Sunday April 7: We are staying just outside the small town of Giarratana (pop. 3,010). It is a picturesque hillside town that captures the essence of rustic charm and timeless beauty. The sun constantly changes the shadows across the cobble stone lanes and reflects differently off the monochrome building as the day passes, creating an ever changing, though muted, kaleidoscopic feel to the view before us. Perhaps better explained as just different shades of golden glow upon the rugged landscape and ancient buildings.
This is Sunday morning and the town does feel very quiet and sleepy with the exception of hundreds of weekend bicyclists passing through.
We found a very nice café where we had coffee/tea and cannoli. It was here that we got our first sample of the bicyclists as they would stop for their hit of Italian coffee (nothing but pure caffeine on the bottom of a cup) and then be off.
As we walked through town we found a bakery, two restaurants and two pizzerias in addition to the little café. Unlike some of the places that we have visited, just about everyone here makes eye contact, smiles, recognizes us as travelers, and offers a “buongiorno”. We had only a few fleeting conversations (using a lot of pantomime and Google Translate), every one recognized us as travelers but most are surprised we are from the U.S. This is an area that most U.S. travelers miss. They all make us feel welcome and wish us “benvenuto”.
Even though this is a town of 3,000 people it has three gigantic churches, all Roman Catholic (not a Methodist to be seen). It seems that only one of the churches was active on this Sunday morning. And, by active I mean that on Sunday morning it seemed that the pews were filled by the women in town, while their husbands gathered by the dozens at nearby coffee cafés.
We ended our walk back at the little café where we started. It is called “Le Petit Café”, pretty French, but inside it is all Sicilian. Sandy and I both had some delicious gelato.
We spent the afternoon back at our house, but then went out to one of the restaurants we found during the day. “Eventi Divini”, a wonderful restaurant with an interesting menu. Sandy had ravioli with a piccadilo sauce and I had a very thick spaghetti with a pistachio and prosciutto sauce. We both enjoyed our perfectly constructed Negronis. This was the end to a very good day in Giarratana, Sicily.
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