CASA NATIA - A SICILIAN DREAM

Have you ever dreamed of a holiday in a Sicilian paradise, near both a world-renowned centre of culture and beautiful beaches, with the opportunity to gather, if you wish, your own organically grown fruit and vegetables? 

Well, now you need look no further than Casa Natia on the Marina di Modica, run by my good friends Giorgio and Giovanna!

Situated only 6 km from both the sea and the centre of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Baroque Modica, at Casa Natia you can gaze towards the Sicilian Channel from the windows.

Surrounded by 15 hectares of grounds [150,000 sq. metres] on which Giorgio and Giovanna produce organic meat, vegetables, pulses and fruit [grown by rotation - no chemicals are ever used], both for their family and for sale, at Casa Natia you can pick, completely free of charge, all the tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, onions, zucchini, cabbages, celery and parsley you can eat. In addition, you can put out bottles for fresh milk from the property in the mornings or you can even milk the cows yourself! Fresh eggs are also available. Should you feel inspired to bake your own bread whilst at Casa Natia, you will be given flour from Giorgio and Giovanna's granary. Believe me, you will never have tasted bread like this before! Imagine lying on a sunlounger on the ample terrace with the aroma of freshly baked, genuinely Sicilian bread drifting towards you.....  If you like the olive oil produced in the grounds, you can order some to take home.

Upon arrival you will find a welcome basket full of traditional, local products, including focacce and arancini made by Giovanna and a welcome brochure to read at your leisure. In addition, and at an extra charge, Giovanna is available to give lessons in Sicilian and Italian cookery. If you would like to have a family dining experience whilst in Sicily, you can arrange, at a very reasonable extra charge of €20,00 per head [including wine], to spend an evening with Giorgio, Giovanna and family. I can personally guarantee that Giovanna's cooking has no paragon.

As mentioned above, the sea and the centre of Modica are within easy reach of Casa Natia and Giorgio and Giovanna will always be on hand to help you arrange excursions: An accompanied sea excursion is available at an extra charge, with optional packed lunch. [Giorgio's boat has room for seven passengers.] Other paid excursions by minibus to Noto, Marzamemi, Capo Passero, Etna, Taormina, Agrigento and into the Sicilian countryside can be arranged, as can an excursion to Malta by katamaran from the Port of Pozzallo [ten minutes away by car and two hours to Malta].

Casa Natia was built by Giorgio's ancestors in 1866 and was renovated this winter. It has five bedrooms [four double and one single] and room for nine people to stay at one time. One en suite bedroom is downstairs. There are three bathrooms, a well-equipped kitchen [supplied with basic foodstuffs, machines to make whatever kind of coffee you prefer and a juice squeezer for the basket of citrus fruit you will receive each week], a large lounge, a barbecue with ready-cut wood, a swimming pool with its own shower surrounded by carob and olive trees, air conditioning, a fireplace for use in winter, satellite TV and Wi-Fi. Interpreting services are available upon request. There is safe, covered and uncovered parking and if you want to have a party, there is no one around to disturb so feel free to enjoy yourself and play loud music to your heart's content! You can even bring your pets [subject to airline and local regulations].

Casa Natia is open all year round - it is an ideal place for a winter holiday too -  and is 40 minutes by car from Comiso Airport and one hour from Catania Airport [Fontanarossa]. Further details and prices can be found here, as can details of a smaller property owned by Giorgio and Giovanna, Villetta Nausicaa [150 metres from the sea at the Marina di Modica].

Whichever you choose, you'll be happy to arrive, delighted with your stay and sad to leave!

GRUMPY OLD LADY - 2

Etna is tonight still at it and the current eruption has now been officially declared  the most energetic of the last 20 years by Italy's National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology. 

This morning Fontanarossa [Catania] airport closed for an hour because the runway was covered in ash and closed again this evening. It will remain closed until at least 6 am tomorrow, when a crisis meeting on the situation will be held. Today some flights due to land at Catania were diverted to Comiso and Palermo. 

It is reported that this morning the column of magma, ash and gas erupting from the central crater at one point reached a height of seven kilometres. The small towns around Etna are also said to be covered in ash.

Now Catania waits - pazienza.

Etna in quieter times

PLUS ÇA CHANGE....

So after visiting the UK for the first time in eight years, what changes did I note? I tend to notice weird, often insignificant things, so here are my weird observations, in no particular order:

• Handbags are still on the small side.
• Eateries are noisier than Italian ones but at least they are free of the ubiquitous televisions you find in the latter.
• Why did I get a separate "glass of ice" every time I asked for ice in my mineral water?
• There is a craze for sweet potato chips.
• Halloween has become a more pleasant festival than I remembered.
• When did people start saying "See you later" to mean "soon/sometime/never"?
• I was interested to see what kind of shops have survived the recession and was surprised to find several novelty shops in the centre of Cardiff still there.
• I was negatively flabbergasted at the cost of public transport and positively so at its efficiency [after 10 years in Modica].
• I was relieved that most people I talked to were more sympathetic to refugees than when I left and than the media would lead one to believe now. I was also relieved that most people I met did not think the UK will leave the EU.

Et plus ça ne change pas.....

As a post scriptum on my trip home, here is a note to Comiso Airport, a clean and efficient facility that we are justly proud of in these parts:  I know Sicilians don't like to be comfortable, but the rest of the world does, so please can we have some seating outside the airport? Weary travellers waiting to be picked up after you close need somewhere to sit!

SABATO MUSICALE

Take it away, Suor Cristina from Comiso!

Suor Cristina - Like a Virgin

This is the launch track from her album Sister Cristina,  to be released worldwide on November 11th.

STARVING FOR THE AIRPORT

Location of Comiso Airport

Catania's Fontanarossa Airport has, as I've written previously, been enormously successful since its 2007 relocation and refurbishment - so successful, in fact, that it has to close "for a month" in November for runway maintenance.  The trouble is, no one really believes that it will only be for a month and, although Sigonella [a NATO and Italian Air Force base near Catania], Palermo and even Reggio Calabria have been suggested as temporary alternatives, what this side of Sicily needs is for the long-promised Comiso  Airport to open in Ragusa Province.

Comiso is a former military airport where conversion work to commercial status was completed in 2008.  So why, you may ask, has it not opened yet?  Ah,well, you see, this is Sicily and you have to understand that the signing of contracts and then their legal processing can take a very long time.  Ask anyone here when the airport will open and you will probably be met with a resigned smile.

One person who is fed up with all this is Mpa [Movimento per le Autonomie] Councillor Gianni Cirnigliaro from Vittoria.  Mr Cirnigliaro has been on hunger strike in front of the airport entrance since last Monday, drinking only water and sugarless coffee and sleeping in a camper van.  He is being supported by his colleague Angelo Giacchi, who is not on hunger strike but is taking as little food as possible.  Yesterday Mr Cirnigliaro's blood pressure dropped dramatically and he was taken to hospital but he has vowed not to give up his protest.

Some have accused Mr Cirnigliaro of staging the protest to raise his political profile but he says that he is taking action because he really believes that the opening of Comiso Airport would help enormously in the economic redevelopment of the area.  Asked by a Corriere di Ragusa reporter if he intended to die for this cause, he replied that he had every intention of staying alive because he wants to fly from the airport.  Sicily Scene wishes him well.

Update: About five minutes ago, Il Giornale di Ragusa reported that Mr Cirnigliaro has suspended his hunger strike after Giovanna Cagliostro, the Prefect of Ragusa, expressed concerns about his health but also told him that she had received assurances from Ministry of Transport Officials that another meeting between the interested parties will take place within the week to resolve the remaining sticking points.  I do not want to be a cynic but I anticipate more resigned smiles tomorrow.....

A CHEER FOR FONTANAROSSA!

I can remember a time when travelling via Catania's Fontanarossa Airport was not a pleasant experience:   sparse information was displayed in the terminal, , access to its few shops was awkward, there was nowhere to sit once you had gone through security and passengers were packed into gate areas like sardines.  To be fair, I should add that even in those days you could get a good meal there and I never found the staff unhelpful.  

Over the years things have been improving, culminating in a relocation and full refurbishment in 2007.  Now Fontanarossa can compete with the best and figures released today confirm it as the number one airport in the South of Italy and as the third most important of Italy's regional airports after Venice and Bergamo.

Over six million passengers passed through Fontanarossa last year and most said that they used it four times a year.  Baggage checks at Fontanarossa are quicker than the national average in Italy and just 0.2 luggage items per 1,000 checked in there go missing, as against the national average of 2 per 1,000.

The president of Sac [Società Aeroporto Catania] puts the airport's recent success down to good marketing, restructuring and renovation.  

Now we are all waiting to see how Fontanarossa and the long-awaited rebuilt airport at Comiso [Ragusa] will work together.  I must say that the Modicani are rather less optimistic about Comiso than the Transport Minister, Altero Matteoli, who, visiting the new airport's infrastructure on Monday, promised to return with a bottle of champagne to celebrate the opening before the summer.  The Modicani, when asked about an opening date, just shrug their shoulders and laugh.

But meanwhile, let's hear it for Fontanarossa!