And there is a different way to crack the dawn that happens once a year on the 4th of February in the City of Catania. It deserves no comments and for once, only the italian lyrics of the song that carries this three day long mystic experience between our Beloved and Her citizens, while shouting till no voice is left: Cittadini, tutti devoti tutti? And we waive back “cettu, cettu”.
“Inneggiamo alla, martire invitta Rifulgente di luce divina Inneggiamo alla grande Eroina Presso l’ara cosparsa di fior Anelante di palpiti sacri Si diffonda la gioia nel cielo Ed all’ombra del mistico velo Sorga l’inno festoso dei cuor.
Rit. Tu che splendi in Paradiso
Coronata di vittoria
o Sant’Agata la gloria
Per noi prega di lassu’.
Esultante nei duri tormenti
Luminosa nel carcere oscuro
Ella affronta con animo puro
Le minacce d’un uomo crudel.
Non ascolta le vane lusinghe
Le promesse d’un sogno radioso
Vince il fuoco e del cielo armonioso
L’innamora l’eterno splendor. Rit.

Per i secoli vola il suo nome
E risuona pei monti e sul mare
Circonfuso di sole l’altare
Il Suo Corpo conserva fedel.
Sul leviam cittadini l’evviva
Al valor centenario, possente
Di colei che pregava morente
Il Signor della vita immortal. Rit.

There are several ways to experience the dawn. It can be a long nightout ending too late, an early shift at work, the time to catch an airplane for your next destinations… This is our personal experience of the dawn. Both the one we love the most and the hardest to swallow. Winter is made for this vision to come everymorning from the terrace of our premises. Stars leading the way to the new day. Moon turning shy and disappearing at the presence of Sun. And colours everywhere to appear again discovering the presence of the fishermen’s boats that will download their net over our barbeques in just few hours.
< And the the hard bit is when you anticipate the Sun to catch the return fly. Moving to the buzz of metropolitan life has the glamour without having the gentle touch of a sunlight sliding over the Sea to warm up your sleeping face with its kiss. Yet the Etna mountain, our Mongibello, as you have leanrt it by now, is there with its white hat and smoking pipe, to witness both our repeated farewell and arrivederci!

Winter is never dull and dark in Sicily. Even when the horizontal masterwheel of Primo Passo is sleeping, Nature shows her benevolent face to the people who can see. I post here for the first time a couple of pictures, unusually taken by some new friends of this venture. All the pictures in this website are accountable and shot directly. Those friends of us have captured the very unique moments of the striking signals of Mother Nature presence. The first is courtesy of Enrico, who captured Casa Primo Passo sorrounded by a fleet of migrating birds.
The second is the picture of a short eruption from our vulcano Etna last 12th Jan, a picture taken from our location in Capo Santa Croce. You will appreciate how close the lava strips seem to the lights of Catania, as if the city itself was in danger. It was not. The contrasting colours of city life, dark sea, white snow let us breathless. But do not be worry and enjoy this as you would enjoy the fireworks at New Year’s Eve. The Etna vulcano, the highest active vulcano in Europe (more than 3,000 meters), is called by natives ‘Mongibello’, which means ‘beautiful mountain’, a tender parental word of love from its inhabitants who have been receiving the benefits of highly fertile vulcanic soil for centuries and centuries.