That's the title of a song that I wrote with Janet and Serina to describe our new villa and location. I admit it is a bit of an exaggeration but I am spending Friday taking the dogs back to Scicli to get groomed, de-ticked, and to visit a vet. We have pulled over sixty off of Flame. I will spare you the photographs of splattered tick guts, blood, skin chunks rage and death. (I think all of the visits to historic sites of carnage had an impact I wasn't prepared to articulate prior to the ticks).
The great news...
Our friends came and we had a BLAST. The kids had a week of laughing fits and swimming. We went to two volcanoes: Mount Etna and Stromboli which is Europe's most active volcano. They were cool. We also stumbled upon an Italian circus which was just like the dozens of books and biographical accounts that I have read on the history of the circus circa 1920's. It began as a desperate "get away and explore" our new heinous surroundings . I think we were in Augusta. I photographed some barbed wire, some garbage, a naval yard and was basically sulking when we saw signs for a circus, and then the circus itself being set up. Recognizing a golden opportunity, Janet and I hopped the fence, dashed past the vicious frothing mastiffs, and started walking around (with complete faith in "ho no parlare Italiana" as the line that would prevent us from being arrested for trespassing). We found the tiger cage with six giant, one tonne tigers pacing, lounging and grunting. And then we met Luccio - the second generation tiger trainer and he spoke English! We talked with him for an hour, pet the tigers through the cage, and agreed to bring the family to the circus in two days. Luccio also agreed to let me photograph him and the tigers in action.
The most interesting aspect of the whole ordeal was when we took the kids to the tiger pen after the show and one of the tigers casually pointed its butt at the group, lifted its tail straight into the air, and proceeded to spray almost everyone. I was spared the sticky skank which is probably why I thought it was overall a fascinating experience. I can tell you, nobody else was using that word to describe what had just landed on them.
The great news...
Our friends came and we had a BLAST. The kids had a week of laughing fits and swimming. We went to two volcanoes: Mount Etna and Stromboli which is Europe's most active volcano. They were cool. We also stumbled upon an Italian circus which was just like the dozens of books and biographical accounts that I have read on the history of the circus circa 1920's. It began as a desperate "get away and explore" our new heinous surroundings . I think we were in Augusta. I photographed some barbed wire, some garbage, a naval yard and was basically sulking when we saw signs for a circus, and then the circus itself being set up. Recognizing a golden opportunity, Janet and I hopped the fence, dashed past the vicious frothing mastiffs, and started walking around (with complete faith in "ho no parlare Italiana" as the line that would prevent us from being arrested for trespassing). We found the tiger cage with six giant, one tonne tigers pacing, lounging and grunting. And then we met Luccio - the second generation tiger trainer and he spoke English! We talked with him for an hour, pet the tigers through the cage, and agreed to bring the family to the circus in two days. Luccio also agreed to let me photograph him and the tigers in action. 
The most interesting aspect of the whole ordeal was when we took the kids to the tiger pen after the show and one of the tigers casually pointed its butt at the group, lifted its tail straight into the air, and proceeded to spray almost everyone. I was spared the sticky skank which is probably why I thought it was overall a fascinating experience. I can tell you, nobody else was using that word to describe what had just landed on them.
