The Adventures of Joe Trap

We started off at 10:00 AM by dropping Maria off at a funeral. Apparently, a 30-something year-old man died (brain tumor?), so many local people were attending the funeral. Meanwhile, Nino showed us around town a bit. We went to the aunt’s new home, but she was not there. Then we went to a place that holds many weddings and fancy banquets. This one was called ‘Bella Beclo’ and it was beautiful. Look at my photos to see some of the images. Today, there was a medical discussion being hosting in one of the rooms, so we got a sneak peek. On the way back, we stopped at his sisters house very briefly, so briefly that we didn’t get out of the car. We then stopped at the parent’s summer home, which is located directly on the coast of the Meditation Sea! Apparently, they stay there 3-4 months of the year during the summer season. The house was a lot bigger than I expected…3 bedrooms with a kitchen, living room, and a bathroom. One thing I noticed that houses in Italy do not have basements. We took some pictures and then drove back home…it only seemed like a 15 minute drive. That seems silly to me to have a ‘summer home’ only 15 minutes from your normal home, although it seems to be normally accepted to carry this practice.

During lunch, I had one of my most favorite foods since I have been here…pasta (big surprise). It had a modest amount of suegu (spelling?), and it came with 2 meatballs, and fried eggplant. The noodles were about 1 ½ inches long and they were rolled to look like an S if you looked at either side. Pretty yummy!

I took a nap, while mom and dad talked for about 2 hours to some more relatives that came over. Probably not the best thing to do after you eat, but it seemed fitting.

Later on, we went to Marsala, where we took beautiful pictures by the sea. We also toured a mini-museum where some of the relics from the Roman Punic wars were discovered in the oceans, as well as an exhibit of Garibaldi’s unification of Italy through the Marsala era. The museum was inside of a place that holds plays and other theatrical events…I believe it was called St. Peter’s square, but I’m not certain. After that, we browsed around some shops. We went back to Maria’s and had some Arancini (rice balls with stuffing inside, usually cheese or meat/sauce). Federico was jumping around and I even got a clip of it! Also I found out he is really 2, and will be three pretty soon…opps!