Catania Field Trip

This week has been the final week of INDOC, and the most interesting by far!  Monday was all day classroom time learning survival Italian and about Italian culture.  Tuesday we went into Catania.  Wednesday we spent at a beach, and Thursday I had the spouses Survive and Thrive class in the town of Motta.

Andrea is the gentleman in charge of ICR.  He was born in Australia and lived there until he was 12, however, his parents are from Sicily.  So he speaks Italian and Sicilian like a native and speaks English with an Australian accent, and he is constantly having to translate his native languages into American English.  He does a fantastic job, but does get stuck every now and then.  He seems to know everyone and everything around and loves to share it with us newbies, and even throughout our stay here.  I am sure he will be my go to guy.

*Fun (and important) Italian Fact we learned on Monday, not only do public restrooms not have a toilet seat, they most likely do not have toilet paper.  So you must always travel prepared!*

So Tuesday, 46 of us boarded a nice bus for our tour of Catania, the largest city close to Sigonella.  We learned how to take a bus to the beach, to the main bus and train station and to the bus stop that will get us to the center of the City.

  Once at the main bus station, it is a short walk to the Piazza Duomo, which basically translates to Cathedral Square.  You know you have arrived because there is a large Cathedral....

There is also a statue of an elephant.  It is a special elephant and is called u Liotru

From here we walked down Via Etnea, which is a major shopping district in Catania.  They had everything from Foot Locker, to Coin (an Italian Department Store which reminded me of Sibley's in Midtown), to all sorts of little specialty stores, bars (which is where you get coffee here) and restaurants.

I think that is the beginning of Via Etnea between those to buildings.  The biggest market around is right off of Via Etnea.  It is a flea market and has anything and everything you can imagine!  There is an area with fresh produce and meat and fish.  There are all sorts of clothes and shoes and sunglasses, and everything else!

Sam checking out her new obsession.

Hi Tommy!

The market goes on and on.  I think we probably didn't even see half of it.  There is also a fresh fish market, but we didn't get over to see it.  We tried to find the castle that was nearby, but we missed the turn and instead got a walking tour of the neighborhood around the city.  There is also another shopping district, Corso Italia I think it is called, which has all the really high end shops.  We didn't make it there, but have plans to.

After 2 1/2 hours on our own, we met up with the group at a local 5 star restaurant.

That is the building where the restaurant is.  The statue in front is of a cardinal.  I think that he is the one whose body is in a glass box in the cathedral from the square.  We didn't get in there, but Andrea told us his face is covered with a brass mask so it isn't too scary.

This is the name of the restaurant.

The lunch was 20 Euro for a 5 course meal.

Water was included in the meal and was served in bottles.  As soon as the table finished a bottle they would bring a new one.  Soda, beer, and wine were available.  They were 2 Euro each and you had to pay for them when you ordered them, they are not added to the bill.

  We all had an appetizer plate

We each had a plate that looked like this and had fried cheese (top left), bruchetta, something made with chickpea flour and then fried, and a rice ball.  It was all delicious!

Then we had a pasta course.  I think normally you would pick which pasta you wanted, but we got both.

This was wonderful!  It is pasta with pistachio sauce.  We all loved it.  I only ate about half, knowing we had a lot more food coming, but everyone else cleaned their plate.

This is pasta normale, which is pasta with red sauce and chunks of eggplant.  Delicious, but given a choice we would all pick the pistachio pasta.  I guess we are near a big pistachio region, so that is why they have that kind of sauce around here.

Then came our main course.  There were 4 offerings, so we each got a different one.

Tommy decided to try the fried calamari.  He said it was very good.  In Sicily, seafood, meat, and chicken are not served with sauces or dressings, only lemon or lime.  As you can see, this is also the time when they brought the bread.  Instead of filling up on tons of bread before our meal, we got to enjoy each course and only had 1 roll each.  I guess in Italy they never serve bread with pasta, you either have bread or pasta.

Sam went for the lemon chicken, and ate about half of what was given her.  I tried some, and it was yummy.

Mike had the grilled swordfish and enjoyed it.

And I had the grilled vegetables, which were amazing!  All they use is olive oil and salt and lemon, and nothing else is needed!  Again, I didn't finish because I knew we had dessert coming.

Sorry this is not the greatest photo.  Dessert was a small slice of a lemon cake which had lemon custard between the layers and a small slice of an almond flavor cake.  Almonds are a big deal here in the summer.  Both just melted in your mouth.

After we filled our bellies, we headed back to the bus and back to base.  It was a great learning experience. The city bus actually stops right at the gate of the housing area, so we can easily hop on the bus and get to the city and avoid the headaches and fees with parking.

Tomorrow I will post about our trip to the beach.