The Adventures of Joe Trap

November 3, 2008

We went to the tourist town of Taormino. We left at 7:00 AM for a 4 hour car ride, which I slept through most of the way. When we arrived, we walked aside a English speaking tour, so we got to learn about how the city was built by the Greek’s and then continually conquered by Spain, Roma, etc… It was pretty amazing, because the entire city was built on a cliff overlooking the Meditation Sea. We strolled the streets going into various shops that were grossly overpriced. Finally, we arrived at the ancient Greek theater that was partially intact. Some of it was destroyed by various wars and was partially rebuilt in (approx.) 1956. It was a pretty large arena where various social gatherings were held. It was right on the sea coast, so it VERY beautiful. I talked to an older British man whose son attended Luther College. He was pretty knowledge about some of the ruins. We had lunch back at the car which consisted of small loves of bread with mortadella and salami meats with provolone cheese. We walked all the way back to some of the beautiful villas that overlooked the cliff and to see some of the shops. The walk back was pretty brutal because much of it was up hill. Mom and Dad had a pretty rough time, but they pulled through.


November 4, 2008

In Roccamena we are staying with
Giovanni & Vicenza Armato. Vicenza’s grandmother was my great grandfather’s sister.
Gian Paolo is Giovanni & Vicenza Armotta’s nephew.


Today I spent much of it sleeping (until 9:30 AM)…I had stayed up too late playing pinball/solitaire on laptop. It was rather boring without any internet connection. In the morning Giovanni took us to his farm land that was located maybe 700 feet from the edge of Roccamena. He showed us the lemon trees, olive trees, hot pepper bush, Italian celery, and eggplant. We returned later in the day to take some pictures because we forgot the camera.

After that, we went over to the market. I thought they meant a street market, but I soon realized that they meant supermarket aka. grocery store. We went into the tiny store that had 7 cramped aisles of various foods. Meat was priced around 11 euros per kg, and a liter of Coke was about 2.38 euros. This is about what I would except from a small town store. Mom bought some butter to bake dad’s Betty Crooker package of cookie mix that was brought as a semi-gift; However, Giovanni wouldn’t let her buy it, so he bought a stick of butter and mom also bought a stick of butter. Both for the same thing…I guess they were both a little hard headed. In case you were wondering, the chocolate chip cookies were good, however the butter made them very oily on top. I think the butter might have been from sheep’s milk or goat’s milk. It certainly wasn’t cow’s milk. Also on the subject of milk, Dad mentioned that they have bad mozzarella in Sicily because it is made from sheep’s milk, which makes the cheese taste too sweet.

We came back to the house smelling like vinegar and peppers. Vicenza made a side dish with green peppers, tomatoes, vinegar, and some other spices. For lunch we had salad ( oil/vinegar, iceberg lettuce, Italian celery), the spice pepper dish, pasta with bits of broccoli in it, fried (in olive oil) eggplant and broccoli with egg, homemade Italian bread (they have a mixing machine upstairs), and lots of fruit and some of mom’s leftover cheery jello for desert. The fruit they have here is amazing…it tastes 200% better!! I love the yellow melon, pears, and figudini (prickly pears). After eating too much, I laid around and took a nap since it was in the afternoon and there was nothing to do. The Sicilians have some Spanish influence as many (not all) take sesta’s during the afternoon, only they don’t stay open much longer than normal businesses.

Later on, we went to Corelone, where we walked in the park and saw some old men playing bocce. They played a different version than what we play in the US…they put a stack of euros (coins) on one of the red balls, and tried to get as close to the coins as possible (usually they just launched they ball at the coin stacked ball and knocked them off). We didn’t really understand it, but it was interesting… I guess women can’t play bocce in Italy. We walked up and down the shopping strip with lots of stores, and tourist targeting stores (some signs claimed they spoke English). The town is about 10,000-13,000 (compared to Roccamena’s 1,200) and a portion of the Godfather was shoot in Corelone. After walking up and down the strip we returned to Roccamena, it is only a 10-15 minute car ride.

After dinner, mom and dad went to another cousin’s house (Trapani’s) and I went out with Gian Paolo and his friends to the ‘bar’ (consisting of his girlfriend and another couple). It was really a pizzeria. After a beer, we played some foosball and drove around the small town maybe 15 times. One time, they noted that a bunch of kids were honking their horns to celebrate liberty. From what they told me, 3 years ago the old mayor of Roccamena was arrested for charges of being affiliated with the Mafia. They also said that the Mafia in Roccamena is a joke, but the Mafia in Palermo is much more serious. They also said that Italy’s judicial system is ‘soft’, since a murder could only spend 3-5 years in jail before being released, or a thief can only spend 6 months to a year in jail for burglary. They said there is no liberty in Italy, not like the USA where we have capital punishments (electric chair, lethal injection, etc…) and a fast moving judicial system to back it’s laws. Anyways, Gian Paolo’s girlfriend was in the backseat watching a cranberry’s DVD on her HP laptop, while Gian played “Sistem of a Down” American rock band’s Hypnotize album for most of the trip. Luckily, he brought a Italian to English/English to Italian dictionary with him, since we used it quite a bit…he did a good job at speaking though because at . He said we would go out again tomorrowJtimes I used it more than him night at win at foosball around 9 PM.

November 5, 2008
Today we went to two churches…one that was beautiful on the outside, and one that was beautiful on the inside. The church of Monreali didn’t look like much on the outside, but the inside was lined with gold mosaics of biblical figures. To me, it was more impressive than St. Peter’s at the Vatican. I overheard that the back facing alter was brought in from South America from the Spanish during their 400 year reign of Sicily. The window at the head of the church was also done like the Spanish, with the repeated designs in the mortar. The entire church was a giant mosaic, it was very impressive. People from Roccamena even get married there (if they can afford it). To me, it felt like a giant castle of a great king, something medieval that would fit perfectly in the Lord of the Rings, except where the ugly gray hues of stone would show, gold was shown instead.

The Cathedral of Palermo was second church we visited. It was the one that was pretty on the outside. It looked like there was a Muslim influence on its external structure. There was a funeral for several Palermo police officers that were killed when trying to break up some fight with the Mafia. There were several high ranking officials at the funeral, and a lot of police cars. Vicenza said this happens once in awhile, and it is not uncommon.

Santa Rosellia was in Palermo on top of the mountain. We drove up in the small Ford car to find out that the church was closed. The view of Palermo was fantastic though. On the way home we stopped at a farm to pick up some sheep’s milk for the ricotta. We got to sample a few different types of cheeses…one tasted like brick cheese. I finally know what it means for the cheese to ‘squeak’ when you bite into it. This fresh cheese was very squeaky, but it didn’t have much taste. Finally, we got a few different types of cheeses and some of the sheep’s milk (which had already hardened into a semi-cheese/jello concoction.

Some more relatives came over (including the old women [who is 88 by the way] we met at the graveyard during the day of the dead). I got an email address of her 22 year old grandson, who is studying in Palermo to be an Electrical Engineer. His father spoke very good English, and he said he desired to come to the US two more times before he dies. He loves the USA. His family was very nice. Also, his wife is a economic teacher in a high school. They live near Palermo and offered to host us for a night during our remaining time in Sicily. After they left, we had dinner (pasta with ricotta/broccoli) and played Scopa. Gian Paolo took me out again, we lost to the girls at Foosball (2-3), and we drove around town a lot talking about music. He thought I was going to stay around until tomorrow night, so he was going to take me out again—but I told him I was leaving Roccamena at 4:00 PM on Thursday. I wish I could have hung out with them more…oh well. We leave Roccamena at 4:00 PM to go to Petrosino (on the west coast of Sicily).

November 6, 2008

After a brief breakfast, Mom cut Vicenza’s hair outside on the patio. We are touring a olive oil making facility, and a vineyard. We drove out to the vineyard, where Giovanni has a nephew that works there. We toured the area where there was a giant scale that weighs in the trucks. We got 3 bottles of white and 3 of red wine from the vineyard. Luckily, the place was open…apparently most of the work is... done in September, so we were lucky people were around. After this, we toured the olive oil plant. It was interesting, there were many local farmers turning in their olives to the plant, where they soon fill 10-50 gallon barrels (in the form of oil). After this, we returned to the house, ate some lunch and we took a walk. We walked through town and saw Gian Paolo working for his brother in law removing/installing water heaters. After the walk, more relatives came over (the lady with the glasses and her daughter). Her daughter was engaged since she was 14 years old (now she is 23)…I was told that this is a common practice, as to prevent the couple from dating other people. It also gives them lots of time to get a house, nice silverware, furniture, etc... I think it is pretty strange. After she left, her mother talked with Vicenza for a while (it). Around 4:45PM Giuseppe Trapani (another cousin) picked us up. It seemed like hours waiting for him, but he finally got us and took us to Petrosino.
We stopped at a electronics store to buy a ‘AA’ battery charger, since we thought the rechargeable ‘AA’ batteries were pre-charged. When we arrived there were some distinct differences:

1) This is my grandmother’s side of the family…
2) They seemed a lot friendlier and generally accepting of whatever.
3) They also seemed to know way more about America (and embrace it) than Roccamena.

Indeed, we have kept up with this side of the family from 30 years ago. They came to stay with my parents for one month in 1989. I don’t remember too much of it, other than they loved to make bread, including everyone in the entire family to be apart of the process. They also loved Nintendo (NES) and Coca-A-Cola.

It was rather emotional for my parents too, they have been looking forward to coming since the whole trip. Dad cried a bit when he was saying hi to everyone. After eating dinner, we looked over about 8 mini-photo albums. I seriously felt as if I was back in the 80’s after seeing all of them…the tucked-in shirts, big hair, coke shirts, the photos with the new GM red Grand Prix, and the guitar/drum set photos that they posed with.


The welcoming party consisted of:

1 Mother (this women’s Mother and my Grandmother’s father were brother and sister).
2 Sisters (we are staying with Maria, and Rosa) and their husbands.
1 Daughter (Daniela she is 36 years old) and her husband Gianfranco (a VB.NET programmer for an Italian gambling website).
1 Child, Frederico (he is the daughter’s son, very funny and cute).

Some things I noticed were similar from the other households. One thing is that they always serve the salad after the pasta/meat. Then they follow that with side dishes of meat/cheese, and end the meal with fruit (Kiwi, Pears, Apples, Clementine’s).
We walked over to the daughter’s house to watch the wedding DVD that the photographer created. Their wedding was in 2002. Also, we saw the baby’s DVD movie of the early years, and the first birthday.

The best thing is that I now have Wireless Internet. .JTHANK GOD! Now I can keep in contact with the rest of the world!