Plan B in Sicily!

The Galli’s adventure continues! We took a chance and came to Sicily based on a loose commitment to help set up a new english school with some local experienced teachers. However, within a short time of being here we had doubts to some extent that it would take some time to take off and financially speaking also some time before we earnt a penny. Since we haven’t had a paying job for over a year, it gave rise to some obvious concerns.

The timing was uncanny, we were contacted by another school in Sicily that we’d communicated with earlier in the year, and they were now hiring. It seemed wrong not to explore that option. So last week we hired a car we drove across the Etna mountains and headed for Capo d’orlando, a resort town in the north of the island for an interview. Within 20 minutes of being interviewed we were offered jobs with a guarantee of a reasonable salary (for teaching) per hour and a certain amount of hours per month to suit, so we took the jobs.

Ironically, the interview was conducted largely in Italian, as the school owners preferred it that way, so I relied on Rene’s fluency to talk us up! It seemed to work, but I have never said so little in an interview and still get the job!
This well established school is part of the British Institutes Organisation, a leader in English language education throughout Europe and we are more than happy to be a part of that. http://www.britishinstitutes.it/capo-d-orlando

We sadly had to let down the new school partners in Giarre and after a few days of tummy ache and tears we caught a train from Giarre and headed for Capo d’orlando. They were very understanding and kind about it considering. We are now residing in a one bed apartment on the 2nd floor overlooking the sea temporarily until we can find something more permanent.

It’s a really quaint little town, centred around a beachfront with aqua marine seas and is one of Sicily’s premier tourist resorts. It has a great feel to it, plenty of lovely shops, cafe’s and restaurants and we even hear that there is a blues music bar which we have yet to track down.

So it’s been a bit up and down, we’ve upped sticks and started again, but hopefully it will be worth it! The school doesn’t re-open until mid October but we will start at the beginning of next month to get ahead on the syllabus and prepare teaching materials. That leaves us a good 3 weeks of exploring to do, and it’s still hot, like the middle of summer!

Out & About

Our favourite place to visit so far is Taormina which is a 20 minute train ride away from our home.

It's steeped in history and natural beauty and I think the pictures speak for themselves. We have so much more exploring to do yet though!

Etna's Smoking Above Us!

We knew that Etna wasn’t too far away from where we would be living, but we didn't expect to be able to see it from our home! Here's a view of it from our roof terrace on the left, and from the town on the right. The sun setting directly behind it accentuates its smoking beauty furthermore. I don’t have a decent enough lens to really capture it, but these pictures should give you an idea. It provides a stunning backdrop to our new coastal home town.

Our last few days out and about have included stops at the beach and harbour in Riposto, and the centre of Giarre. The beach is made out of fine shingle and the crystal clear blue waters provided a well needed cool down during the intense heat at present. What is it with Italian’s and Speedo’s and thongs though?

Centrally, in both Riposto and Giarre are beautiful Piazza’s with magnificent churches that we’ve yet to explore the interiors of. Piazza's, not pizza's, although we have had a couple of cracking pizza's too! There is a pizzeria every four buildings or so here it seems, and the aromas pervading the streets are hard to resist!

I just asked Rene for his contributions to the blog....his reply was as follows....

’The aubergines are ripe, the wine is cheap and plentiful and good, (even the bad one is good!), the bread is quite salty but it goes well with the mortadella’! To which I replied ‘No seriously Rene, aside from the food, what do you think of the place’? Rene replied ‘The town’s got good vibes and it looks like a good place to spend some time. Hopefully if the new school takes off, we might be here for a while’.

We both feel the same. Actually, the streets are a bit tatty, the town doesn’t have enough green spaces, parks or trees for my liking, but there is something that we like about the area that is not necessarily tangible. How often have you been to place that ticks all the boxes but yet, it just doesn’t feel right? The people that we have encountered so far all seem friendly, that’s always a good thing. If the locals are happy living here, then it can’t be so bad!

Tomorrow we will visit some premises and hopefully find a base for the new language school, and start putting our heads together with our new Sicilian partners in crime!

And So The Sicilian Experience Commences!

We are finally here in Sicily!

Back in the spring whilst still in Costa Rica, we landed jobs as English (TEFL) teachers in Sicily. It’s been a long wait fraught with anticipation of what our lives would be like living here and we finally arrived this week. We were so excited that we came here a month earlier than required to settle in and find our feet! It’s certainly expected to be a contrast to our life in the Costa Rican rainforest but one that will be rich with its own unique experiences no doubt.

Since we got offered the jobs, the two school owners that hired us decided to start a new venture and offered us the chance to set up a new language school with them. After some deliberation we decided to give it a go. So, we will be helping to run a new school and be the main English teachers to children and adults.

We are living in the town of Riposto which has a harbour and a beach and is on the edge of the historic City of Giarre. Volcano Etna is smoking just above us! You can see it from the roof terrace of our new home. The vista from the city is just amazing!

We arrived late on Monday evening and once we had had a quick look around our new home, we went out to explore. It didn’t take long to walk to the harbour where we were delighted to find a plethora of authentic Italian eateries. After a long trip we had no problem consuming a delicious pizza, washed down with some Sicilian wine!

The house is very old and narrow with a tiny front but goes on for miles inside! It belonged to the Mother of the school owner who has kindly allowed us to make it our home in Sicily. It's decorated and furnished in 1960's Italian style, has three bedrooms, the usual lounge, diner and kitchen, 2 bathrooms, a small courtyard and a roof terrace.

We will go out today and take some photos of the beach and the harbour etc. It's pretty hot right now – late 30’s I think, and yesterday we both had 3 showers, cold ones! The school owners have left us to our own devices for a few weeks, and since we won’t be working until mid September we plan to do lots of exploring over the coming weeks. How exciting!