Mike and Griffin come to Sicily

Mike and Griffin decided to wrap up Griffin’s junior year with a quick trip to Sicily. We were so excited to see them and spend a few days with them.  Mike spent two years in Sicily in 1995-1997 right after he finished his freshman year at Utah State University, serving a mission when Sicily was in the Catania Mission. He had some ideas about what he wanted to see and do so we had the opportunity to see and do some pretty amazing things for a “P-Week” with Mike and Griffin.

They had some flight difficulty getting out of Denver that caused a domino effect for connecting flights.  They arrived 16 hours later than first scheduled but we were happy to see them finally arrive, a bit jetlagged but ready to hit the ground running. I put a pillow in the back seat of our car for Griff to catch naps between stops, it helped!

First stop; Bronte and Maletto to catch up with Paride Pappalardo and his family.  Mike baptized Paride in 1997; now he serves as the second counselor in the Catania Ward Bishopric. 

We attended church in the Catania Ward @9:30 and the Sigonella Branch@ 1:30 on Sunday.  Mike was asked to speak in both sacrament meetings; Griffin also spoke at Signonella Branch. It was fun to hear Mike’s stories and memories, learned some things we had never heard before.

By Monday we were ready for a road trip.  The day started with a side trip to Delia, a small town in south central Sicily where Mike looked for genealogy and family history connections for a friend of his.  The big score of the day was actually finding the gentleman he was looking for and seeing the actual documents that were the family records that were needed.  

On to The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento.  After a late lunch and reposa we started for a late afternoon adventure through the Greek Temples.  It was perfect timing the sun was setting on the ruins and a slight breeze kept us cool.  We were the only ones enjoying the beauty of 450 B.C. temple construction and discovered we were locked inside the UNESCO Park at 9:00PM when we arrived at the exit!  Not a sole to be found and the gates were all secured.  Thank goodness for a little Griffin injunity we were able to leave the park that night.

Tuesday we left for Scala de Turki along the coastline. It is a natural site said to be the site of Arab and Turk Marauders shelter in the calm clear waters of this protected bay protected by this cliff. They climbed the steps to raid the villages nearby.

Day three found us driving inland to a hilltop city Caltabellatteo.

Griff wound up on both sides of town! So much fun to travel with Griff!

We became part of a traditional Italian Wedding at the Cathedral in Monreale!

Perfect timing again, arriving in Palermo early evening for dinner and an evening stroll to see the sights! Mike took us to a Gelateria by the train station that he remembered for an after-breakfast brioche jammed full of gelato! How could you possibly start the day better!

Domo in Palermo

Cefalu was the first dip into the water of the Tyrrhenian Sea for Mike and Griffin.  The water and the beach were beautiful!

Griffin had an appointment in Catania with Simone and Mikela Pappalardo at a music studio to play some music together. Then down to the Fish market for dinner! I think Griff had some interesting fish he hadn’t tried before in is cone!

Bellini Park

Siracusa became the last city stop.  Griff ran into some kids in the city that had been to a color activity of sorts, Mike was able to determine where the activity was but we arrived to late to see any activity.  We were able to see the Dromo and walk little alleyways of Ortiga.

Aci Trezza was gathering point for dinner with the Apappalardo family.  The rocks in the water were Polyphemus rocks thrown down from the cave after Odysseus blinded the Cyclops and escaped on the belly of his sheep.  

Mike and Griff brought a piece of Colorade to share with the Papppalardo family!

The most difficult thing we did was to get all the stuff back in the suitcases to fly back to Denver.  We have a few things that had to be left in Sicily; we hope that means a return trip to pick them up!