Food and Wine Tour, Italy and Sicily

I spent two wonderful weeks at the end of July and early August exploring Southern Italy and Sicily with Go Ahead Tours. It was a great experience, and our tour director, Emilio, was the best. We landed at the airport in Catania, Sicily.

Highlights of the Catania portion of our tour were wine tastings of Zisola Wines called Negro d'Avila as well as a 2015 vintage Achilles. We also visited Casa Bianca, a farm-to -able restaurant where we met an Italian Contessa. We ate so much, I fell into a stupor that could accurately be decade as a "food coma." The Contessa's pasta in lemon sauce was unbeatable for flavor.

We visited an amphitheater in Catania where St. Agatha was martyred. There is a local tradition of eating cakes in the shape of breasts in her honor. They are super-sweet.

We also visited a World War II Museum. It's the second largest war museum in Europe. Catania was bombed 87 times in two weeks by the Allies. There is a simulated bunker where we got to experience what an Allied bombing was like. Harrowing doesn't have enough syllables in it. The Nazi occupation must have been worse, because the Italians saw Allied troops not as invaders but liberators. The Italians still call chewing gum "American gum" from the time when U.S. soldiers gave  out candy to hungry Sicilian children. I also  learned the Mafia cooperated with  the FBI in advance of the invasion.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Visit

Yesterday my friend Helena and I visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Art in Richmond. We purchased tickets to see a special exhibit, Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China. The exhibit was well-laid out and interesting, and the terracotta statues were lifelike and breathtakingly beautiful.

We also visited another special exhibit, The Horse in Ancient Greek Art. This exhibit was free and not nearly as crowded but just as enjoyable. The exhibits were mostly vase-paintings. I'll share photos of my two favorite pieces.

Pegasus at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Horse Groomer at the VMFA in Richmond, Virginia.

While at the museum we stopped to see a well-preserved statue of Caligula, a Roman emperor. I especially liked an accompanying educational explanation of what a toga praetexta and a toga picta would have looked like on Caligula. The latter would have been worn only in triumphal processions. I teach Latin, so it's nice to have a visual for the kinds of clothing we sometimes read about in our upper-level classes.

Caligula in a toga praetexta, left, and a toga picta, right.