Off to the Motherland

That's right - Gabrielle's Travels is back! I created this blog two years ago during my semester abroad in Bologna, and I haven't traveled much since then (except to Florida and Louisiana) so I haven't had any reason to write on it. But now I'm resurrecting it, because on Wednesday night I'm returning to the old country and finally visiting the motherland - Sicilia!

We're going to Sicily for 10 days with a tour group (which I've never done before) led by a Sicilian heritage group called Arba Sicula. I'll probably be the only person under 50 on the trip, but that's fine by me! Sicily is one of the only places in Italy I didn't get to see when I was in Italy in 2008, and I've been dying to go pretty much since I became interested in my family's history. (So, 1996?) The trip is my graduation present, which I think is a very appropriate culmination of my undergraduate education, not only because I majored in Italian and my background is half-Sicilian, but because of what I wrote for my Italian thesis. I wrote 10 short fictional stories about Manhattan's Little Italy that take place from 1910-2010, showing the changes in the neighborhood and in the Italian-American experience over the course of a century, and many of my characters are Sicilian and Sicilian-American. I also researched and used a lot of Sicilian dialect, so I'm really interested to hear Sicilian dialect and Italian spoken with a Sicilian accent.

We'll be visiting Palermo, Cefalù, Marsala, Agrigento, Siracusa, Catania, Messina, and Taormina, in addition to smaller places en route or on day trips. I don't really know where most of those places are either; basically, we'll be circling the island. I don't know what kind of internet access the hotels will have, and I'm pretty sure I won't be able to upload any pictures while I'm there, but I'll try to update a few times if I can, and then post pictures when I get back.

Ciao, America - Sicilia, here I come!