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!

A PROBLEM FOR THE AIRPORT

Oh, dear - just when it was all going so well for Fontanarossa [Catania] Airport, along comes the EU and cuts off its funding for the next ten years. The airport, the sixth in importance in Italy and among the top ten in the country for traffic, no longer appears in the Core Ten-T and Connecting Europe Facility upper band, having been downgraded because of poor transport links - especially by rail -  with the centre of Catania and the port. It is a ruling which will affect not only Fontanarossa, but the whole Catania area, including the port, the Circumetnea rail service and even the new airport at Comiso [Ragusa]. This means that the area will not feature in the new trans-European network corridors planned by the EU for the future and is a cruel blow for the Sicilian tourist industry.

Governor of Sicily Rosario Crocetta and Mayor of Catania Enzo Bianco have met today to decide upon a strategy and will soon be announcing an initiative, in conjunction with other partners, to support the airport. In some quarters this is being regarded as too little too late and there has been much criticism of local institutions for not putting more pressure on the EU.

The continued development and efficient functioning of Fontanarossa is essential, not only to the economy of this part of Sicily but to the island as a whole. Let us hope.

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.....

THREE TYPES OF DEMONSTRATIONS - PART 2

Image: Wikimedia Commons

On Monday it was the turn of Italy's police unions to demonstrate, which they did peacefully in many towns including Rome, where they held a sit-in outside Parliament. They were protesting against government cuts which, police say, make it impossible to guarantee public safety as they do not even have sufficient funds to purchase the petrol they need for their vehicles.

Unions involved say that their members also lack office supplies, computer upgrades and maintenance, uniforms and the funds to pay for maintenance work on the buildings where they work.   For the first time, the police unions asked for donations from the public so that they can buy petrol.

Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza police did not demonstrate as they are military and therefore banned by statute from doing so.  Representatives of Italy's non-military police forces, Fire Service and Forestry Commission are planning further demonstrations in the near future.

As Rome burned on Saturday, a very different kind of demonstration which did not make the headlines was taking place along the route to Catania's Fontanarossa Airport:  after ten hours of torrential rain, residents found their homes flooded for the umpteenth time, despite recent maintenance work which had been carried out in the area.   Some of the residents took to their rooftops to protest against the authorities' lack of action, whilst others blocked access roads to the airport.  

Several flights were delayed as their crews could not reach the airport and a crew-carrying bus which tried to force its way through the barricade had a window broken whilst a stewardess travelling in it was slightly injured.  Passengers travelling to the airport by bus had to alight on the approach roads and wade to the departures terminal with their luggage.

The residents' action seems to have worked as the Mayor of Catania went to meet them on the same day and he later called an emergency meeting of municipal engineers and maintenance staff with a view to satisfying their demands. 

I sympathise with the residents but I am glad I was not airport-bound that day.

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!