Forest Gump's twin sister learns Italian

Yesterday evening Tony and I decided that we will not be able to fit into our seats on the return flight home if we don’t stop eating for a party of 5 at every meal. There is just so much good food,it’s hard to turn things down. There is an amazing variety of fresh fish; swordfish, sardines, squid, shrimp, tuna, and countless other critters I don’t even recognize. The cheeses are primarily fresh and dried ricotta, provolone and a variety of pecorino. The bread is very distinctive. What we’ve bought in shops and had at restaraunts so far has had a dense, chewy texture, and tastes like it's made with eggs and a dash of cinnamon. The veggies are off the hook.No wonder so many classic Italian recipes seem deceptively simple. When you cook with really good ingredients it’s hard to go wrong. We can't seem to get enough of the grilled eggplant, roasted red peppers and fresh baby artichokes. The wine has been the biggest surprise. There are hundreds of different wines produced in Sicily. I can’t believe we don’t import more to the states. A shopkeeper told us that there is an issue with the taxes the states impose on importing it. I think the Italian “Padrinos” in New York need to work some things out with their Sicilian counterparts. The variety and quality are amazing. Sicilian wines can easily compete with California, Chile and Australia. We had a Chardonnay the other night that knocked our socks off.

I’m beginning to grasp that life here as woman has some serious restrictions. I took Lucca for a walk along part of Cefalu's rocky shoreline yesterday afternoon and had several local men shout warnings to me about the danger of walking so close to the water. Granted, the ocean along the jagged rocks was turbulent, but there was a path that wound it’s way up and around them. I was holding Lucca’s hand most of the time and while it was exhilarating…it was never dangerous. I’ve decided to stop worrying about offending the locals. Maybe they were just yelling because I had unattractive, sensible footwear on.

Italian lesson #1 or Forest Gump’s twin sister learns a new language. Yesterday I learned that I don’t speak Italian. I’m great at the hand gestures, but that’s about it. I also remembered why I’ve been avoiding lessons, I don’t like being bad at anything. I had a two hour, private lesson with “Liana”, who spoke almost no English the entire time.By the end of the lesson I had smoke coming out of my ears. She seemed a bit puzzled by the fact that I continually redirected the lesson away from “My name is…I am from…I ate some eggs for breakfast on a plate” to “Why do I get funny looks when I order a Negroni cocktail at the local bar?”. At one point she was trying to teach me to say “I am in Cefalu for the first time. I am here on vacation. I am studying Italian.” I kept saying, “I am in Cefalu for the first time. I am here to eat my vacation.” At the end of the lesson I asked her if she had any other students that day. She shook her head vigorously. After her two trying hours with me, I think she was planning to go home and knock back a bottle of Campari.

Italian Lesson #2. Liana almost pulled her hair out today. It's obvious that my sophisticated brain stores such a large amount of data regarding what shoes should go with what accessories, that there isn't room left for much else. About 3/4 of the way through the lesson I couldn't remember any Italian or English. I went to a nearby stationary store and tried to find index cards...I couldn't remember how to ask for them in my own language!! Thankfully, I did have a breakthrough. There is a little mom and pop bar/cafe around the corner from the school. I successfully ordered a capuccino in perfect Italian, and on my way out noticed a new kind of potato pizza being taken straight out of the oven. I think I said "What is that? The perfume of the bread is beautiful!"...either that or "Who are you? You smell like fresh potato!".

Tony’s Italian teacher, Vittoria, spoke to him yesterday about how impossibly difficult it is to be an older single woman here. People don’t really have “friends” outside of their families. You are expected to spend all of your time (outside of work, chores and transit) with family. Family is everything. Vittoria said that this philosophy works when you have small children…but as you get older it gets confining and lonely. So…the sun shines here a lot, the wine and food are unbelievable, but there is no such thing as “Girls night out”.

Lucca is loving his Catholic Kindergarten experience. Today he told Tony “Hey Dad, they say “Bye” the same way we do!” Tony responded “No Lucca, they are speaking to you in English..." He is so much like me it's painful. Most of the time he speaks to the other kids in English and they speak to him in Italian. Watching them you would swear that they understand each other. He seems fixated on the fact that many of his fellow classmates get a chocolate treat from their parents for "snack time" every day. I pack Lucca some fruit, yogurt and one little almond cookie. I don't know how to break it to him that the nuns might think he was possessed if they ever witnessed the "before and after" chocolate transformation in our child. We've had to severely limit his gelato intake because he turns into the Tasmanian devil after wards.

Lucca is asking a lot about religion and mythology. I bought him a children’s book on Greek myths before we came. I wanted him to understand a little bit about the Greek ruins that are everywhere here.While walking along the beach yesterday we discussed “Poseidon” the Greek god of the sea. I can tell that Lucca loves the idea of all of the different deities who have control over specific things. The myth about Hercules is his current favorite. I can only imagine what's bouncing around in his little head. Our conversations now include Pokemon characters, Jesus and the meaning of Easter (Catholic Kindergarten), Godzilla and Greek Gods. This kid's cosmos is full of an astounding array of characters. As a result...I'm pretty sure he will turn out to be a Dentist.