The emphasis is on the first syllable. I like to roll my Rs when I speak Italian. Trrropeeah. It doesn’t matter how it’s pronounced. Drum roll please! White sand beaches on the Tyrrhenian Sea. I wonder how many spelling bee dreams have been lost to that word. I checked the spelling several times. Have another…

I went, I saw, I conquered. That’s my take now that I am away from Sicilia. Conquer? Not exactly. It wasn’t necessary. I am ready to move on. I will leave the being of conquerers to true warriors. I am a lightweight. I am ready for the tip do the boot! Scilla, pronounced Sheila today…

It is agreed that Italian food is the best? Sicilian food is wonderful. BUT, I am in tourist areas and it’s not truly fresh. It can’t be. The restaurants are feeding throngs of people. Here in Scilla- pronounced like the name Sheila, everything is fresh. There are some tourists, of course. When I arrived at…

The music that’s playing everywhere I go is my music. The Italians love classic rock. It’s one of the ways they work on their English. Singing along with the Queen of hearts and then a bit of Seeger. I feel right at home.

A beautiful thing here in Italy is the evening stroll. The streets in the smallest of towns are busy. It makes sense if we remember that these are communities of small homes lived in by working class families. A walk costs nothing and seeing friends is free. The evening walk is called a passaggiata. Loosely…