...a day in the life....

Before we left on this adventure, so many people asked what we were going to do for 10 weeks in Italy, I thought I'd give you a snapshot of a typical day...

We get out of bed to watch a beautiful sunrise, then maybe go back to bed if it's not a sightseeing day, or maybe have a lovely farm fresh omelet if it's a chicken egg day.  If it's not a chicken egg day, we have yogurt with granola and fresh fruit.  One thing we have every day is a sweet Tarocco orange...the blood orange of Sicily...there are hundreds of farmers selling them here, and the fruit has the highest concentration of vitamin C of any orange grown in the world (aren't we healthy ??)...plus, they are SO cheap !

After breakfast, it's time to feed the chickens...keep those eggs coming you little cuties !  We check the weather report, and decide where to travel during the day...follow the sun...if we decide to "rest", we do a load of laundry and plan a shopping trip.  Laundry means hanging the clothes out to dry...there is no such thing as a dryer here in Italy...so you must plan to do jeans and heavy items a few days before you want to wear them again....the Sicilan sun is very powerful, even at this time of year, but you can't be stuck with just your rubber ducky jammie pants, now can you ?

Next, it's time for a trip down the mountain for a local farmer's market, or a trip to the "Sidis" grocery store for Diet Pepsi (just the necesities...)...we usually stop at our favorite bakery (they know us now), and our favorite butcher and fruit vendor.  On the way back up the mountain, we stop to refill our water bottles at the local mountain spring...no buying bottled water here !   Hopefully, we're just in time to see the sheep go up the mountain...

Lunch (if we don't go out for an Epic Lunch), is simple and delicious...salami, ham, cheese, fruit...maybe oil packed tuna with tomatoes and capers...mmmmmmm...then, it's time for siesta.  Everything closes down between about 2pm and 4:30...time to catch up on e-mails, read, or take a nap.  About 5pm, we usually go back down the mountain for our daily "passeggiata", or walk, around town.  Lately, we've been going to Giardini-Naxos at the bottom of the hill...it was the first Greek colony in Sicily and has a beautiful harbor that we walk around for about an hour.

Up the mountain again to open a bottle of wine and grill something for dinner (we still manage burger night here !)...we watch a few episodes of 30 Rock, or Doc Martin (thanks to Steven for the tablet, and Mike and Chelsea for Netflix !), then time for lights out and sogni d'oro - dreams of gold - (or sweet dreams )....not a bad life !  no wonder it's called "la dolce vita"....

Hugs to all...Chris and her water toting, golden dreaming husband

pics to follow...