Fried Steak and Prego! Prego!

Just back from a three-week tour of Italy. What a country! And I only saw part of it, mostly the western side. This tour took me through Bologna, Rome, Naples, Pompei, Consensa and Lamezia in Southern Italy, and Messina and Cefalu in Sicily.

I stayed a week in the small Sicilian town of Cefalu (pronounced SHEF-A-LOO). It is a beautiful place. The local people have preserved the old city so well that it feels like a Disneyland town. The town is located on a beach that butts up against a steep stone cliff that glows in the sunshine. Two old churches butt right up against the cliff. There are lots of great shops and restaurants, all oriented toward tourists, but still enjoyable. Everything is pretty pricy, but if you pick out just one or two special things to treat yourself to, you will feel your money has been well spent.

Since food is a large part of any trip for me, I visited a couple of the restaurants, both serving typical Sicilian food. In both cases, I spent 40 to 50 euros, including a carafe of wine and coffee. Both restaurants delivered up great food. A few of the memorable dishes were breaded fried steak (almost Southern style!) , grilled lamb, grilled vegetables (eggplant, bell pepper, squash), potato nuggets home-made).

Both restaurants also delivered up a bit of family drama, since all the people who worked there were relatives of the owners (the restaurants marketed themselves as fully family-owned and –operated). So the entire meal also let me enjoy the drama the family was having inside and outside the kitchen. Lots of rushing around, whispering in the corner, hushed arguments between waiters and owner here and there. It could have been off-putting, but I chose to view it all as enjoying a window into what goes on behind the scene, and it was all real.

More later. There’s so much to tell!