Taormina to Assisi

I slept through the first conference session that I attended, and decided that instead of even pretending to go to the next one, I would just go sleep out on the hotel’s swanky private beach. I might have been asleep before I actually touched the beach chair. I woke up in time to meet our ride coming from the Catania branch to pick us up for a district fireside. Two of BYU’s Italian faculty members have served as mission presidents in Italy, and they were slated to speak. Both did a great job, and the meeting was very well attended. When the branch president got up to close the meetings, he called on Brad and I to speak. I was surprised, and didn’t say too much, but I realized that my Italian has gotten a lot better since I was a missionary. It was a lot of fun to be amongst the Italian saints again. I met the mother of one of my MTC teachers, Ether Simoncini. She called him on her cell phone and I got to talk to him for a minute, which I greatly enjoyed. After the meeting, which ended around 9:30 we chatted for an hour before the Branch president took us home. He stopped about half way at a pizzeria that was simply excellent. My prosciutto crudo was amazing, and so was the branch president’s recommendation of a white sauce pizza covered in pistachio bits… sounds crazy, I know. It was terrific. We finally got back and got to bed around midnight. I woke up about five thirty and chatted to the other jetlagged hostel goers. Brad and I went for a run when he got up. We ran all over Taormina, including a grueling climb up to the 7th century castle that overlooks the city. The view was simply breathtaking of the Taormina and other surrounding bays.

The conference wasn’t especially entertaining, although I did enjoy a session on contemporary Italian poetry. We went to lunch with my boss this year, Cinzia Noble her poet cousin… I had pizza again, and plan on doing so again as soon as possible. Her cousin was quite a character: he is a doctor, but writes existential poetry in his spare time. He read several of his peoms – none that I liked – they were elegant but dark. Brad and I went to the beach for a few hours after the conference. The water is incredibly clear, although full of tiny jellyfish. I fell asleep on the beach for an hour or so. We got gelato and groceries on the way back up. Brad and I made dinner for a half dozen of the girls staying at the hostel... we made caprese and a pomodorini sauce to die for. We all went dancing at a fun little place not far from the hostel. I was surprised that none of the Sicilians really danced much but we did, and had a blast. We finally got back and got to bed at two… my motto for this trip has certainly been "you can sleep when you are dead". I skipped the first couple sessions Saturday morning to finish preparing my piece of the presentation. Instead of preparing, I spent most of the time talking with my favorite member of the Italian faculty, Ilona Klein. I have tried to pattern much of my teaching after hers, and it was great to chat with her about teaching in the future. Our presentation in the afternoon went well. Being the last session of the conference, it wasn’t very well attended because many people had already left. However we had about 15-20 people, many of whom were friends. The handful of people we didn’t know were very interested and asked lots of good questions. On the whole, I felt it was successful.

Sunday morning we packed up and left the hostel by around 7:20 to go meet the mission president who was picking up the rest of the faculty to go to Church because there are next to no busses on Sunday’s in Taormina. The hike down to our meeting place was rather exciting – the path on the map was completely overgrown, and looked as though no one else had walked on it in months, but it took us to where we needed to go. We waited for two hours, but our ride never showed up. Brad and I had church on the beach, and then wandered over to catch the next train at two to Messina. Messina was completely desolate, and full of garbage. Instead of waiting around till midnight to catch the train to Napoli, we took the night train to Rome, and on to Assisi. Sleeping on the train was difficult at best, but arriving in Assisi on a beautiful day was well worth it. We are staying at a convent I stayed at before with the family which has the most gorgeous and breathtaking view. Our window overlooks the beautiful Basilica of San Francesco as well as the Umbrian valley. The same nun is running the convent that was several years ago when we came. She remembers me and has been very kind – it is a good thing that she remembered me because when Brad and I walked up from the train station with our backpacks on after not showering and hardly sleeping, we hardly looked like the kind of people you want to stay in your convent. I love Assisi, the whole city is tranquil and beautiful. We walked around the city and saw most of its many churches this morning before taking a long afternoon siesta. Dinner tonight was remarkable, we ate at a restaurant at the very top of Assisi looking down over the city. My sausage and mushroom sauce was remarkable. Brad joked that we should list the days expenses as honeymoon prep.