I had the distinct privilege of being invited to visit the spectacular Rocco Forte resort, Verdura, in Sicily. Homeland to my maternal grandparents; my grandfather was from Palermo and serendipitously, my grandmother’s village, Sciacca, is 2 kilometers from Verdura Resort. Words cannot describe the feeling of walking down the street of my Grandmother’s village. Her name was Caterina Friscia; she married Salvatore Pipitone. I went to Mass in her Basilica, I watched the sunset over her harbor- fishing boats all tucked in for the night. I followed the path to her house. I walked in her footsteps. A deeply moving, very special experience- impossible to put into words.
I even found the statue of a distant relation, Saverio Friscia, in a beautiful palm filled piazza by the harbor