“Our Spaghetti Pilgrimage” — by Diane LeBow

Talk about Felliniesque! Trinacria is actually the Symbol of Sicily with the three legs symbolizing the three corner points of the island. (Photos by John Montgomery)

“Hey, we enjoyed your emails so write something up for the BATW ezine about your trip, ok?”  But how to condense a 30-day Felliniesque adventure into a few hundred words? First, an apologia, should I sound less than respectful: my Italian friends who have been like family to me for decades are warm, wonderful, and hospitable beyond words. We visit each other on both sides of the Atlantic regularly. They would second many of my perceptions about their clan.

The truth is when I’m in Italy among these friendly, fun-loving people, I feel like I’m in the middle of an enormous children’s playground.

Gala Food & Italy Banquet in Cite del Mare

I’ll begin with one example.

But first the back story: (you see Italian ways have influenced my normal left brain linearity) John Montgomery and I were invited to participate in an international conference, “Food and Italy,” where all 20 areas of Italy had representatives. We gave a presentation on Northern California tourism, with a focus on farmers’ markets, food, and wine, and the organic slow-food business. The conference was held near Palermo at an enormous and very nice resort, Cite del Mare, which overlooks the Tyrrhenian Sea.

The example: two lovely young businessmen from Palermo whom we met at the conference, offered to give John and me a tour around Palermo. They picked us up in their car. Within about 1-2 km, the car stalled on the highway. Much fussing and looking at the engine ensued. I suggested we might be out of gas, especially as the gas symbol on the dashboard was blinking. No, no, they insisted. One went off hitching a ride to get help. We waited in the burning sun. Finally he returned with a can of petrol, just “to try.” Voila, car worked perfectly.

Evening on Gisella's balcony overlooking the medieval city of Orvieto, Italy

Following the conference, with our friend Gisella Isidore, who is an Italian food-and-wine expert, we traveled all over Sicily, visiting Greek and Roman ruins and Bronze Age sites, including Erice, Segesta, Agrigento, Syracuse, Noto, the U.N. World Heritage town of Scicli with its ancient cave dwellings, Taormina up on a high perch, Mt. Etna, and Palermo. One day we were even kidnapped by men in dark suits who looked as though they had walked off the set of “The Godfather.” But I’d go over my word count if I recounted the tale.

After two weeks we took the car ferry over to the mainland. Eventually they plan a bridge across this three-mile span that separates Sicily from mainland Italy. The ferry captain complained to me that they need some American engineers to get the damn thing built. At that point we had one of our many “short” drives that turned into an all day journey, up the east coast of Italy through Calabria, the furthest southern area of Italy, very wild, poor, and agricultural. There we were invited to stay at an agrotourismo belonging to an eccentric Baronessa. Oddly enough, she had just lost her entire staff on the day that we arrived. This crisis led to an amusing scene when the Baronessa recruited her six- and eight-year-old grandchildren to fill in as wait-staff who thankfully brought some common sense and organization to their grandmother’s situation.

Our next stop was a return visit to the Buffalo Baronessa and her agrotourismo, Tenuto Seliano, in Paestum, which is in the Compagne region just south of Naples.  Cecilia is an Italian female Zorba, full of love of life and has created her dream dynasty here of a fabulous agrotourismo where she hosts a variety of international guests. Her 900 water buffalo provide the milk for fresh mozzarella served at every meal in this mozzarella center of the universe. Cecilia is an internationally recognized authority on Italian and especially Compagne cooking.

Sunset at Greek temple ruins near Agrigento, Sicily

Paestum has the most magnificent Greek temples in the world, better preserved than the Acropolis in Athens.  In the 6th century BCE it was a celebrated center for the sanctuary and worship of Hera Argiva, the descendent of the Anatolian original Great Mother or Earth Goddess, Cybele, later Artemis, then Hera, Juno, finally the Virgin Mary under the Christians. It is interesting that the traditional portrayal of the Christian Mary, holding baby Jesus, is an exact replica of Hera sitting and holding a pomegranate, symbol of fertility and rebirth.

Bidding Southern Italy buon giorno, we jumped onto the autostrada North, delivering Gisella to her lovely Umbrian home overlooking Orvieto (her flat is available to rent part of every year), where we were guests of honor at the medieval Corpus Domini Festival, with its elaborate parades and authentic costumes.

Finally, we spent a few days in Rome reconnecting with two journalist and photographer friends whom we met under unusual circumstances at the Food and Italy conference in Sicily. During the conference, on an idyllic moonlit night, we were enjoying an opulent banquet around a larger-than-Olympic-sized pool, candles floating on water lilies, when one of our dinner companions began choking. John, ever the hero, leapt to his feet and performed the perfect Heimlich maneuver. From our new friend’s mouth, out popped an embarrassingly large chunk of breadstick. Thus, was another photographer saved to shoot another day.

– Diane LeBow
President, BATW