The drive up to Mineo consists of some narrow roads,
but does afford a nice view of the valley once you get up the hill. However this view is best enjoyed by the passenger, as the driver can only steal glances out of the side of the car whilst directing most of their attention to staying on said narrow roads while taking some hairpin turns (the sharpest switchbacks are labeled with either 1, 2, or 3 degrees) without flying of a cliff and adding a wisp of smoke and a pile of metal to the vast scenery. 
After making it safely up the side of the hill our efforts were rewarded with more narrow roads, traffic, a horse drawn cart and two roving vegetable stands in trucks with PA's blaring their wares in Italian. That was different. We finally found a place to park and began our walking tour of one of the streets in Mineo. We made our way past several shops all boasting the semi annual sale season in Italy. It really is to bad we didn't find anything we really wanted in those stores. 30-50% of everything? Really, too bad. Anyway we found some things we did want in the form of some pastries from the gelateria and some local fruit and veggies (huge head of broccoli for .50 euro? strawberries that smell like summer at the schoolhouse? yes, please.
Around this time, since I had accidentally opted out of breakfast before setting out, we stopped in to a roadside bar. Bars in Italy are not like bars in America. An Italian bar is a coffee/pastry shop. American style bars are called pubs. The wife and I split a couple of capo's and some pastries that were delicious.
Off again, this time back towards home as the poor dog , no doubt suffering from her VDS, had been alone for about two hours now. As we made our way down the hill we ran into another Italian staple: geep.
These guys are raised purely for their milk and meat as opposed to wool, hence they all still have tails and are dirty and smelly. Once they passed us by we continued home and stopped for one more picture of the valley. Good stuff.
XY
p.s. the wife would like you to know that these were purchased at the Mineo market held in the housing complex every other Monday. They were also quite tasty.
5 comments:
Go ahead....look like tourists; after all you're only going to be there for three years. I'd love to see more pic of Italian culture{even though the food does look quite yummy} Love you all!
I was going to take a pic of us with a Clydesdale that was all decked out with ribbons and bows, but then the guy driving the cart went into the bar, so all we did was pet the horse's nose and cause a few old men to wag their fingers at us. It's ok, I was done anyway as soon as the horse snotted on me.
You are so making wish we had chosen Italy for Henry's first duty station!
architecture (castles, hovels).
italian children. and grannies.
gardens.
stonework.
also, feel free to send pastries in the next package :)
mmm those pastries look divine!
and yeah...what's so wrong with looking like a tourist for those of us stuck stateside?? ;-)
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