I miei

In April my parents came to visit. If you haven't met them, I will introduce them to you.

This is them looking at a shrub.

This is my mother; Annalisa. She is from Biella, in Piedmont. In this picture she is playing with an instrument which makes noise a bit like thunder. Or a volcano.

This is my step father; Roberto. He is from Civitavecchia, near Rome. In this picture he has just peeled us all an orange. After meal times he always peels and chops some fruit for everyone. 

These are my flat mates/sisters . I haven't introduced you to them yet in this blog. Their time will come. I did introduce them to my parents though and they got on like a house on fire.

 

This is an important photo because it captures the first time I drank coffee with my parents; an important moment for any young Italian. I was only about 10 years late but there we go.

(It was actually decaf cappucino but I still think it counts)

This is an important photo because I love ice-cream. 

They were very good guests. They cooked all the time and the bathroom had never been so clean.







Together we went up Mt Etna who was grumbling very loudly that day (and then erupted later that evening).

We went into a cave. But only for a bit, because it felt like it was about to fall down.







Incredibly, we saw her blow a smoke ring! Mad skills Etna. Mad skills.

I took them to my Grotto, where I do my writing in peace and quiet.

They took a nap.

We went to Taormina and had a nice chat. The view of Etna from the Roman amphitheatre was incredible. They sometimes do concerts here, which must be pretty cool.

In Sicily there is a long tradition of plays acted out by puppets, called 'Pupi'. We went to see one of these plays. It was epic. The voices sounded like God, the heroes were noble and the fight scenes were classic. Bit long but I loved it. 

In this scene, an arab warrior just slayed a few European, but then gets taken down by an angel. Awesome.

I was happy to have them visit because I had not seen them for two months. When I was a long way away I missed them loads so now I try not to stay away from them so much. Or so far.

Ciao mamma, ciao Roberto.

Typical Sicilian dish. Translated into English.