Monday, January 7, 2013

Gluttony...well, maybe

Dec 22, 2012

We decided to take Nana and Papaw to eat at an Agriturismo.  I almost let time slip on by without getting it in before they left.  It's crazy how quickly two months really flies by.  I snagged us a reservation for lunch at Borgo Antico in Mineo (I think we must be infatuated with this town).  The food is delicious!  This was our second time and it was as good as I remembered.  Seriously, if you come to see us, we will go here to eat if at all possible.  This should be incentive for you to come visit, right?

I'm going to let the photos tell you the story of the yum!


Papaw trying the wine.  He didn't really like it much.


Cody and Papaw


            Bread and Olives
The festive fire place.  It was cozy.

   Cheese and tomatoes

Eggplant

Artichoke






















  

Walking in Mineo...

Dec 15th

Our long awaited return to Mineo.  Oh how, I love that little town.  There is something about the medieval streets that fascinate me.  The Presepi (Nativity Scenes) are one of the most interesting things I have seen.  I just love those scenes.  I admire the time and attention to detail that go into them.

We used our GPS to get to the parking lot on the outer perimeter of Mineo.  We had been there before, but wanted to make sure we were going to the right place.  The road we took up ended up being almost a goat path...straight up a hillside.  We met Salvo, our host, in the parking lot at about 8:30am.

   The Parking lot.

We entered the town through the archway and stopped into a bar next to Salvo's mother's shop.  Salvo's mother, Agrippina, sells hand painted items.  We waited for a while and then bought our tickets.  We had a few minutes to kill so we walked down to see one of the churches.
Church in Mineo

Outside of St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Mineo.

Inside the church
Also inside the church


The church was actually having a service and I wasn't comfortable walking about or taking photos, however Gavin wasn't shy and went in and took the photos above.  Not bad photos for a 7 year old.  I waited outside with Norah.  

We met up with out Tour Guide Maria.  This is the 1st scene, it is in the foyer of a church right at the square in town.





Norah loved Maria.  She stuck right with her.  This is Maria walking backward in the fashion of all great tour guides and Norah is copying her!  


Our group walking down one of the alleys of the town of Mineo.  





Look at the details!  The scenes have more than just the Holy family!  They are entire towns!

This one even has the 3 crosses on the hill.



We took a nice snack break of fried dough covered in powdered sugar.  There was one that had nutella in the middle.  MMM...yummy!

My Nana and Papaw coming through a very tight alley way!  That place is amazing.

I like the satin fabric surrounding this one.

This scene is crochet!  The buildings and the figures are all handmade crochet!

Terracotta

Doorways are interesting subjects

Another church



This one had the Holy Family in water, on an island

More terracotta

View from Mineo to the countryside

A carpenter and his wife looking out the top window

Cork

View from Mineo

During our walk, I bought some chocolate liquor (yummy!) and some orange honey.  We stopped at Agrippina's shop again and I bought a little manger scene sitting on a piece of a tree limb.  I cannot describe it, but it is really cute and it wasn't expensive.  After we finished walking throughout the entire town we headed down to our cars.  We followed Salvo to his home where we had a delicious lunch of bread, roasted olives, fresh sausage, chickpea soup, roasted potatoes and cannoli for desert.  It was good and we were in good company. We had water, wine and coke to drink.  I'm really glad that it worked out for Salvo to help us enjoy our tour with my grandparents and we had several friends to join us.  

Salvo toasting bread on the grill

If you look closely, you can see that there is a black goat in the window!  

Norah on our way home from our awesome day in Mineo