SICILY

Sicilian sunset

Nero d'Avola grapes

Sicily (Sicilia) is one of my favorite regions of Italy, but in all honesty, I am bias. This is my father's birthplace and still home to many members of my extended family. I had the pleasure of finding my roots and relatives after my father passed on my first of many trips to Italy. The trip was driven by wanting to meet the relatives and see the village and home where my father and his siblings were born and lived before emigrating to the USA.

My father's village, Santa Caterina Villarmosa, is in the Province of Caltanissetta, located in the heart of Sicily. It is very rural and very small. By the way, the village is not far form "Corleone".

Tracing and finding about our Italian heritage is educational, exciting and emotional. For me the experience brought be back to Italy many, many times. I felt very close to the country as a whole and very comfortable there. It felt liked I belonged there! To some degree it feels like a second home.

If you have an opportuinty to visit Italy, make time to see and connect to your roots. It is very rewarding. You will be welcomed with opened arms, not just by family members, if you are luck enough to locate some, but by the entire village, neighborhood, or city.

Those of you in the Dante Club and friends and family, who are planning a trip in the near future, take the time to gather whatever documentation you have and make time on the trip to check out your family's heritage.

I am including a few pictures of Sicily, in general, and my father's village.

Mt. Etna, near Catania

Santa Caterina Villarmosa

The Meditrranean Sea

My Father, Giuseppe Miccichè

Neighbors

Siracusa