Memorial Day Weekend Part 1: Festa di Santa Croce in Casteltermini

For Memorial Day weekend, since Jason had the whole four days off, we decided to take advantage of the break and take our first ITT tour from the base. To our knowledge, we were only going to see the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento, but to our surprise, we got to do two trips in one. There was a town close to Agrigento that was having a catholic/historic festival that same day. Because I am documenting our time here in Italy through pictures on this blog, there will be alot to go through. I split the trip up into two posts... one for each stop. This is the smaller of the two.

The festival we went to was the festa di Santa Croce and the Sagra Del Tatarata in Casteltermini. The festival is to celebrate a cross that was found in the 17th century. Recently the cross was carbon dated by an institute in Pisa and the construction of the cross dates back to the 1st century A.D. The town celebrates by dressing up in period costumes and parading a replica of the cross through the town, visiting the actual cross in the small church were it is housed, and watching the dancers of the Tatarata. The Tatarata is from traditional Arab style that comes from the folklore of Sicily.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

This is Aidan on the bus... It was a long ride and she was in anticipation of seeing the temples from the time we left the base at 7am.

Aidan and Jason walking up to the small church on the top of the mountain in Casteltermini.

A tile mural for Santa Croce (these tile murals are very common throughout Sicily).

This is the actual cross, housed in the church.

These are the doors to the church... I thought they were very interesting.

Here is a view from the side of the church.

Aidan was having fun picking up the leaves from the ground and sticking her tongue out at us.

Here is the church... and some of our tour group.

Each town has a monument in the city-center. This one had wreaths in honor of the festival.

Aidan and I waiting for the parade to start. The bleachers were metal and extremely hot... It was over 90 degrees. Luckily I am the planner I am and made a canopy out of an old sheet to hang over the stroller to keep Aidan cool, filled our Camelbaks with ice and water, brought copious amounts of sunscreen, and several changes of clothes. (I might have overdone it.)

Aidan really liked the idea of drinking water through the tube from a backpack.

This is one view from the Piazza Duomo (church square), this is the campanile (belltower).

We picked up sodas at a bar so that we could use their bathroom. Aidan decided she wanted the soda instead of the water. Jason was busy watching the hoards of people filing out of mass.

Aidan getting ready for the parade to start...

Now I don't know for sure, but I think the processionals are paid for by town contributors... This is one of the families with their shrine to the cross... the head of the family reminded me of a movie mafioso with his dark glasses and shiny suit surrounded by his family.

This is the beginning of the Tatarata's dance.

The dance of the Tatarata.

The processional of royalty. (The festival used to be class segregated.)

Il Duomo (the cathedral).

This was another monument in the town... The grouping was interesting, and the face of the screaming man at the bottom.

And that was the end of our visit to Casteltermini and the festa di Santa Croce. Stay tuned for the next installment of Memorial Day photos... It takes me forever to upload them because of our slow internet on base. Until then... Ciao.

Our first trip to an agriturismo...

Last weekend, Jason's shift from work made arrangements to have lunch at a local agriturismo. An agriturismo is a farm or rural area turned into a tourist attraction. They serve locally grown or produced food... all fresh. You really don't get to order from a menu, they just serve what they have prepared for the day. Eating is an extended affair. Your brought marinated fresh vegetables (olives, zucchini, yellow peppers, sundried tomatos, fresh mozzarella), then breaded appetizers, then pastas, green salad, meats, a liqueur that is supposed to help with digestion, desserts and fresh fruit, and finally the meal ends with coffee (usually just a shot of espresso or a cappuccino). It is hard to not get full after the first few courses, but if you limit yourself, you can make it through the whole meal to enjoy everything served. The restaurant itself is an old farmhouse... they leave sections of the wall unplastered so you can see the original structure and materials underneath. Agriturismos are located out in the valleys, away from the towns on the hills. This particular agriturismo was located near the towns of Mineo and Grammichele. The name is Agriturismo Valle Dei Margi.

Aidan gets the camera ready for our outing by taking this self portrait.

This is her ready to go to the farm...

Overalls, pigtails, and a bit of an attitude.

She fell asleep right before we got to the agriturismo... I couldn't bear to wake her up.

This is the back dining room with us and some of Jason's co-workers and their families.

This niche led to another dining room.

This was a path through the orange groves to some other buildings.

The end of the paved road... the beginning of the orange groves.

The walkway into the restaurant.

The coffee bar for after the meal.

This is the back of the coffee bar... I thought the overhang was interesting.

A beautiful building behind the restaurant... It might be for storage, or maybe its an apartment.

Aidan on the swing right after she woke up.

Her on the mini suspension bridge.

She wasn't too sure about the swaying and only made it to the third log.

But she loved the mechanical horse... it only took euro change and I didn't have much.

She went on a few rides...

One with her friend Sophie from her ballet class. After I ran out of change we told her the horse was too tired to give anymore rides. She sat on the coin box next to the horse and hugged it and kissed it trying to wake it up for more rides.

This was part of the petting zoo... It wasn't much and all the animals were in these chain link pens... Not much petting going on there.

This cute little baby goat caught Aidan's eye.

Her and one of the other girls tried to pet it's nose through the fence.

This big goat was a poser... It moved around and waited until I snapped a picture then moved again.

I tried to get a picture when this peacock had his feathers ruffled and tail up, but he was moving around too much and the other people were crowded around the pen.

I did get this nice one of his face by sticking my camera lense through the fence.

The was a small horse that was very friendly... He let the girls and I touch his nose.

One of Jason's buddies picked some oranges off a nearby tree and they were feeding it to the horse. Aidan tried several times to feed it, but got scared when he'd lean down to chomp it. Finally she let the horse eat it out of her hand, but I couldn't get a clean shot.

When we took her away from the horse she got very distraught... I couldn't help but take a picture. Jason smiling and Aidan screaming was just too funny.

She cheered up when we let her feed the goats some of the hay that was outside the pens. she couldn't get the hay through without dropping it though.

She finally got the hay through the fence and a couple of goats came to say hi.

Well, that is all for this trip... We are headed to the Valley of Temples in Agrigento this weekend. We are going with a tour group from the base. We don't know anyione else whos going, but it is easier to just enjoy the trip rather than have to drive and worry about parking and figuring out where to go. I will post those pictures as soon as I can. Until then... I hope everyone enjoys this Memorial Day weekend. Ciao...