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the great-grandparents come to visit!

April 26, 2013 at 12:00 pm

We were so excited to have my grandparents (my mom’s parents) visit us for a few days this week. They had just finished an amazing tour of Sicily with Grand Circle Travel and so — without the pressure of “seeing Italy” — we could all sit back and savor the moments together. I absolutely love my grandparents and treasure any time I’m able to spend with them. Some of my happiest childhood memories come from hot summers spent in their beautiful home in St. Louis, helping my grandmother bake cookies or watching my grandfather in his woodworking shop in their basement. It was a huge honor to host them in my own home, to cook food for them in my own kitchen, to welcome them into everyday life with my own family.

Here are a few sweet moments from their visit. Above on the left, Gil and his GG (great-grandmother) enjoy lunch on base. Above on the right, Lena pages through a beautiful wooden bookthat her great-grandparents brought her. Thank you, GG and Great-Grampie!

Above left: Gil and GG chit-chatting at the hospital on base. We spent 5 hours there one morning due to my poor grandfather not feeling well for most of his visit! Thanks to excellent care at the hospital on base, though, he has a clean bill of health to head back to the States today. Above right: I can only hope to be as hip as my grandmother when I am 79.

Scenes from one early morning: Gil yawning (after only being up for an hour… typical) and Lena and Grammie enjoying a tea party.

Today we took a walk through our town, showing Grammie/GG our favorite spots.

One of our favorite places in town is definitely La Biscotteria Siciliana, where Grammie enjoyed her last chocolate gelato before leaving Italy.

Lena and I, meanwhile, celebrated the coming of warmer weather with cups of granite, or Italian ice. Lena had pistachio, I had almond and strawberry, and Gil just looked on with all the wisdom of a newly-minted 3-month-old. (Happy 3-month “birthday” today, Gil!)

Above left: My two munchkins staying busy while everyone else watches black smoke puffing out of Mt Etna through the kitchen window. Above right: Post nap time snuggles with my loves.

Above left: Afternoon playtime. Above right: Dinner tonight at Donna Fortunata. Love you, Grampie!

These pictures just make my heart melt. What an incredible gift to have my grandparents visit us overseas! I know I’ll treasure these memories for myself and for my children the rest of my life.

Are your grandparents still living? What did you do together the last time you saw them?

17 :: in family, Instagram, life lately, Sicily, visitors

traveling in Italy :: Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples

April 15, 2013 at 2:11 pm

According to our guidebook, Agrigento and the nearby Valley of the Temples is the top tourist destination in Sicily. The Valley of the Temples archeological park (Parco Valle dei Templi) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and boasts several beautifully-preserved temples strung along a ridge overlooking the ocean. The temples themselves include the best examples of Doric columns outside of Greece. We visited Agrigento last year with our friends the Arthurs and were excited to take Elliott’s parents this year.

^^^ We’re off! We brought our double stroller for this adventure and were so glad for the sturdy tires when we did some off-roading to get a close look at the temple ruins. Gil obliged by sleeping in his car seat most of the time…

The redbuds were in bloom, as well as many other gorgeous spring flowers. Such beauty.

^^^ I turned around and saw Lena and Elliott chilling on a wall. NBD.

^^^ Baby figs! And a very doting Grandpa.

^^^ Doting Grandpa take 2. I couldn’t resist.

And the obligatory Elliott/Lena/bug picture. I wonder how much longer she’ll be fascinated before them before a sense of fear or dislike sets in? Hopefully it never will….

A little info if you’d like to visit: the Valley of the Temples archeological park costs 10 euro per person for the main (Eastern) side and 15 euro for the entire park. (The other half includes some less-impressive remains of more temples.) If you throw in a visit to the Scala dei Turchi as well, it’s well worth the drive from other tourist locations (for us, ~2 hours from near Catania). We stayed at an agriturismo callled Villa Diana one night and would recommend it to others. For our one evening in Agrigento, we ate dinner at Kokalos, a popular restaurant that overlooks the night-lit temples. If you are planning a visit and have more questions, I’d be happy to answer them!

5 :: in family, Sicily, travel, visitors

Scala dei Turchi

April 2, 2013 at 2:51 pm

Here at last are some pictures from our beautiful sunset walk to the Scala dei Turchi! It’s harder to write a blog post these days with two little kiddos needing lots of TLC. I think they’re both asleep for a little bit now…

While my parents-in-law were visiting last week, we took a trip to the southern coast of Sicily with them for a couple of days. We wanted to show them a beautiful rock formation and also visit the Valley of the Temples outside the city of Agrigento. We hadn’t been to either of these places since last February (here is a post about that trip), and so we were looking forward to enjoying this beautiful part of Sicily again ourselves.

We drove to Agrigento last Wednesday, checked into our agriturismo (more photos from there soon!), had naps all around, and then drove on to the Turkish Steps (or Scala dei Turchi) around 5pm. The walk along the beach toward the giant white rock formation was peaceful and beautiful. Lena loved walking along the ocean; Gil loved sleeping in our beloved Moby wrap.

Finally we reached the white rock and began to climb…

My father-in-law took this photo just as we got to the top of the Turkish Steps. The view behind us was stunning with the ocean stretching off forever into the setting sun! We spent a long time on the rocks, climbing and resting and taking photos.

Quite a picturesque spot for a diaper change, right??

If you’re like Lena, you also enjoy looking at whatever photo was just taken of you!

I love the photo above but am bummed that I was smiling for the camera and not looking at Elliott. Our matching silhouetted faces smiling at each other would have been so cool!

Below, my parents-in-law pause for final iPhone shots…

And the sun has set. Isn’t it such a magical place? In the setting sun this could almost be Antarctica. But instead it’s warm and sunny… and before too long the beaches will be covered with Sicilian sunbathers. I’d like to go back then!

9 :: in family, hiking, Italy, pretty places, Sicily, travel, visitors

Siracusa with Jess & Sarah

August 27, 2012 at 1:23 pm

Jess had already been to Siracusa once on her visit to Sicily but, believe it or not, she liked it enough that she asked to go back! Besides, Sarah hadn’t visited Siracusa yet. As Siracusa is becoming my favorite town to visit on the eastern coast of Sicily, I was totally game.

We wandered through the fruit, vegetable, and fish market first, where Jess bought a purse. Just like all her souvenirs thus far from Sicily, this one was imported from India. Hmmm…

By the time we reached the main piazza of the town, little Lena was getting tuckered out. She found some shade and laid her little head down to rest right in the middle of the piazza.

Definitely time for a 10am gelato break.

Siracusa has a little strip of beach and a pier. Jess and I were so hot and sweaty on our last visit that we jumped off the pier, clothes and all! This time we planned ahead and brought our swimsuits. The water this time of year is like bathwater and, in this group, no one was complaining.

We finally headed back up to the beautiful Duomo Piazza for lunch at my favorite restaurant: The Fox and the Grape. It’s very Italian and pretty much all pizzas, but they’re trying to be modern and trendy (quite successfully), and the combination is totally charming. Also, their four cheese pizza is to die for.

“Mom, I’m so hungry! But I guess I’ll content myself with drinking water from a wine glass until the pizza arrives…”

Ahhh…

And finally: “Sarah, help me do something modern on this” & “We love Italian graffiti because all it [usually] says is, ‘Love!'”

7 :: in Sicily, travel, visitors

Siracusa with Jess & Sarah

August 27, 2012 at 12:23 pm

We wandered through the fruit, vegetable, and fish market first, where Jess bought a purse. Just like all her souvenirs thus far from Sicily, this one was imported from India. Hmmm…

By the time we reached the main piazza of the town, little Lena was getting tuckered out. She found some shade and laid her little head down to rest right in the middle of the piazza.

Definitely time for a 10am gelato break.