Island Hopping 2024: Giarratana, A dinner at home, Saying Good Bye

Saturday April 13: Today we have to drop Dave and Kristi off at an airport hotel.  Their revised flight back to the States now leaves very early Sunday morning.  We wanted to do something to make the last day memorable but still be able to get them to the hotel and us back to the AirBnB at a reasonable time.  Dave and I both enjoy cooking.  We decided to prepare a last meal with local ingredients and to enjoy it on our patio.  

So, first things first, we headed to the café for coffee and crumpets.  

Another one of Dave's artistic caffeine hits, we'll miss seeing them in the morning

I'm sure this will not be the last one

Ok, now we’re ready.  We drove to Ragusa Superiore, the newer city south of here, to pick up a few ingredients to add to what we already had at the house.  This is a large grocery store that maintains a small market feel especially around the meat, olive, and cheese counters.  Dave was particularly impressed with the variety and quantity of pastas available.  All this while Sandy and Kristi were exploring, and by exploring I mean making purchases from other nearby stores. 

 The pasta aisle, from beginning to end, both sides.  There is certain pasta that goes with each sauce.  Not knowing the secret code, we bought pasta that looked interesting

At home Dave and I made what we felt was a very Sicilian pasta dinner.  Whether or not it was exactly the way the Sicilians would have made it, we were not sure, but everything from the mushrooms and tomatoes to the wine in the pot (Marsala) came from this island.  We enjoyed an afternoon eating our creation while talking and laughing together.  

Dave, displaying his knife skills

With wine in the pot and in the glass, we felt that this was a meal of which any Sicilian would be proud

The chefs du jour

 Our last meal with Dave and Kristi on the patio 

Sadly nothing lasts forever, and, it was time to take our friends to the hotel in Catania.  The drive over gave us a somewhat hazy view of Mount Etna, but the closer we got to it, we could see that there are now six distinct steam plumes rising from the caldera.  Sandy had read that the volcano has been showing signs of more activity, and we have certainly seen that while we’ve been here.  After goodbyes to Dave and Kristi we drove back to our house.  This was another good day in Sicily. 

Saying Goodbye