Today I had a chill-out day, so Pina, Saro and I enjoyed an outing to Corso Umberto for a Peach Granita macchiato with Mandola. After breakfast we all went shopping.

I bought a pair of shorts, a new cap and some Eau de Toilette, 'Lemon Sorbet' . We also did some grocery shopping before returning home to join Zia Graziella who had made gnocchi and chicken schnitzels for lunch.

In the afternoon I took a little walk around Acireale to digest the beautiful lunch Zia had made whilst the others took a cat nap.

According to tradition, the Acireale's origins trace back to Xiphonia, a mysterious Greek city now completely disappeared. In Roman times, there existed another Greek town, Akis, which was involved in the Punic Wars. 

I love the cobbled Lava stoned streets that give the city of Acirele such uniqueness. To think my mother Salvatice gave all this up to move to Australia, met my father, Sebastian Pulvirenti, married the love of her life, settled and gave birth to four children. 

Whilst here in Sicily, I discovered that there is a town called Sciacca, which is also my Mother's maiden name. Sciacca (Greek; Θέρμαι; Latin) means Thermal Spa or 'ex aqua' or in Arabic it comes from 'Syac', meaning bath and al Saqquah dating back to the cult of the Syrian god "Shai al Quaaum". Could it be that my descendant are a mixture of Spanish and Arabic on my Grandfather's (Rosario Sciacca) side of the family. 
 
In the afternoon Ottavio had spend sometime with me going over the computer.

In the evening Saro's cousin and his family arrived for a casual dinner alfresco style in their court yard.