Under Stars and Over Seas: The Ten Things I Learned In Sicily

While in Sicily (and a few other locations in Italy), I learned 10 things:
1. I am the tallest person in Sant'Elia (if not the entire island of Sicily)
2. If you are a guest in an Italian household, they will feed you as much as possible
3. If you don't ask for seconds (or accept seconds when they offer them) they think you hated the food
4. The average meal in an Italian household is, like, five courses long
5. I can't actually eat as much as I thought I could
6. All of the Italians drive really small cars (think: smart cars) and I don't fit in them well
7. Italian drivers are crazy, but they know what they're doing
8. When you greet/meet Italians you kiss them on one or both cheeks
9. Even if you don't speak the same language, you can still communicate
10. Except in church services in Italian. You're on your own there.

Overall my time in Sicily has been wonderful. My roommate's cousin drove us around the island and showed us various beaches, basilicas, and gelato places. I ate a lot of gelato. But I'm not complaining.

One of the places we went to was the cave of Santa Rosalia. Rosalia was the daughter of the king of Palermo in the 1100s. Her father wanted her to get married and she refused, running away and living in a cave for ten or twelve years. She died at around the age of 36, and her remains stayed in the cave for 500 years.

In the 1600s a plague was ravaging Palermo, and a hunter up in the mountains received a vision of Rosalia, who told him where her body was. He retrieved it and carried her corpse through the city, where the plague miraculously ended. The cave was then turned into a church and is absolutely beautiful.

People in Palermo will do the pilgrimage to Santa Rosalia every year in honor of her, and they often pray to her with help receiving grace and healing.

The church services I attended in Sicily were nice, but I had no idea what was happening during them. It was all in Italian and it was all I could do to sit and stand at the right time. Being the tallest person in the room didn't help, so I stuck out no matter what I did.

The basilicas here are beautiful, but I don't know how anything will ever compete with Notre Dame for me. But when it comes to cities, I think I like Italy more than Paris. The tiny town of Sant'Elia has a charm all its own, a tiny place where everyone knows each and more often than not are related. The family I stayed with is incredibly nice, and luckily after the second meal they understood I can't eat as much as everyone else and gave me smaller portions. I only got ribbed for it a bit, but it meant I wasn't miserable after every meal, so I counted it as a win.

We head to Rome tomorrow, bright and early, and after that we go back to Oxford to finish packing up the rest of our stuff. We head to London and Scotland after that, and the adventure will continue.

We're heading to the beach tonight, so I should probably finish this up and go pack my suitcase. I've got an early plane to catch tomorrow morning.

So, until then, Buonanotte Sicily and good morning California,

Sam