Sicilian Friends

Catia, Lucciano and Dolly on our beach walk.

This is Catia, her husband Lucciano and their dog Dolly.  Dana met Catia at her store, Zimmitti, just up the street from our house. He bought a three-pronged Italian plug,a tiny stapler and a notebook. Catia speaks good English  and Dana’s purchases were so compelling she invited us to their home for pizza.  On the way there, they took us to the Ciane Papyrus Preserve…the only place papyrus grows outside of Egypt. The preserve was quiet and beautiful with a fresh spring water river that you can trace to its source, two miles from the Porto Grande.

We drove from there to the cliffs above the Ionian Sea where Lucciano gathered wild asparagus and Dolly chased gekkos. Catia started her shop when she was 21, 21 years ago. It is the only shop, stationary and luggage like it in Siracusa. There are entrepreneurs with their own little shops everywhere in the city.  The items for sale can be quite eclectic, a potato peeler in a toy shop for example. There is lots of walking, checking in many stores before finding the item you seek.

Katia and Lucciano’s 16 year old daugher speaks English, Arabic, French and, of course, Italian. She must leave Sicily to accomplish her goal of being an interpreter. Next year she goes to Germany.  Sicily is without many opportunities for the young. Catia says the government is “old, old, old.” The leader of the country, not Berlesconi, is 90. She says every election they promise change and everything stays the same…for 40 years.