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Published: September 23rd 2008
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Licodia...Vineyard
Angela and Elizabetha Tuesday 9th August
Licodia
Giuseppe took us to the council to help us get our original marriage certificate back. When I applied for my Italian passport and wanted to have my children’s names added, my marriage certificate was required. I don’t how it happened but the Italian consulate held on to my original marriage certificate and when questioned they said, if I wanted to hold an Italian passport, my marriage certificate had to return to my parent’s place of origin. So here we are at the council office of Licodia, humbly requesting our original certificate. And guess what!!!!! They don’t have it because they are only sent copies and they translate them.
The whole visit to the council was hysterical because the council members started arguing about something too complicated for me to understand. But thank god my cousin Giuseppe was there. He had been so helpful to us during our whole time in Licodia when dealing with the council and toll problem. When you consider the fact that he worked shifts and he’d want to take us out all the time and help us with all the silly problems we had, we were so grateful for his help.
When we got back to his place, he went online to check the situation with the toll problem. Oh my god! What a nightmare. Thank god Giuseppe and his sister Enza were there discussing and reading and deciding what was the best thing t do. Our biggest problem was that we didn’t know what town exactly we’d entered the freeway from. We had been following the GPS and it just led us from freeway to freeway.
So we checked maps for tolls and maps for freeways, official maps for Autostrade and went back on the GPS trying to reprogramme it again to indicate tolls.
Mind you, I was the official translator during all of this….and many of you are aware of my limited Italian! Translating motoring terms was not part of the deal!!
My cousin jumped on the phone and spoke to the company to get a better understanding of our situation. While he was speaking the guy from the toll company pulled up the video image from that day, checked the timed we were passing and confirmed everything for us. Yes, we’d entered at Avellino, yes, he could see us looking completing lost and reversing back
Licodia...Vineyard
Big Bunches of grapes and we were in the clear. That must have been Italy’s most efficient worker. No $140 toll fine for us!!! My cousin filled in a form and signed it. It was over! Even though it was only mid morning I felt ready for a strong drink.
We raced back to Anna Maria’s house for lunch where we were had pasta. But because I’d commented on the ricotta a few days before, we were having pasta with ricotta. I buy low fat ricotta in Australia and maybe the full cream variety is just as nice, but when I took a mouthful of full fat Italian ricotta….I knew I was in heaven. It was creamy but slightly salty and so much better than that low fat rubbish I eat at home!! I don’t think I’ve eaten one low fat piece of food since I’ve been in Licodia.
During our supposedly siesta time, I went down with Enza to fax our stat dec to the autostrada company. But no one in Licodia could give us a receipt from the fax because one on put any ink in the fax machines. Of course!
After our brief walk,
jumped in our car and followed Angela to her dad’s land to have a look at the grapes and Nonna’s family home. The grapes were beautifully shaped and so plumb!! They looked so much better than the grapes at home.
We took heaps of photos and once again it struck me as ironic, that I had photos taken at the same vineyard 20 years ago and now I was taking photos with my husband and children. It felt very special.
I showed Kurt Nonna’s family home which seemed so small to have housed 6 children and parents, and a deaf mute aunt. Across the field Zio Nunzio showed me Nonno’s family home and told us the story of how my grandparents used to seek and meet near the water well. My great grandmother would keep a watch out for my grandmother as she went to collect the water. But my grandfather knowing this, crawled on his belly thru the grass and wait near the well for my grandmother to arrive. My Nonna also knowing that her mother was watching filled the water pitcher up and continued talking to Nonno who lay in the grass.
Angela invited us
to her new home for dinner.
In Licodia as in all of Italy, looking good “buona figura” is very important, therefore when everyone suggested we go home and freshen up, meaning shower and change for dinner, and we said “Nah, we’re fine!” I’m sure they all died and secretly thought “not getting changed? Dio Mio!!” But by that stage it was getting late and we were more interested in eating, than getting dressed up.
Angela and Giuseppe bought a lovely home and had spent a few years renovating and decorating it. Newer home in Licodia are flat like apartments and have all the necessary rooms. But homes in older areas are just amazing. People buy houses and have to work within the most amazing parameters to create a home. Anglea’s home was split over 3 levels and had two entrances. One which used to be a stable for the animals and the other a flight of concrete stairs. Inside her house was nicely decorated with a timber kitchen, huge bedroom furniture, modern bathrooms and a nursery for her daughter Elizabetta but outside it was a complete contrast, with crumbling stones, peeling paint and a deserted neighbour’s house. But
everywhere in Italy seems the same. Licodia reminded me a lot of Amalfi, every little twist and corner had 4-5 flights of concrete stairs, many prettily decorated with flowering plants and housing many families.
While dinner was being prepared, the kids played outside in the lane. I loved watching the kids playing with their cousins and neighbouring kids.
Dinner was great with meat, fresh salad and cold meats. Elisabetta was very entertaining as she dipped her small piece of crusty bread into my Mum’s plate soaking up the juices and then decided to dip it into my Mum’s drink!!
It was a tight fit with 13 of us sitting around a small table in a warm kitchen, but the company was lovely and a portable fan did a great job of cooling us down.
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