We are reviving the blog because we have a very special visitor who is about to arrive – Frank’s cousin from Sicily, Enza!

You may remember Enza from our trips to Sicily before.  She took us all around Canicatti, Frank’s mother’s town (where Enza lives). And we had so much fun that she traveled with us to Siracusa and Taormina.

Enza is Frank’s first cousin.  Her father is the brother who traveled to Naples with Frank’s 16-year old mother so that she could embark on a ship to the New World. 

Enza, who can be quite a character, sent me a Facebook message last fall with an idea – her granddaughter’s school group was coming to the USA in February.  If she stowed away with them, could we pick her up?  She’d stay with us for a month, and then we’d deliver her back to Sicily.  What did we think? 

This proposal was all in Italian.  Facebook does have a “translate” feature, but I entered her message into Google Translate to make sure I’d gotten that right.  We were to pick her up somewhere in the United States – in February – and deliver her a month later back to Sicily? 

It sounded a little crazy, even for Sicilians!  So I emailed back to confirm that I understood – and she said it was her dream to visit “her beloved cousin in America.”  That clinched it. Frank and I looked at each other, shook our heads with a smile, and decided to jump right in.

And that is how we ended up on a train to New York City with our Italian flashcards in hand – to pick up Enza Tuesday night as she flies into JFK for a month. 

Come along for our wild ride!  We promise it will be an avventura!