Unfortunately, I woke up at 3am to watch the Celtics lose by 35 points. At least I had a gorgeous view to watch the game!
Then, we drove up the east coast of Sicily past Taormina and into Messina (~3 hrs) to meet some of my family. My family lives in the village of Santo Stefano di Briga and they’re related to me through my grandpa Fred. We met up with Pietro (pronounced Piero) and his family. Pietro’s grandfather was the brother of my great grandmother (Fred’s mother).
When arranging to meet Pietro we had a very Sicilian experience. We had reservations for a restaurant at 12:30 so I told Pietro we’d see him there at 12:30. Well instead, he said to message him when we passed Taormina and he will meet us off the exit of the major highway. He asked us to describe our car and he described his so we could look for each other. It seems like a time/place would’ve been a lot easier but that’s not the Sicilian way! Nevertheless, his plan actually worked perfectly!
Sidebar…as we were approaching the exit to meet them Jaclyn was panicking that she lost her wedding band and we were thinking of all the gossip we’d start if she showed up without any rings. Luckily, right before we went to their village she found it so we were good.
We drove up the crazy windy and hilly streets to the piazza (the main square) in their village and parked. Within 5 minutes of stepping foot in their village we were coerced into getting Gelato and Granita (frozen ice dessert that they eat for breakfast in the summer). As we were about to leave I took a photo of the name of the cafe and that’s when they informed me that my great grandmother’s family started the cafe and that it shared her family name (de Stefano)…this also turned out to be some foreshadowing.
They also took us to see the birthplace of my great grandmother and then took us to their house to meet the rest of their family. Jaclyn and I were wondering how we were doing all this when we arrived in town around noon and had a 12:30 lunch reservation…lol.
But, we met their family, who included, Pietro’s wife Marika, their son Gabrielle and their daughter Gastive. We also met their the children’s nonna but didn’t catch her name.
They were very generous and gave the kids squirt guns and a doll for Brooke. After that we drove up the side of the mountain to a hilltop wedding venue. As we later learned, they opened the venue just for us to have to lunch because the owner is a friend of Pietro.
Then, for the next 3-4 hours we experienced plate after plate after plate of food. Brooke’s mind exploded every time they brought out more. I’m going to try to list all the food below:
- Roast beef
- Turkey
- Salami
- Ham
- Ricotta with saffron
- Sliced mozzarella
- Various other cheeses
- Chips
- Potato quiche type thing
- Fried veggies
- Prosciutto wrapped Zucchini
- Mozzarella sticks
- Eggplant parmesan
- Eggplant ravioli
- Pork with onions
- Pasta/sauce (for kids)
- Steak
- Chicken sausage
- Some breaded meat thing
- Lemon granita with strawberries
- Digestive (Greppo) and coffee
We finally finished our lunch and Brooke\Beckett did surprisingly well. We then walked outside to enjoy the spectacular views and FaceTime with Grandpa Fred, Carolyn, Debbie, Joanne and their families. Unfortunately, the spotty service and language barrier made it difficult to communicate, but it was fun.
We then made our way down the mountain to their house and stopped by some cool tree houses on the way. We all had a mini siesta as we digested a week’s worth of food. Then, before we headed back home we went back to the piazza and got a tour of their village.
At the end of the tour we stumbled upon some other locals and were talking to them for a while. Beckett made friends with a 1.5 year old Sicilian boy who had a toy truck. And this is when we found out that my great grandmother was actually a big deal in the town! I’m sure something got messed up in translation but it sounds like her family ran the whole town and a random stranger told us how much everyone in the town respected her and her family. So, I guess we were actually kind of like celebrities lol!
We eventually said goodbye and Pietro/Gabrielle showed us down the windy roads and back to the highway. We then drove back home to Ispica and eventually met up with the rest of the family at the villa. Our family was pretty wiped out after that day but it was great to meet all of them and they’re truly great people. The nonna and Gabrielle were absolutely fantastic playing with the children and all of them were so welcoming and accommodating!
After we got back to the villa we put the kids to bed and sat outside around the table to spend the evening catching up with Jaclyn’s family! All the adults stayed up past midnight and it was a fun evening with lots of laughter!