{"id":6196,"date":"2016-07-05T21:46:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T19:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rickzullo.com\/?p=6196"},"modified":"2016-07-06T01:26:07","modified_gmt":"2016-07-05T23:26:07","slug":"urban-farm-in-sicily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rickzullo.com\/urban-farm-in-sicily\/","title":{"rendered":"An Urban Farm in Sicily"},"content":{"rendered":"
An urban farm in Sicily might sound like a bit of a contradiction to many foreigners. But the fact is, globalization is affecting food delivery systems in Italy, too. While locally sourced ingredients and \u201ccucina naturale<\/a><\/em>\u201d was something taken for granted up until very recently, in many regions it now requires some effort to ensure that your food is as close to \u201czero kilometer\u201d as possible.<\/p>\n This is a guest post by Jessica Burgio from Cartoline dalla Florida<\/em>. As\u00a0per her request, I\u2019m not linking to her blog, but rather to the website of a very worthy cause that deserves our respect and patronage (if you happen to find yourself in the area). Yes, it\u2019s a farm in Sicily, but it\u2019s the unique location that makes it so special. I\u2019ll let Jessica explain it better.<\/p>\n During my early childhood in Sicily<\/em>, my family lived in an apartment on the outskirts of Messina. It wasn\u2019t the best neighborhood, and my poor but snobbish mother would not allow me and my siblings to make friends with the other kids and play outside with them. \u201cOutside\u201d was the parking lot of the building complex, where the children seemed to have the greatest fun playing soccer, often using a rock for a ball.<\/p>\n From our balcony on the third floor, my sister and I watched them, and listened as they called\u00a0each other \u201cBergomi,\u201d \u201cBaresi,\u201d and \u201cZoff.\u201d \u00a0When the goalkeeper Zoff missed a rock (I mean a ball), it normally turned into an issue, because the goal would pass through the imaginary net, and all the way into a parked car. The car’s owner would yell at the kids, and then set the record straight with his parents over coffee and almond cookies (granted, one more scratch would not mean much to any of those cars).<\/p>\n On a recent trip back to Sicily, I took my daughter Demetra to my hometown, hoping to show her the good sides of it. Trust me; this is not an easy task. I have already talked about the 1908 Messina Earthquake<\/a> that still leaves its mark in a previous post, and I had explained why the town might not be in your top ten places to visit in the Boot.<\/p>\n Yet I wanted my daughter to have fun and make some good memories of the other half of her culture. I searched and searched, and I did not find very many kid-friendly amenities in this Italian version of Cleveland. Then something on the Internet caught my attention.<\/p>\n I found a\u00a0place called Villar\u00e9, an organic farm located half a mile away from the very same old building where I grew up. Their website promised so much that I thought it was too good to be true. Not only organic, locally grown produces, but also eggs, honey and homemade preserves, as well as a unique experience for grown-ups and kids along a countryside itinerary.<\/p>\n And last but not least, they offer the opportunity\u00a0to stay as a guest in either one of their remodeled rustic rooms, or in a glamping bubble in the very middle of the farmland. You read that right. Now, in case you are not familiar with the area, let me tell you that glamping bubbles are most probably unavailable in the whole country, but for sure no one else has used them before in Sicily.<\/p>\nMessina, Sicily<\/h2>\n
An Urban Farm in Sicily<\/h2>\n