Archive | Sicily

Snapshots from Motta Sant’Anastasia

August 7, 2011 at 6:12 pm

A few photos from Motta, the town where we plan to live:

This is inside the castle, which is 20 feet from our new home. We were impressed with the historical displays inside. All high quality and beautifully done.

Our future house! This photo was taken out one of the windows of the castle looking down on the house. (Can you see the shadow of the castle?)

We will live on the bottom floor. There’s a large balcony on the other side of the house that overlooks the valley. The fruit trees look so far away from the house because they are. This house is built on the edge of a volcanic cliff! There’s a steep drop on the other side of the house.

Beside the dungeon’s trap door in the castle.

We walked around Motta with our gelato: strawberry and lemon for Elliott and pistachio and chocolate for me. They also have mulberry flavor–called gelsi–which Elliott wants to get next time! I love the cute houses and steep cobblestone streets of this little town. The neighborhood surrounding our house is called the medieval section of town and is so classic with flowerpots on tiny balconies, narrow and brightly colored houses, and cathedral churches with old fashioned water fountains outside.

And Lena, patiently enduring a car ride in a friend’s car, and getting to know Sophie, her giraffe.

1 :: in home sweet home, Lena, Sicily

Finding a Church… er, a Chapel?

August 7, 2011 at 5:58 pm

We had rather a nice surprise this morning. While walking towards the chapel service on base – and meanwhile reminding ourselves to be positive about this experience, we need to do this to consider all our options, we are sure to be disappointed by “just a military chapel service” – we saw large groups of parents and children walking towards the chapel.

And more.

We walked into the chapel and there were at least 100 people there, almost all of them families, and almost all of them officers’ families. Perhaps I need not state the obvious: no other church service we’ve attended in Sicily so far has included these 3 elements.

And then we saw that Lena’s pediatrician was leading music, which was more good news, because he likes to call himself Dr. Josh the Singing Pediatrician (has flyers posted all over his office) and has 3 little kids and a really sweet wife named Becca and we think we’re going to be friends with them. Also, he’s a good guitar player. And the songs we sang were rich songs, and included “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.”

And then we liked the sermon, too, which is the first in a series about Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Destiny (“ie. Heaven and Hell”… was it too much to hope that he’d call it “Restoration”?).

And then they served communion, and four older fathers served that, and also took up the offering.

And then afterwards everyone was very welcoming. Another young mom gave me her phone number. We talked to several young parents. We also talked to some older parents who all told us eagerly that their kids like to babysit. We talked to the pastor, too, who will be leaving in December and his replacement has a PCUSA background. We went to part of a meeting about VBS that they are hosting in 2 weeks and I think I’ll volunteer to help out with that.

Well. What do you know.

Elliott and I talked about it over lunch and were both hesitant to get excited. We’ve been hesitant to get excited or discouraged about anything thus far, even to each other. And we haven’t visited all our options yet, so the search is not necessarily over. However, it did encourage us to imagine this as a possibility.

Wouldn’t it be funny if we did end up at a “military chapel” for 3 years? After all our presuppositions before our arrival about various churches and the right setting for us, the Lord might just surprise us yet.

0 :: in my faith, Sicily

Saturday in Sicily

August 6, 2011 at 4:52 pm

Over a week since I last wrote and I don’t know where it went so fast! INDOC has kept us so busy each day, but that finished on Wednesday. We took two amazing field trips to finish it off: one to the largest nearby city of Catania to wander around the famous fish market and eat a five-course Italian meal and the other to the Catania beach.

Elliott and I planned to go hiking in the Mt Etna National Park today, but unfortunately that plan was a flop. No, it wasn’t because Mt Etna was erupting… although it’s done that a couple times this past week! Our hiking plans were foiled because there were no rental cars available. In the absence of our car, we’ve come to depend on kindly acquaintances for rides and haven’t had to rent yet, and apparently we won’t be renting and going for a joyride anytime soon.

So we’re in the library instead, keeping Lena happy on some of their playground equipment on the veranda and enjoying the afternoon breezes.

In other news… we decided to go for the house near the castle! I am a little concerned about parking/driving, but everything else seems to be a good fit. We’ve asked for quite a few repairs to be done before we move in, and the landlady (Signora Scardilli) is accommodating thus far. She’s even agreed to get us a new kitchen. I know, I had said that the kitchen is gorgeous in this house, but it’s really the room where the kitchen will be that’s beautiful. There’s actually no kitchen equipment – no stove, no oven, no fridge, and only a very small sink – there right now.

Signora Scardilli allowed us to go to IKEA (they just got one in Catania this summer!) and choose which equipment furnishing we’d like. I went with her last Saturday and then we went again on Wednesday, both times with the help of an Italian-speaking friend with a car. Signora Scardilli has neither car nor English language skills, and we have neither car nor Italian. So there you go. It was quite an adventure both times, but I think we came out of it with our requests quite clear, and now we’ll see how the negotiating goes with regards to repairs and rent. (Our military housing allowance is greater than what Signora Scardilli is asking for rent, so the repairs get calculated into a monthly rent increase and we’re all happy in the end. Or so we hope.)

Elliott starts working regularly in the vet clinic next week, so Lena and I will be left to our own devices. We’ll see how it goes!

2 :: in family, Sicily, weekend

Saturday in Sicily

August 6, 2011 at 3:52 pm

So we’re in the library instead, keeping Lena happy on some of their playground equipment on the veranda and enjoying the afternoon breezes.

Elliott starts working regularly in the vet clinic next week, so Lena and I will be left to our own devices. We’ll see how it goes!

1 :: in family, Sicily, weekend

Have we found a house?

July 28, 2011 at 8:57 pm

Maybe. I think so. I don’t want to commit to it yet… but we’re this close.

Yesterday and today have been a whirlwind of house tours, Italian towns and countryside, and trying to keep a howling baby happy in a hot van. We saw two places yesterday that we had carefully selected after scanning hundreds of listings and thousands of photos on the Housing Department website. We loved both of them, and one of them will be our home.

They are so different, though. One is in the heart of town… and that’s saying a lot when you’re talking about a little Italian town. The other is in the country… and in Italy that means down a dirt road with the music of distant farm equipment and nearby birdsong. How does one decide what kind of Italian life one wants?

Both have 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, air conditioning, hookups for washers and dryers, include a working fireplace, and are a 10-minute drive to the base.

There the similarities end.

House #1 is yellow on the outside, has an incredible view, is in the old historical quarter of Motta (literally right under a castle from the 12th century), boasts a phenomenal kitchen with a view of Mt Etna and a fabulous farmhouse table with long wooden benches, is a 5-minute walk to a fabulous gelateria.

But House #1 has hardly any storage, is somewhat isolated on the end of a cul-de-sac (can you call it that in Italy?) that consists entirely of garages, has no garden, and is pretty difficult to get to up winding streets… and a tough parking situation for friends.

House #2 is on a peaceful half-acre a small orange tree orchard, has a couple of porches for outdoor living 8 months of the year, includes plenty of space to garden and keep chickens and a dog, possesses plenty of storage indoors and outdoors, has larger bedrooms, and is more of the country life in Italy that we envisioned for ourselves.

However, House #2 is also seriously isolated (for me alone with Lena during the day), is a little off the beaten track for people coming to visit, would tie us down from traveling around Europe due to a garden and animals, and lacks the gorgeous historic touches of House #1.

So how do you decide?