Modina

After Agrigento, I went to Modina, a small town halfway to Gela.

It was Sunday, and the Modinese were promenading. The italians are always dressed business casual, so here were all of these people looking like they were going to a garden party, walking through the streets, waving at each other. Their families had all known each other for years, and done exactly this same thing in the same place.

It's that sense of history that has always amazed me about Italy. That you could feel so tied to a place because you look through your photo album and there are your parents, and your grandparents, and your great-grandparents, all young, all eating gelato in the same square in front of the church. To someone like me, who travels constantly and moves every few months, that kind of permanence is enviable, if at the same time, unimaginable.

A sidenote on food: The Modinese are big on Nero d'Avola (it comes from right around here), carob and a special chocolate which is mixed cold and unartfully. It is just a cocoa paste with crystals of sugar mixed in and is absolutely delicious.