Sicily 2024, Italy

The babà is a baked dessert made of leavened dough with brewer's yeast, soaked in rum, of French origin and which has become typical of Neapolitan pastry making.

Babà is the derivation of a naturally leavened dessert originating from Poland (babka ponczowa) and other Slavic countries. Perfected by French chefs, it took the name of baba. He then saw his name transformed into "babbà" by Neapolitan pastry chefs.

The recipe for rum baba in the typical modern mushroom shape dates back to 1835. It is owed to a descendant of the famous pastry chef Nicolas Stohrer, who arrived in Paris with Maria Leszczyńska, daughter of the Polish sovereign, who had wanted to bring her favorite pastry chef with her on the occasion of her wedding to Louis XV, King of France.

Too sweet and too much taste of rum for me...En savoir plus

Luigi is the name I gave to the Peugeot 🚗 that I borrowed from Martinello during my stay here. Luigi is a bit decrepit, one eye 👁️‍🗨️ is crossed, he limps 🦶 a bit in the front right (drive shaft or universal joint) and it seems like the radiator circuit thermostat is broken, because he is always cold ❄️.

He therefore burns uncleanly and therefore smells 🦨 bad. Of course, this isn't exactly good for the lifespan of the engine either.

I help Luigi where I can, so a great idea emerged: Covering half the cooler with a piece of cardboard 📜 helps him get up to operating temperature 🌡️ and then he feels much more comfortable 😊. With the thermostat-cardboard-substitute 🤪, regular checks of air 💨, water 💧 and oil 🪔 and, above all, continuous monitoring of the temperature 🌡️, he drives really happily 😊 and reliably.

Or rather, drove. 😱

On Friday on the way to Agrigento the engine got too warm 🔥 and even taking out the cardboard didn't help. I had the feeling he was losing coolant 💧 and that's how it was. I filled up 3l 💧 for the next 10km.

Luckily, Diana found a repair 🛠️ shop as we drove past. We barely made it, the radiator was almost empty and the engine just below the red zone 🔴.

Ignazio, the mechanic, said it just needs to be bled 💨. I really tried to convince him that the circuit was leaking. He was a bit annoyed by the German know-it-all woman 🤓.

As life goes, the temperature 🌡️ didn't really go down. He was about to send us off again when Matteo, his son, intervened. I had worked on him too 🤣 that there must be a leak.

He blew 🌬️ into the radiator and there you go... a pressure drop. Hush hush up on the lift and looking 👀 where it's dripping. Aha, let's remove the air filter to have a better view. Then he connected the pressure tester and THERE was the leak.

Oh. Uh. Yes, a leak. Ignazio said that I'm definitely not good to go. Aha. See! He said that car 🚗 had to stay there. Aha hear hear 😂.

Ignazio was embarrassed 😳. The German know-it-all woman 🤓 was right. He gave us a very good bottle of prosecco 🤪 and drove us to the bus to Agrigento. He also agreed to let us pick up the car on Sunday 😳. A guilty conscience can be a good thing 😉.

On the way to the bus stop I tried to convince him on the thermostat 🌡️ thing. I had already tried that with Matteo - that the thermostat was also broken. You could have changed it in the same repair. But again no one believed the German know-it-all woman 🤓.

Whatever, I'll just stick with the cardboard 📜, as long as I can drive at all.

Today we picked up Luigi again. Since there are no buses on the route on Sundays and there is no train we needed another solution. Maybe hitchhiking? Spontaneously I had another idea 💥. I just "convinced" 🤪 two guys just under 30 on the street - you know me.

In short: Flo and Valentin drove us 27km to the workshop for gas money and were extremely sweet ❤️. Ignazio also came promptly and was again remarkably friendly, really a bit too attentive 😂.

Someone must have noticed when the motor was running that it wasn't getting up to operating temperature. Well, the thermostat was probably broken 🤣. Ignazio invited us to a coffee ☕ and handed me 3 liters of rosé wine 🍷.

Well, well, the guilty conscience 😂. The German know-it-all woman 🤓 was probably right again 🤣.

But that's no problem, I've already gotten used to my cardboard 📜 🤪.

In any case, once again a great adventure with a good outcome and getting to know Flo and Valentin, as well as the beginning of a wonderful German-Italian mechanic-friendship (I will definitely drop by Ignazio when I’m here in Sicily once more, there is wine, coffee and prosecco 🤣).
Life is truly wonderful! ❤️❤️❤️En savoir plus