DROUGHT, DROWSINESS AND DUNKING

 It is Ferragosto, the Feast of the Assumption and the time of year when all of Italy seems to stop. If you are not at the beach in the daytime you are likely to be surrounded by silence which, even after all these years, seems strange in a country normally so animated and nicely noisy. 

This year there are two other factors, however, and the first word in my title leads to the effect of the second. The relentless heat of this summer has made everybody feel lethargic and every conversation begins with the words, "When will it end?"

We did have about an hour's rain on Saturday and it was bliss but, alas, not enough. Of course, only a Brit would stand out in it!

 

You may have read about the drought (siccità) and water rationing is in place in some areas. By mid-July damage to the agricultural sector was already estimated at 2 billion euros while 60% less wheat than normal was produced in the Catania area and 80% less fodder in Catania and Enna provinces. Farmers, as you can imagine, are in despair.

Here in Modica houses in the Old Town were recently without water for four days but this was due to a broken pipe in difficut terrain in the country rather than the drought. Anyone who has followed this blog from its beginning may remember that in my early days here, we always seemed to have water problems around Ferragosto so if I could type with my fingers crossed right now, I would! It is impossible to realise how much we depend on water until we have had to go without it, even for a few hours and especially in extreme heat.

There are, however, compensations for being in Sicily at this time and below are three culinary ones:

A fourth, traditional in the summer, is eating granita or ice cream with a brioche and it's OK to dunk! In Britain it is not acceptable in polite society, although Queen Victoria might have dunked her biscuits in tea privately, but here no one bats an eyelid and granita con brioche or brioscia is a traditional Sicilian breakfast. 

My granita all'anguria

But how did this tradition begin? Well, first of all the brioche used should be the Sicilian brioscia cu' tuppu (that is, it has a knob on the top) and it is not related to the French brioche. It is thought that a chef working for a rich family in Messina - no one knows exactly when but probably in the 19th century - wanted to create a bread for the ladies of the house to spread jam upon and the brioscia was the result. The tuppu was inspired either by the low chignon of the ladies' hairstyles or by the shape of a woman's breast.  Another story is that this happened in Catania. I suppose that, once the brioscia was invented, the ice cream or granita followed it one hot summer. No matter where or how it happened, it is a very good idea indeed!

So Buon Ferragosto and happy dunking!

INFIORATA DI NOTO 2024

 It was a great pleasure to be back, for the first time since the pandemic, at the Infiorata di Noto (Carpet of Flowers) on Saturday. (Last year, I was all set to go when a severe weather warning was issued and everybody in Modica was advised not to go out unnecessarily.)

The event was as beautiful and joyful as ever but more crowded than I have seen it before and that, of course, is good for Noto! The queue was long and the heat only just bearable but a conversation with some pleasant Americans standing near me helped. 

Then, once you were admitted to the "Carpet", you forgot all about the wait and just enjoyed the beauty before you. The theme this year was Puccini and music from the operas was playing as you walked along. I even shed a tear, as my dad loved Puccini and I thought how much he would also have loved this. I will now let the photos speak for themselves. (Some are inevitably wonky as you are walking along the sides of the display.)

I liked the little representations of instruments
adorning flower containers along the way.

And of course, a visit to the famous Caffé Sicilia is compulsory in Noto! The cake was flavoured with saffron and orange.

Well done, Noto!

CHOCOMODICA 2017

Hello and yes, I know, it's been a while again. This can be put down to trying to keep up with, and fight, Brexit and the fact that, with age, I am becoming rather grumpy. Or is it Brexit that's making me grumpy?  (Whatever your opinion on the matter, the impact is serious for expats.)

However, something that makes me less grumpy is our ChocoModica festival, which always begins on the 8th December holiday and signifies, for me, the beginning of the festivities. Here are some pictures to give you a flavour:

The torta di Savoia cake being finished below left, of which samples were offered to everyone, was the best I have ever tasted. The gentleman on the right seemed justifiably proud of his sculpture:

Lots of intricate work to admire and not only on chocolate:

How to choose which chocolate to buy? In the end I bought a slab of white chocolate topped with forest fruits because it is just.... well, you'll have to taste it to find out!  No trip to Modica Bassa is complete without calling in at the Latteria and Modican chocolate ice cream goes down a treat in the middle of winter. Only next time, turn the heating on, guys - please!

More chocolate sculpture work:

Sculptures of a different kind on display, made from clay and wood. Regular readers will recognise the Duomo di San Giorgio, Castello dei Conti and Teatro Garibaldi:

And finally, some more lovely crafts, among many others at the stalls which always accompany a Sicilian festival:

Well done again, Modica!

THE END OF SUMMER

Summer has officially ended and, whilst I am not a beachy person and rejoice in everything at last being open again, I will be sorry to see the end of the gelato season and of its companions cremolate and granite.

Left to right:  granita di mandarino; cremolata di gelsi (mulberry); granita di pesche e fichi d'India
(peaches and prickly pear, the latter being a late summer addition to the granita repertoire)

My favourite peaches,  pesche tabbacchierie, get larger and less sweet as August ends but then these delights appear:

Centre:  frutta di Martorana
Right: "cakes" of cotognata (quince paste)

Finally, I cannot let the summer end without sharing this with you:  the other day, a Sicilian friend said he had spotted a British man coming out of the B&B opposite his house. I asked how he had known the man was British.

"Because he was wearing sandals and socks", came the reply.

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SWEET CATANIA

A day in Catania is always a welcome change but when it's 40°C, my first port of call is not my favourite bookshop but the first bar selling yummy-looking gelato (not that it ever looks anything but delicious). The one below, with stracciatella, pineapple and gelsi (mulberry) flavours was particularly so.  I liked the idea of the mini-cones on top, too. Later, when a friend suggested a break in order to partake of a little cassata and iced tea, who was I to refuse?

RELIGION AND RAVIOLI

The weekend again saw the festival of the Sacred Heart or Sacro Cuore and, although I wouldn't describe myself as a religious person, there is something that I find very uplifting and restful about watching groups of people gathering together to celebrate their religion in a joyful, peaceful  way without causing any harm or disurbance to anyone.  It may be a small festival and it may not be very sophisticated but it is, quite simply, "good" in the Christian sense of the word.

I was invited to watch the procession from a friend's balcony and we had a great time chatting out there, intermittently watching the proceedings, listening to the music coming from the church courtyard, exclaiming at the fireworks and finally, eating.

For yes, there has to be food and this year the programme proudly announced the Sagra (food festival) of ricotta-filled ravioli in sauce - not any old sauce, you understand, but a rich tomato sauce that is lovingly cooked for a long time with 'strattu and pork.  The cook serving the trays of ravioli told my friend's husband that she had earlier made no less than 1,000 ravioli by hand! Well, faced with that information, I'm sure you would agree that it would have been churlish to leave any of the tempting offerings on the individual trays on which they were served. Everyone who bought a tray got ricotta ravioli with not just sauce, but a generous portion of the pork used to flavour it, a sausage, bread and cheese and some sweet ravioli to finish.  Of course, it wouldn't have been an Italian summer festival without ice cream and I had made and taken along some of  that old stand-by of mine which I call "chocolate thingies".

Keep gathering in peace, cari modicani, and I hope the "ravioli lady", once she has recovered from Sunday, gets to make many more!

A TIME FOR EVERYTHING

If you are thinking that I have been somewhat absent from this blog of late, you are right, for a little thing called Brexit has been taking up much of my time and thoughts. Like most British expats  and, I imagine, most EU nationals currently resident in the UK, I find the situation very worrying indeed. My 23rd February post on this subject has had, to my surprise, over 22,000 views to date - a record for Sicily Scene - but I wish it hadn't been necessary to write it.

I spent most of yesterday - jubilantly called "Brexit Day" by the Brexiteers - in deep gloom but did raise my head for long enough to notice that the bars of Modica are starting to bring out traditionally made gelato again and what could I do but console myself with some?

The freshly squeezed orange juice I so love in autumn and winter has now disappeared, as no bar owner worthy of the name would sell you a glass of the stuff once he deems the oranges past their best but gelato is definitely back for the duration, if not of the Brexit process, at least until October! Yes, I can safely say that Brexit has driven me to gelato!

A CIVILISED STOP

A civilised stop as Bertie and I were on our walk the other day. I didn't ask for such a big slice, honestly, but it would have been churlish to refuse it once it was served, wouldn't it? And when you start to see borage in Sicily, you know that spring and the ice cream season are on their way!

JUNE BREAKFAST

It's that time of year again!

A SPRING IN MY STEP

More countryside-oriented folk may celebrate almond blossom and birdsong but the sign of spring sure to put - well, a spring in my step - is when the bar owners of the Sorda district here in Modica start making their own ice cream again.

Goodbye, diet - see you around October!

SWEET INSPIRATION

There was lots of sweet inspiration in Siracusa last week, in the shape of a cassatina [little cassata] and the delights on offer in the chiller cabinet at the Pasticceria Leonardi. Later in the week a student brought me some torrone ideal from the Caffé dell'Arte in Modica. Made on the premises, this is lighter than the torrone mostly eaten at Christmas and my student told me that, in times gone by and before refrigeration, people used to make this type of torrone as a summer treat for their children. Thus it also goes by the name of gelato di campagna [countryside ice cream].

Now here's a sweet oldie for you:

Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon - Sweet Inspiration

DOGGY GELATO

Yes, we have doggy gelato in Italy!  

mirtillo = whortleberry

ELEGANCE IN A GLASS

JOLLY GELATO

I was sorry my new-found sister could not be with me in Noto the other week, so I sent her this jolly fabric gelato from the craft market there:

SUGAR AND SPICE

My visit to Noto on Sunday would not have been complete without an ice cream and slice of cake in the Caffè Sicilia:

The cake is an old favorite of mine, flavoured with bergamotto and white pepper. [Believe me, it works!]  The ice cream flavours were citron, spice and orange salad and yes, there was just a hint of the onions that Sicilians add to this most refreshing of salads. Delicious!

NOT QUITE READY.....

What is judged to be really hot weather here does not normally kick in until the beginning of June so we were all taken by surprise yesterday when the temperature shot up to 38°C.  I'm not ready, my clothes aren't ready and, most importantly, my toes aren't ready! My taste buds, however, are:

LA BELLA STAGIONE

BERTIE-PIERRINE SEES THE SEA

And yes, we did!

CHOCOLATE TOWN

Over the past few days, Modica has once again come into its own as the chocolate capital of Sicily with its ChocoModica festival. It's not as big or as international as the Eurochocolate or Chocobarocco festivals used to be, is well organised nonetheless and actually, I found it calmer and more enjoyable. Mind you, I left at 7:00 pm and, as the last shuttle bus to Modica Bassa is scheduled for 1:00  am., I imagine things are livening up down there about now!

There were several exhibitions about chocolate-making and its history to attend, and no end of chocolate objects to gaze at or purchase:

You could decorate your tree with chocolate objects. "What balls!" says the label and yes, the expression does have the same naughty meaning in Italian!

Or maybe you fancy a chocolate silhouette or cameo?

Take your pick from these ideas for presents:

I thought this was cute

but my favourites were the chocolate caffettiere:

There was also chocolate-flavoured pasta. [I've tried this and found it good:  the chocolate taste is not overwhelming.]

I just had to have orange and chilli-pepper chocolate ice cream! Well, wouldn't you?

And finally, nothing to do with chocolate, but I like these Xmas angels that have popped up all over Modica. I could do with an angel right now.

A pleasant festival for everybody.  Well done, Modica!

TRAVELS WITH MY SISTER

I'm going to tell you the story of my reunion with my birth sister, Jill, little by little in several posts but first I want to share with you some of the things we did together over the past seven days.

We spent time at the Marina di Modica

and, as you see, I've got me a lovely brother-in-law as well!

We went for an evening walk in Ragusa Ibla with friends,

sat in the park

and ate ice cream in a crepe!

I must say, as we walked through the narrow, softly-lit streets, I felt completely surrounded by love and I hadn't felt like that for a long time.

On Sunday we took a guided tour around Catania. There is always something new to learn from a good guide and the city looked particularly elegant in the October sunshine:

Later, it was on to Militello in Val di Catania for the Sagra della Mostarda e del Fico d'India or Mostarda [made with prickly pears] and Prickly Pear Festival, where the highlight of the afternoon was the parade of Sicilian carts:

This last horse danced to the traditional music and was definitely the star of the show!

When I visited Militello for the same festival four years ago, I never imagined I'd be back there with my sister!

Then suddenly it was Wednesday, Jill and Paul's last full day in Sicily. We decided to spend most of it in Siracusa, for how could I let them go without taking them first to the magnificent Greek amphitheatre there?

The Roman Amphitheatre, Siracusa:

Sisters:

The Greek Amphitheatre, Siracusa:

The Ear of Dionysus, Siracusa:

We had fun calling to each other in the echoing cave where the tyrant Dionysus reportedly imprisoned dissidents and eavesdropped on them. 

Jill and Paul are safely home now and they have promised to come back to Sicily soon. I hope so because I'm already missing my wonderful, newfound sister!