4CarpenterHouse

         We finally got a chance to visit a wine store just outside Catania.  We tagged along with our neighbors to the Cantine Privitera   We had thought it would be like other places that sell wine from barrels, maybe three or four wines to choose from.  We were quite surprised to find over twenty wines in barrels ready to be sampled and poured into our plastic bottles. We almost gave up on trying to find this wine store, because we got super lost.  No ones fault, besides terrible Italian signage and a GPS unit taking us on a wild goose chase.  We got to see parts of towns that we would never have visited without getting lost. Deanna happy to be out of the car and entering a wonderland of wines. View of some of the wines to choose from. More large storage barrels. Laurel sampling the different wines.  She has a great nose and taste for wine. Deanna and Laurel getting some together time. ...

      We had a long weekend to explore the beaches of Sicily over the Labor day holiday.  We took the girls out of school after lunch on Friday and drove about 2 hours to Milazzo   We had found this beach hotel on booking.com and thought it looked nice from the description and photos.  We checked in at reception and the front desk lady and that guy (who is the jack of all trades at Italian hotels) start talking about how to get our luggage down to our apartment.  We find out that its a steep walk down to the private cove and beach.  He loads our stuff up in a tiny Fiat car and tells us to start heading down and he races away.  A beautiful walk down a small road.  On one side on the road is this view of another hotel.  The doorway and stairs to the beach.  We found this great private beach waiting for us.  It was amazing, one of those times where it is much better than you thought it could be. ...