Honors 10 Literature/History Annual WWII Study Trip

April 25, 2007 - the date of our 3rd annual WWII honors 10 study trip. We had relatively nice weather; it wasn't too cold, it didn't rain, and everything else fell perfectly into place.

We began our trip with a visit to the German War Cemetery in Motta St. Anastasia. The cemetery is an open air building separated into several chambers. Each chamber is labeled for the city (or the vicinity thereof) where the soldiers buried within died.

This is the plaque located at the entrance of the tomb, that explains the significance of the structure, in German, Italian, and English.

In the first room that you enter, there is a sculpture of a dead man representing all the soldiers that lost their lives in the war. He is naked, which could certainly be intended to represent the fact that beneath all the uniforms, behind all the government politics, the men were men like any others.

The slabs list ranks, names, dates of birth, death, and ages.

The cross, shown here, is the central monument in the British War Cemetery in

Catania. The grounds are maintained immaculately.

The plaque shows two other war cemeteries (at Agira and Siracuse), and the total number of grave sites by nationality. The cemetery at Agira is strictly Canadian.

The rows of tombstones are neatly trimmed with a variety of beautiful flowers.

Most of the tombstones have a sentimental saying selected by the surviving family members. This one says:

"Fond thoughts linger

Tears often flow

And to that lonely grave

our thoughts will ever go"

Not long after I begin to read the tombstones, tears well up in my eyes. So many of them were so young; and war seems to me, so pointless.

While I have walked many of the rows here, this was the first time I saw the tombstone of a woman, assistant nurse Lily True, and I wonder if there are more here.

Our trip ends with a visit to Le Ciminierie and Museo Storico Dello Sbarco In Sicilia, the World War II War Museum of the invasion of Sicily, in Catania. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but I find it quite fitting that the last exhibit is a background picture of the British War Cemetery with a replica of the sculpture from the German War Cemetery and a screen running each soldier's name, one by one.

Our breakfast club has progressed to lunches...Mmm

Our Sunday morning coffee group has morphed beautifully into a luncheon group as well. We started out having lunch at my house last week...to break-in my new tables, furniture, dishes, dishwasher, you name it. It started out raining and ended up, well, cloudy but tolerable enough to sit outside to eat. I managed to stay out of the picture. :)

This week we all went to the Porto di Catania and ate at a quaint little ristorante called L'ormeggio. It isn't much to look at from the outside, but it was great. We sat down and the food started coming. We had a nice sparkling white vino locale, multiple fresh seafood antipasto dishes, three seafood pastas, the main course: grilled pesce spada (swordfish), grilled calamari, grilled prawns (jumbo shrimp), and swordfish involtini (rolled and stuffed with stuffing, pine nuts, and some fruit resembling currants), then dessert came, grappa, cafe, and we were stuffed to the gills.

Next week we're off to Incognito, a wonderful small seafood restaurant in Acireale. They only do lunch and you have to have a reservation. We booked a month ago and this was the earliest date we could get. Having eaten there before I can safely say we're in for an awesome meal. The address and phone number are listed below if you'd like to visit them yourself. For more information see www.sicilianodyssey.blogspot.com and search for Incognito or seafood.

Trattoria Incognito - Via Vitt.Emanuele, 48 Acireale (CT) - Zona vecchia stazione - Tel. 3497896343

Lava Tables

I finally parted with the money and bought myself 2 lava tables; they are after all, an investment. I couldn't decide on a design so I asked the vendor if he could make me a large 100 x 200 cm table with fruit...oranges, lemons, figs, pomegranates, grapes (red and blue), and prickly pear around the edge with something in the middle. Also, I wanted a bistro table (80 cm) with Mt. Etna, something typical of Sicily, and a border. He looked at me as though I were crazy because I was so vague and it was a lot of money, but I said that I trusted him to do a nice job. So here is what I got, and yes, I am happy with them.