found the courage to ask Christine (our friend the science expert/teacher) what's the difference between a planet and a star...the presentation was concluding!

Suffice to say, I really didn't learn anything about astronomy that nite...nor really ever for that matter.

Oh well. Onward and upward....

A Brite Nite on Etna

And onward and upward we went...straight up to The Refugio on that dark, frigid, meteor-less, planet-less eve.

These lights were pouring down Etna and we thought it was lava! As we sped towards the light, we realized it was hundreds of torch-bearing Italians proceeding down from the mouth of the volcano.




For just a moment, I was teleported back to my parallel island universe of Hawaii inside a Consolidated movie theatre watching the opening that proceeds every movie showing....the chanting, loincloth clad men bearing torches and dancing hula for the gods....



...We have no idea what was going on...a procession of torch bearers of both the very young and very old...

A Bright Nite on Etna

The fiery evening atop Etna included two raging bonfires...





...And a fireworks show...It was if the gods of Etna were saying, "Forget about the sky. I'm the one who lights up the nite!"




A few days later, I was watering the sun-scorched dirt in our yard in the dark of the nite...and what do I see?? But a Mork-sized egg of a meteor trailing through the sky...It was amazing...a meteor for me!

Sightseeing in Sicily: Bah Blah Bah!

It's rare that I find myself in gridlock in Sicily. Partly because I'm a chicken to drive. And partly because nothing could be worse than the Honolulu commute during rush hour. So this is the closest I get these days to traffic -- waiting for the geep to flow around my Jeep.

Sigonella's official website calls these animals "geep" because the sheep and goats are herded together. Wikipedia says "a sheep-goat chimera is sometimes called a geep in popular media. A chimera produced by combining the embryos of a goat and a sheep." The resulting animal has cells of both sheep and goat origin. A geep should not be confused with a sheep-goat hybrid (when a goat mates with a sheep).



All I know for sure is that these smelly little nellies, their floppy little ears and their little bell necklaces are cute whether they're inter-species friends, bred in a petri dish or shacked up with a foreigner species.

And whenever I have the pleasure of being inconvenienced by them I always roll down my window and coo at them and say, "blah blah blah! baa baa baa!"

They don't get the joke.

Cowboy Nite in Nicolosi!

Summertime means there's somethin' brewing/stewin' almost every nite in our neck of the woods.

Our local bar La Vita Dolce (the sweet life) sponsored a Country Nite featuring Italian barbecue, line dancing and country music. Where do they get these ideas? Maybe from American movies or something. It's yee-haw hilarious to me!





Here's an Italian cowgirl calling for her cowboy...I guess.



Not sure why she's phoning for a cowboy, when there's plenty of good ole American cowboys right in front of her! This is our buddy Josh - a fellow Nicolosian and his crew.

The Clock is Ticking!

The honeymoon isn't over. But it's half over. This month Rob marks our 1.5 year milestone in Italy, which sounded off an alarm in both our heads that we've still got a lot of ground to hustle during our 3-year honeymoon in Sicily...

Before the men in little gray suits come to pack up our belongings and revoke our visas!

So during the middle of dinner last nite at Joy's house, Rob puffs out his chest and randomly announces out of the blue, "I want to go to Venice and Prague." This is the guy who hasn't said a peep about destinations of interest since we landed on this island.

Trumpets went off in my head! At long last. He speaks.

So before 2007 closes--Venice and Prague he shall have!!!

2007 is the Chinese Year of the Pig--my golden year as a 1971 birth! In honor of our honeymoon and my special Chinese Year (even though I'm not Chinese)....here's a funny joke.

A young Chinese couple gets married. She's a virgin. Truth be told, he is a virgin too, but she doesn't know that. On their wedding night, she cowers naked under the sheets as her husband undresses in the darkness.

He climbs into bed next to her and tries to be reassuring."My darring," he whispers,"I know dis your firss time and you berry frighten. I pomise you, I give you anything you want, I do anything - juss anything you want. You juss ask... So... Whatchu want?" he says, trying to sound experienced and worldly, which he hopes will
impress her.

A thoughtful silence follows and he waits patiently (and eagerly) for her request. She eventually shyly whispers back, "I want to try something I have heard about from other girls... Numbaa 69."

More thoughtful silence, this time from him.

Eventually, in a puzzled tone he asks her:

"You want... Garlic Chicken with steam vegetable?

Something's Fishy in Acitrezza!

August 4 - 5, 2007 marked the first annual Acitrezza (a-chee-tray-za) Spada Festival. So we thought we'd check it out!



Here's our best fish face impression...and that island in the background sure does look a lot like Chinaman's Hat off Oahu!

Match the fish name to the impersonator...Special Ed Fish. Fish that Just Got its Tail Bit. Mick Jagger Fish. And fish watching a shark eat a turtle.



Here's the evening's chef grilling up freshly caught spada for the crowd. You can tell they're really having fun with this and truly a happy bunch of fellows...



Rob loves his spada...I don't like it. But I like watching him like it.

Dinner by the Sea

...a little bit of vino bianco (white wine)...



...and a nice chunk of fresh bread...



....made for a lovely meal amongst the fishing boats and the scent of the sea at sunset...

August in Acireale (a-chee-ree-a-lay)

August 4 was date nite for the LeBlancs and off we went to Acireale to explore a nearby beach town that was celebrating summer with a parade of its Carnevale floats.

Follow the Festa Lights!

We followed the tell tale festa lights that indicate a celebration is happening...and found our way to the centro (chen-tro) to check out all the action.



This float against the backdrop of a building gives you an idea of the size of these floats! They're huge.



This float recognizes China...I think...and seemed sort of out of place...as there was not a single Asian in the crowd tonite except for me. In fact, Rob and I were the only Americans period. And there's not a Chinese restaurant, a Chinatown or Chinese nothing...not even folding hand fan or a pair of chopsticks in Acireale.

Something about this depiction of buck-teeth Chinese with the glasses seemed very Jerry Lewis and totally non-PC... Oh well! I won't deny it made me crack up.