8th DECEMBER FEAST

"Come and have lunch!" commanded friend Marco on the phone at 11 am yesterday so of course I did. I was thrilled to be shown a photo of his eldest son, whom I remember as the "little gentleman" who helped his parents show me around Modica on my first visit in 1992, modelling clothes in Ireland where he is studying. He had walked into a menswear department, tried some of the range on and looked so stylish and - well, Italian - in them that the manager immediately offered to pay him to appear in an advert for the local paper! Second son is away at the moment but third son, with whom Giovanna was pregnant when I first arrived, is now a very arty-looking budding artist. Meanwhile fourth son continues to pester Giovanna to provide him with a baby sister and she tells me that she is not feeling at all cooperative about that!

We had a feast of tortellini al ragù, cotolette di pollo coi funghi [ chicken escalopes with mushrooms which had been fried in olive oil and breadcrumbs] and finally these magnificent dolci appeared. Then, as always with Marco and Giovanna, we spent the afternoon sharing memories of their boys and nodding sagely to each other as we agreed that "Gli anni passano" ["the years go by"].