Bagpipes in Sicily

The past few weeks have been a blur so i cannot remember what day this happened, it must have been before Christmas. We were coming back to town after going somewhere. We seem to drive around a lot! The King's family thinks we're strange (in a good way) for doing this.
We saw Mico (The King's oldest niece's husband). He was out riding their bike. He said the Babbo Natale was on our street handing out candy to the children. He gave a few pieces to Litle P. So of couse we had to check it out but by the time we got there they were out of candy. It was 2 young guys dressed as Santa and another guy with a sheepskin that looked like bagpipes. wish I would have gotten a photo!
This morning I am reading the blogs and sites I read and I saw this post. http://www.italiannotebook.com/local-interest/zampognari/ They were bagpipes!

Trouble with the Internet..

We had the internet for ONE week. Then we woke up Wednesday 2 weeks ago and we didn't. You know it's Italy...anyway we figured it out w/o Telecom!

Back to our goings on...

Last Thursday, we decided to drive out to try to get closer to Mt. Etna. Armed with only a (not very good) map, we started out. We wove in and out and through the mountains, not seeing it but knowing it was there. We can see it from the A20 in Barcellona. We didn't really drive through that many towns. But there was this one town called Novara di Sicilia. It is beautiful. Here's a few photos.

This is a photo as we approach the town. They have 2 churches. I don't know if they older one is in use. (On the right side of the photo).

Look at the street. You don't get a smooth ride but it is amazing! When we went through the town on our way to the volcano, we had to weave through the parked cars and cars coming in the other direction. You can see the street is not very wide. I was sure we wouldn't make it a few times. But when we were on our trip home, the streets were clear (like this photo) because everyone was at home for lunch or getting there!

Beautiful architecture...I love seeing all the balconies....Look at the arches over the doors on the ground floor. See the plaster work around the balcony doors on the primo piano (first floor, second to us Americans!) Bella! Bella!

Stop by tomorrow for more of our trip!

Befana Day

All of you that live in Italy know what today is.

The Italian tradition tells that La Befana, a nice old woman, on the night between the 5th and 6th January, lands on the roofs with her broom stick and goes down the chimney, where every child has left their stocking. La Befana, who carries with her a bag of sweets, fills the stockings of the children who behave with lots of chocolates. She fills the stockings of the kids who didn’t behave with lumps of coal instead.

The Epiphany day, the 6th of January, is considered the last day of the Christmas holiday and everyone takes the Christmas tree down on that day. In Italy there is a saying " L'Epifania che ogni festa si porta via" which roughly translated means “The Epiphany takes away all festivity”.

In most Italian regions, even adults give little presents to each other and so do lovers with stockings full of chocolate, that are similar to those that La Befana leaves for the kids.Everyone knows La Befana as an old woman, usually ugly, who wears an old, long and big skirt with colourful patches, a scarf on her shoulders, a hat and a pair of old and broken shoes. (from the internet..mybefana.it)

Learning Italian

I have been studying harder the last few weeks. I have using online sites and this book.

It's a good book.

But it's still a blur. I can read pretty well but I cannot think to speak it.

I guess that will come!

My library system has a new program called Mango.

Has anyone used it?

Citizenship

In June I got my Italian citizenship! It was a long process in getting it. We went to the consulate to register our marriage but The King's passport had expired. They would not renew it until he proved that he had not become an American citizen. We had to reapply for his green card. His original green card did not have an expiration date so we never knew that they had to be renewed. What a long and frustrating process that was. Finally we got his new card and he could renew his Italian passport.
Then we could proceed with registering our marriage with the consulate. We married in 1985 and should have done it then but we did not know. We had to get copies of our marriage certificates from the county where we were married and have them apostillized (which is an Italian legalization) from the state. Then we gave them to the consulate who sent them to the comune that The King comes from. The comune registered our marriage and sent a paper back to us. At that same time we registered the birth of our daughters. They automatically became Italian citizens.
Then I had to get security clearances from every state that I lived in since my 14th birthday. I had to go to the police barracks and get fingerprinted and sent that to the FBI for another security check. Those documents had to be translated and given to the consulate. I tried to translate them myself but they would not accept them. I found someone in Reading that translated them and we returned to the consulate again. This time the documents were accepted. That was in May of 2007.
YAHOO! Now when we move I don't have to get a visa to stay in Italy with my family. I just have to go back to the consulate and get my new passport. They won't give you citizenship and a passport in the same day, unfortunately.

We plan to get my passport when we file the repatriation papers right before we leave the US.

Know Italian?

Yesterday my sister-in-law from Italy called. The King was at work so I could not give him the phone. I have to say that I did not do too bad. I understood almost everything she said. But I could not remember how to say I don't understand. I know it will get better when we get to Italy and I am around it all the time.
I have done Rosetta Stone. That helped but it does not teach you to speak conversational Italian. I have books and cds. I have been using a new site on the internet called Byki (just found it last week). I can read some Italian.