Dov'è Francesca . . . Eccola

I received a call from Gaspari (also known as Rini), who has been a constant friend of ours here in Sicily, who used to be our landlord the first year we lived in Sciacca, and was the Doctor who admitted Fran to the hospital when she became ill, and secured a bed for her at Casa de Cura La Madelenna in Palermo for specialized treatment. He is also working with a Tanzanian relief effort, and Fran had decided that was where her charity dollars would go, and had given them a Christmas gift before she became ill. So it was that charity, not recognized in the US for tax purposes, that I asked people to donate to initially. I have taken the donations and added to them, and we have given a total of One Thousand Euros to help the rural poor in Tanzania. That is enough to build a house for a family in the drought stricken area. It will have a sign on it in memory of Fran.

However, that is not what Rini was calling about. He had just completed cleaning out the gardens that Fran loved to work in, the ones overlooking the Mediterranean, and he wanted me to see something special. That something was a palm tree,
that had grown much bigger since we last left there, and
had also, according to Rini, changed in one other way. He told me
the tree now had a name, and the name was Francesca.

So, without further description, the tree above is, indeed,
Francesca, and to the right you will find a picture of Rini,
who was so helpful to both of us in our time of need.

Primavera: Tempeste e Temporale

It has been a mild winter, so what should we expect from spring? Well, if you live in Caltebellotta, just north and up from Sciacca, I guess you can expect winter. While winter left there with four straight days of dark, threatening clouds, it seems that it took the first day of spring to finally bring them their annual snowfall. Of course, most of it was gone by the afternoon, lost in the spring rainstorms, hailstorms, and thunderstorms. So was any possibility of drying laundry in Sciacca.

When I got up, I looked outside and thought I was just one
kilometer from a beautiful day. I could look over the sea, and see blue skies and the sun turning the sea silver, with highlights from the wind driven white caps. Where I was, we started out under dark clouds, but soon they got darker. The thunder behind the house made me realize we were in for a temporale, and we had a good one, with lightning striking clearly from the sea to the tennis court to Ribera. The hail started shortly after that, and then, of course, the sun came out. The process repeated itself every thirty minutes throughout the day, until finally, just before nightfall, more blue sky existed than clouds, and slowly the stars and a sliver of the mooon shone as brightly as they could. An amazing day of weather.

Just before sunset, I looked out over the bay and saw a small group of sea gulls, playing in the spotty sunlight, flashes of silver turning and diving, then disappearing as they left the sunlight, only to reappear after a few moments, turning and diving again, then climbing, then disappearing. It was almost as if they knew what they were doing, and were dancing to their own strobe light in their own discotheque.

The national weather service says that 'it ain't over yet', and indeed, Thursday, as I write this, is supposed to be the worst day of the bunch. Well, this morning has been almost a repeat of yesterday. There is snow on mountains (again), and the sky is blue out at sea (again) and the thunder is rumbling behind the house (again) and it is starting to rain (again) just as the sun comes out (again). It certainly is not boring to live here, at least weather wise, at least right now, as spring is starting.

More Enchantment

After visiting with Klaus, Petra, and Lute, I moved about twenty kilometers to my friends Gene and Nancy's apartment. Fran and I used to teach with Gene in Syracuse, and he now works overseeing a contract to repair army helicopters in Europe.

They took me on a tour of castles along the Rhine river, including the one to the right, which is supposed to be the castle that inspired the story of Frankenstein. At one of our meals, we had a beer that came with a coaster that said the beer was made by someone named Franken. If only it had come with its own beer stein, then it would have been a Franken Stein. Oh well.

We also stopped at a number of other castles along the way, in Aurback and Arlerbacher. It is amazing how many castles there are up in the hills along the Rhine Valley. We saw some near Heidelberg as well, however this time we did not stop to see the huge and famous Heidelberg Castle, which is usually full of tourists, in a town that knows how to do tourism well.

Klaus had told me that not all of the castles are as ancient as they look, and that some of them were built new in the 1800's, as retreats for the wealthy. The places that they were built continued to be chosen not only for the views, but also for the strategic value in terms of defense. I guess one can not be too careful if the peasants are approaching with firebrands.

In the (too dark) picture at the left, Nancy is standing in the doorway to one of the turrets from which people could send down arrows, bullets, or pails full of boiling oil at the folks who are trying to attack. As we visited the castles, I remembered more and more my rereading of the Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, a favorite of my mother, and I could sense how she could remember her good times in Germany as she read them to us as children.

We also visited the Cathedral city of Mainz, and saw yet again another wonderful old Cathedral. Unfortunately, I did not take my camera on that excursion, as after we left the Cathedral, we walked around and finally found St. Stephan's Church, where we expected to see a Chagall stained glass window. Boy were we wrong. Front and back, side to side, all of the many windows had been done by Chagall, and they were incredible. I ended up sitting in a pew and crying, thinking how much Fran would have loved to see this church. As I do not have pictures of it to share with you, I will instead have to suggest that you visit Mainz yourself for the breathtaking beauty of his work there.

We also visited the Guttenburg Museum in Mainz, and I got to see several actual Guttenberg Bibles, as well as other early printed matter, and early printing presses. It was imPRESSive, to say the least.

I had to go to Frankfurt to get some papers notarized at the American Consulate there. I have never seen such security. Apparently, they have an arrangement with a man who runs a news and snack stand about a half a kilometer from the Consulate to keep people's cell phones and cameras, as they are not allowed inside. There were very sensitive metal detectors, and the private guards made no bones about telling people what to do as they were buzzed in the four doors leading to where business could be taken care of. I felt strangely free as I left the compound belonging to America, and I heard another person whistling 'God Bless America, Land of the Free.' Such an interesting world we live in.

After twelve days on the road, or in the sky, I was indeed glad to get back home to Sciacca, and my nice comfortable bed. I end with a picture from the Cathedral at Speyer.

Enchantment in Germany

Klaus, Petra, and Lute: together they spelled magic for me when I visited Germany during early March. They rent an apartment here in Sicily, and we have become close friends. They live in Viernheim, near Mannheim, where they work together in a CAD business that specializes in architecture.

During my stay with them, Klaus took me on a short tour of Mannhiem, including the Cathedral, which was gorgeous, and which had been bombed twice by the Americans in January of 1945, and which was somehow restored beautifully. After a fine German lunch, we drove into the Odenwald, where I wanted to discover a bit of my mother's past. She told a story about saving her little brother Phillip from falling on top of Kaiser Whilhelm when she was 5 years old (1910), and we went to Michelstadt to try to find where this might have happened.

Michelstadt is a beautiful old town, almost undisturbed by the massive bombings of WW II. Many of the old half timber buildings still stand in the center of town, however we were not able to discover the hotel my mother described. Finally, we went into a
coffee shop for a cup of coffee, and Klaus asked the proprietor if he knew of a hotel that had been around in the early 1900's. He pointed across the street to a building that was no longer a hotel, but which had been a hotel in 1910, and at which Kaiser Wilhelm had stayed. We were looking right at the balcony, perhaps the same balcony my mother talked about.

We also visited the beautiful little town of Heppenheim, Lute's hometown, and then went on to Mòrlbacher, Petra's home town, where we visited Petra's mother, and then the four of us had dinner at an incredibly fine German restaurant. It was there that I realized that the Odenwald was where the knights of the Nibelung (Wagner's Ring Cycle) went hunting, and as my father got his middle name from them (I will not reveal his middle name, thank you), I was thrilled, and decided I needed to get a copy of the Ring Cycle.

The next day we headed for Speyer, famous for its Cathedral. Indeed, the Cathedral was beautiful, as was the gate to the city opposite it, and the old Roman wall behind it. The Cathedral had been destroyed many times, and was always brought back close to its original state. Of course, to follow along with the idea of this being an enchanted visit, I went into a book store hoping to find a book on the Odenwald in English, but came out instead with a fourteen CD copy of the complete Ring of the Nibelung by Wagner, for only 15 Euros. What a buy, what magic.

We then went on to the Rhine wine country, as clouds formed over the hills, and rain splashed lightly on the windshield. Another fine German meal was had, and of course the wine with the meal was nothing short of spectacular. As we headed back to Viernheim, and more wine at Klaus' spotless apartment, we chased rainbows across the valley, including the double rainbow that is just barely visible here.
Sunday was a huge family dinner at the office, with Petra's parents, brother and his family, Klaus' son and his girlfriend, Petra's aunt and uncle, and some of their employees. Almost everyone spoke English, and it was a wonderful time.

They truly shared some of the magic of Germany with me, and I had a wonderful time with them before heading down the river toward Lamberthiem, where my friends Gene and Nancy Mehlenbacher live. More on them in the next post.