The day my garden turned into a lake in Sicily
One Saturday recently we woke up to find a lake in our garden. It had appeared overnight. The cracks in the earth created by the summer heat were gone. Replaced now by shimmering water that was soaking the ground and moving towards our actual lake as the ground fell in that direction. Thankfully, our own lake has an overflow pipe, otherwise the damage to the property could have been far more extensive. Where had it come from? With no rain for months, this was not that. On closer inspection, the water was gushing from a large pipe used for agricultural water, provided by the province. It is a service we…
Driving in Sicily: Expect the Unexpected
I was reading a Reddit board the other day and had to smile. An American tourist was questioning the way people drive in Sicily and asking whether bad driving was prevalent, or whether he had simply been unlucky. He had been on holiday here for two weeks and, during that time, had almost had three serious accidents. Someone replied: “Only three? Rookie!” Welcome to driving in Sicily! So, what is driving in Sicily actually like? Having lived in seven different countries around the world, I can honestly say that driving in Italy, and Sicily in particular, is definitely not the worst I have experienced. That particular honour goes to the…
The week my house smelt of tomatoes
Little Datterini tomatoes drying in the sun
Why are so many doors in Sicily painted blue?
There are certain things you notice when you first arrive in Sicily. The honey-coloured stone that seems to glow in the afternoon sun. Laundry dancing between narrow streets. Bougainvillea tumbling over ancient walls. And then, quite unexpectedly, the blue doors in Sicily that seem to be the dominant colour in coastal towns and villages. Not every door, of course, but enough of them that you begin to notice a pattern. Walk through the old quarters of Cefalù, Ortigia, Marzamemi, Sciacca or the winding streets of countless fishing villages, and blue begins appearing everywhere. Some doors are painted a deep cobalt. Others are faded turquoise after years beneath the Mediterranean sun.…
The decapitated caper bushes
As a family, we love capers. Perhaps not to everyone’s taste, but we love the slightly salty, tangy addition to salads and various pasta dishes. After all, after nearly fifteen years of living in Italy, capers are firmly a pantry staple. So I decided last year to purchase two caper bushes and plant them in my garden. Making sure the holes were deep enough, and that they would enjoy plenty of daily Sicilian sunshine, I inspected them daily to watch their progress. One morning I went out and discovered, to my horror, that both bushes had been brutally decapitated by my overly-enthusiastic son with a brush cutter. In the same…
