Trip to Europe

 

Tuesday, September 29^th – Saturday, October 10^th

 

The first and last part of our trip was all business – 3 days in Germany, Cologne and Walhstedt (near Hamburg), and then 3 days in Italy, outside of Milan.  Everything went exceptionally well during the business phase of the trip and the 6 days were extremely productive.  There was only one evening of a tourist/social nature, and this was more than we even expected.  Our host from Grundfos Italy took us to the center of Milan via the Metro.  We walked up the steps from the station and were awestruck by the Duomo, the cathedral.  He arranged for a one-hour guide to explain the history of the area to us and then we had a wonderful dinner.

 

In between Germany and Milan, we took a long weekend and went to Sicily.  We flew into Catania and rented a car.  Fortunately, it had a GPS, but we still drove around Catania for ½ hour looking for a highway entrance that was not blocked off!  We drove about 45 minutes north of Catania to Taormina, where we stayed for 3 nights.  I was holding on for my life as Roger was speeding up the mountain on two wheels in our rented Alfa Romeo, RED of course.  Geez, does he always have to drive so fast?!

 

When we arrived in Taoromina, the streets were - narrow - one way -  and full of pedestrians.  The GPS told us we’d arrived at our hotel, but it wasn’t right.  No hotel.  We drove around and around.  Once we found ourselves on this REALLY narrow street, and here’s the conversation in our car:

 

Karen:  “Rog, you can’t go down this street.  It’s too narrow.”

 

Roger:  “Karen, I have to.  There’s 3 cars behind me.”

 

Karen:  “Oh my God, our car won’t fit, we’re scratching the side!”

 

Roger:  “Pull in the mirrors, we’re going!”

 

We ended up in someone’s private driveway, down a steep hill, and had to back out.  It was kind of funny, even when the nun came out and yelled at us in Italian.  I had a feeling that this was going to be an expensive rental return!  I was seconds away from calling the hotel to ask them to send a driver to pick us up.  We finally asked a policeman for directions – surely, he would know where the Hotel Carlotta was!  And he did.  The hotel was great, situated on the mountain facing the Ionian Sea.  What a beautiful view.  We loved Taoromina, and we walked and walked and walked.  (There was no way we were taking that car out again, well, until the next day.)

 

The next day was Sunday and we had made arrangements with a cousin, Giuseppe Sorrentino, that I had never met, to meet us at a highway exit near Piazza Amerina, Sicily.  That is the town where my paternal grandmother grew up, and where the majority of her family still lives.  We met Giuseppe and his father and uncle and joined his mother and aunt for a visit to Villa del Castale, a Roman ruin that has mosaics dating back to 300 A.D.  It was amazing – the artwork and sophisticated infrastructures of this development from ancient times.

 

Then we went to a restaurant out in the country to meet the rest of the family.  They were so excited that they kept calling Giuseppe on his cell phone to ask about us.  When we arrived at the restaurant, everyone was outside waiting for us.  Giuseppe introduced us to each person and we kissed everyone – twice – once on each cheek.  Roger said he has never kissed so many men in his entire life as he did on this day!  My cousin Lino Sorrentino who lives in Venice helped set this up but couldn’t be there and warned Roger it would be like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”!   Ha, ha, he was right!  

 

We were completely taken aback by this family of mine.  There were about 35 people there and everyone wanted to talk to us, but only 3 people spoke English and I could only pick up a word here and there of Italian.  Roger actually picked up quite a bit, and poor Giuseppe had to do the translating and was starting to speak Italian to us and English to the family!  They showed us pictures of when my parents visited 16 years earlier and when my brother Bill visited in 2001.  It struck me that my grandmother got married (in an arranged marriage), left Sicily in 1931, pregnant with my father, traveled alone on a boat to New York to join my grandfather, never to see her family or her home country again.  How sad.  But her family seemed as if they had seen her only yesterday and they loved her, even though they didn’t know her.  And by extension, I felt the love from them too.  

 

We had an incredible Sicilian FEAST.  You have no idea how much food there was -- antipasto, pasta, another kind of pasta, 4 different kinds of meat – lamb, chicken, veal and sausage – potatoes, vegetables, salad and rum cake for dessert.  (Rum cake was my mother’s favorite dessert.  So between seeing the photos of my parents and enjoying the rum cake, I had happy and sad moments.)  Roger and I were also served some special cannolis as the guests of honor.  We had to take them with us because we were so full!  After this 4-hour lunch (!!), we went to the house where my grandmother lived and visited a beautiful church in Piazza Amerina.  The streets here were not designed for cars either.  Luckily, we followed Giuseppe.  We had several invitations to stay there at family’s homes, but we had to get back to Taormina.  Next time we will speak enough Italian to be able to talk to my family and will plan to stay there longer so that we can get to know them.  What a joy they are!

 

The next day, Monday, was our last full day in Sicily and we made the most of it.  We left the hotel early and went to Mt. Etna.  It is an active volcano, and erupted as recently as last year, 2008.  We took a tram part of the way up the mountain and then took an off-road bus up to about 3000 meters.  There we were able to walk around the rim of one of the craters from a previous eruption in 2006.  There were no fences up and it was completely barren.  In fact, steam was still coming up through the ground and when we picked up the rocks, they were warm.  It was a fantastic experience and we were so glad we did it.  

 

On our way down the mountain, we stopped at a small family-owned winery, the Gambino family.  The guy from our hotel said they were not related to the crime family, but aren’t all Italians related?  The very handsome son gave us a personal tour of his winery and then 2 tour groups arrived and we joined them for a tasting and some antipasto.  What a delight!  

 

Next stop that day was Giardini Naxos, a town along the Ionian Sea.  We walked along the beach and wished we had 3 more weeks here.  What a great trip – business and personal!   To top it off, we had accumulated so much dirt from the trip to Mt. Etna, that when the rental car guy inspected the car, he said, “Bene, bene!” and waved us on.  He never even saw the scratches on the mirrors and side of the car!!