More of Sicily

I really need to get better at posting. I've gotten lazy and apparently am in danger of taking Sicily for granted. I hope that never happens no matter how long we're here. It is too beautiful, breathtaking, actually to not appreciate every day the blessings of being here in paradise.

Yesterday Bob and I went to the annual garlic festival in Tre Castagni (Cost-ahn-yee) and walked among vendors offering goods from all over Sicily and some other nearby countries. If you've followed the blog you've heard that all towns have very special times for festivals each year. One festival is to honor the appointed saint of the town, another is for Carnivale just before Easter and the third is to honor the typical food of the area. There are, in addition to garlic festival, almond blossom festivals, artichoke festivals, apple, pear and peach festivals, numerous grape festivals, honey festivals and even a prickly pear festival. One for each town.

So last night we went to the garlic festival. Apparently I read the promotional clip from our on-base tour company because I was sure we would see a parade of the famous Sicilian horse carts that fascinate me so much. The carts are painted festively all over and I can't get enough of seeing them (which is a rare sight these days).

We didn't see any carts or parade but there were vendors selling garlic (and a few with red onions) everywhere. They pick them and either bunch them together or braid the tops together into these long chains.

We, of course, had to have a smaller version of the braid to put in our kitchen for decoration. Ours has only eighteen bulbs set on both sides of the braided tops and is hanging in our kitchen. Two things about garlic hanging in your kitchen: 1)You kitchen is protected from vampires. 2) You have to keep the windows open.