Carlentini May 12 – 18

We will be staying in an Air BnB in Carlentini, Sicily. We will be spending our days in Carlentini and neighboring cities in the Siracusa province.

May 12, 2025 – Arrival in Carlentini, Sicily

”life is either a daring adventure or nothing” – Helen Keller

Today was a slow picture day. Started off in Milan, took an uneventful taxi ride to the Malpensa Airport. Waited for our gate to be posted, then headed that direction. Got to the gate and boarding started shortly thereafter. It was a relatively short flight to Catania, Sicily. The highlight was getting off the plane and going through security and hearing someone calling “Nicky, Nicky”. Nick met his good friend Nino (for the first time!). Nino and his wife Wanda met us at the Catania Airport (despite the fact we speak different languages). It was so cute seeing them together. They seemed to have a communication breakdown so Wanda recruited one of the car rental people to translate. We agreed to proceed to our separate houses and meet later in the week. We rented an MGB hybrid, but there was a fairly large MG SUV parked next to it and we were panicking about how we would drive and park an SUV in Carlentini. We finally figured out that that our key did not open the SUV and we were so relieved to see our compact MGB. We drove to Carlentini with only a few wrong turns which led us into the narrow streets of Carlentini and we were so thankful to have a compact car. We arrived at our Air B&B and were greeted by our host. The place was much larger than we envisioned, which was a nice surprise. The grocery store was next on the agenda and we picked up a few items before returning to the Villa Rea in the pouring rain. We are safely ensconced with our Etna Rosso and limoncello. Buona notte!

May 13, 2025 Carlentini Day 2

”To travel is to evolve” – Pierre Bernardo

We started the morning with a trip to Bar Derby (a favorite pastry & coffee shop from our last trip) and we enjoyed a granita and brioche and our coffees. Then we went to the Carlentini cemetery. How exciting!! Of course, you realize that Nick says this with loads of enthusiasm, while I, on the other hand say it with much sarcasm. Well, it wasn’t really all that bad. Then we headed over to the Carlo V School and were given a first class tour of the school and met Laura Capodicasa and several of her wonderful co-workers. Nick interacted with several children in the classrooms. I was talking with one of the teachers and told her that we were from Houston. She was very excited and said everybody knows the famous quote, “Houston we got a problem.” What made it even better was that we brought them a sticker with the quote on it. Then we headed across town to the Pirandello school, and once again had an excellent tour and we were greeted very warmly by Silvana Iannello and the staff and students. We also had the privilege of having an eleven year old interpreter to help guide us around. And once again, Nick went into several of the classrooms to talk to the students. Fun times and great memories. However, we had to cut the visit short so we could make it to our lunch date. Kalpna and Pippo hosted us at their villa with a view of Mt. Etna. Eleonora and baby Elisa joined us for lunch. The food and drink just kept coming and coming. The food was delicious and the company inspiring. We were trying to talk Pippo into writing another book (previous book, Another Time Another Place was excellent). We recorded some stories that Pippo told us about his family. Because Nick packed the schedule full, we had to run again….this time to the local library where Nick met up with his cousin, Marinella who let him borrow a Biographical Dictionary of Carlentini. We are again safely ensconced in our house and attempting to recover from our food and fun coma.

May 14, 2025 Carlentini – Day3

”The world is a book and those who do not travel only read a page” – Saint Augustine

We started the day early with a visit to the Carlentini square to meet with Mayor Stefio. It was nice to see him again. The last time we saw him was at the Sister City Agreement Signing in Omaha, NE in the summer of 2024. Several other locals showed up to greet us including relatives and friends. After coffee and visiting with Mayor Stefio, Silvana took us over to the boutique that her husband, Roberto, owns. A couple of items just happened to fall into a bag, ooops! Then we hopped in the car with Rosetta and Nuccio, and headed over to Lentini. We walked around the square and visited the tourist office. There was a large map of Lentini dated 1693 on the wall. We obtained maps and brochures about Lentini attractions. We noticed lots of confetti from the St. Alfio festival still on the ground. Nick scrounged a few of the notes before heading into Saint Alfio Church to meet the priest. We were hoping to see the christening registration for Nick’s grandfather. Unfortunately, his name was not listed in the register that was dated 1906-1908. The current thought is that he was probably baptized in the San Luca church, however it may be difficult to gain access to the registers there. Luciano, a parish member, gave us a tour of the church and pointed out the Stauroteca from the 10th or the 11th century. This artifact is believed to be wood from the cross Jesus was crucified on. It is very rare and only a few exist today. We then dropped Rosetta and Nuccio off in Carlentini before heading out for a family gathering in Sortino. The drive was beautiful. We were greeted very warmly by Lucia Inserra, her daughters, Marilena and Nenzi, grandchildren and another cousin Angelo. There was a bit of a language barrier, however, their were plenty of laughs, good food and warm hearts to make this a very memorable family reunion.

May 15,2025 Carlentini day4

”A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles” -Tim Cahill

The day started under a “severe weather alert” with many closures including schools and even cemeteries. The weather didn’t stop us! We drove to the villa of Silvana and Roberto. Silvana drove us to Villasmundo to visit the church. We met the priest and he showed us the book of baptisms from 1850-1908. We were looking for the baptism of the grandfather of Silvana whose name was Giuseppe Riggio. The parish register was written in Latin so his name was listed as Josephus Riggio and he was baptized in 1901.

After we left the church, we drove to the cemetery but the gates were locked. We took some pictures through the gate. Perhaps some of our friends can take pictures for us if they visit Villasmundo. We went back into town and took a picture of Silvana in front of her grandparents’ house. Next door to the house is a hair salon owned by Tony Pupillo who is a cousin of Silvana. We went inside and had a coffee and talked to Tony and his wife and his mom.

We returned to the house of Silvana and talked to the cooks, Silvana and her daughter, Erica, while they prepared lunch. Roberto returned home from his clothing store and we were joined by Rosetta Nastasi and her husband Nuccio Catalano. We ate several courses starting with ravioli with a rossa sauce, bruschetta, wine, etc. etc. Then a meat course with chicken filets and seasoned potatoes. The fruit course was cantaloupe and pears. Then dessert was a pistachio mousse cake. We ate and we ate and we ate. Mangia, mangia, mangia!

We returned to our rental house for a short rest and then headed to the house of our new friends, Nino Castro and Wanda Basso on Via Roma in the heart of Carlentini. Nino invited his friend Salvo to translate for us. We spoke about family, friends and life in Italy, London and America.

We then went to the salon of the Sant’Anna church for an evening filled with music, dancing and unexpected honors. There were many relatives and friends at this event. We were given certificates, medallions, books and biscotti. We were entertained by a husband and wife duo. He played a keyboard and she sang a variety of Italian, Sicilian, Neapolitan and American songs. Silvana also sang an opera song and a couple of others. Nick was also on stage singing Che Sera, Sera and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. We danced to the Tarantella and many other tunes.

We are exhausted but very happy!

May 16, 2025 Carlentini – Day 5

”Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey” – Fitzhugh Mullan

Today has been a little quieter than earlier in the week. We started at the Archeological Museum of Lentini at 11:30 which was a more leisurely pace. We met Carlo Battaglia and his girlfriend, Livia for the first time. Carlo’s dad is a doctor and a former mayor of Carlentini. Nick did some research for the Battaglia family and helped them to connect with some cousins in Omaha via Zoom.

We were joined by Rosetta Nastasi, Nuccio Catalano, Anna Maria Bruno (Nick’s cousin) and her husband, Roberto Piccione, and Marinella Cassarino (also Nick’s cousin). We were guided in the museum by Nuccia Silvana Pirruccello and her daughter Marta La Ferla. Nuccia teaches at the nearby high school and is very active in the Lentini cultural activities.

The highlight of the tour was the Kouros of Leontinoi. This sculpture of a young man was found in the ancient archeological site which borders Lentini and Carlentini. Before going, Nick had read the brochure about the Kouros and was spouting his limited knowledge on the subject and Nuccia asked him to start again so she could make a video of his explanation that she posted on Facebook.

After the museum tour, Carlo lead us to Agnone Bagni to a restaurant called Triangolo. Nick and I both had a Pasta Norma dish and a few sips of wine to complement our food. Upon leaving the restaurant we heard the familiar cry of “Nicky, Nicky” from a man we met at the Lentini St. Alfio church two days ago. So another series of greetings ensued.

We had a 3:30 appointment at the Convent of Carmine to watch a movie on Immigration and the Carlentini-Omaha connection. Nick was presented with a companion book written in Italian called Emigranti- Storia dell’ Emigrazione Italiana Negli Stati Uniti. The book and the movie were curated by Ciro Militti. Ciro included stories and documents submitted by Sheri Kanger, Donna Corbino Shipley, Vic Moberg and others.

Then we stopped at a Chinese import store to get another suitcase to haul away all of our gifts and souvenirs.

Here is the video of Nick explaining the rationale for the merger of the head and the body of the Kouros: click here

May 17, 2025 Carlentini – day 6

“”If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.” – Cesare Pavese

This morning we drove to the Carlentini Square and picked up Rosetta Nastasi. She guided us to the Lentini Cemetery where we were greeted by Maria Rita Barretta and Giuseppe Ira. Maria-Rita has been instrumental in taking cemetery photos in the Lentini Cemetery. The photos have been posted on the FindaGrave app. She has done an incredible job but this cemetery is huge! While we were there Nick took several photos and was able to fulfill a request for someone in the Netherlands. Of course, he was in his happy place while I scouted out a bench under a shade tree. It seemed to be the weekly ritual for individuals to come to the cemetery every Saturday to visit the graves of their loved ones.

We then headed back to Carlentini to take Rosetta home. When we reached Piazza Diaz in Carlentini, Rosetta took us inside the Church where we met the Priest. The Carlentini Church was rebuilt on the same site three different times. The last time it was rebuilt was in the 90’s after a powerful earthquake. Several precautionary measures have been put in place to hopefully withstand any future shakers. It was great having Rosetta with us to point out and explain many of the paintings and artifacts of the church.

After driving to Parco Omaha and doing a bit of exploring we stopped at Bar Derby for another delightful meal! Yum! Now it is time to pack. ARG!