January 19th 2026

Good morning friends,

    Well, it’s been a week since I’ve been by myself in Trapani and I’m holding up pretty well. There always comes that pang of loneliness… that feeling you get….like you’re only one tiny dot in the whole scheme. When there’s no one else to bounce ideas off, they tend to just roll around in your head and cause trouble. But I’m starting to socialize a bit. There certain stores that I go in to and I’m seen as a regular. I’ve just been accustoming myself to living an ex patriot life, or some facsimile thereof.

     My daughter Grace is coming to visit the first week of February and I’m very excited. Now February is the worst month to visit Trapani. It’s the rainy season and not only that, but they’re predicting tornadoes. I think she wanted to come because of my Facebook posts have been so exuberant about this place but, in fact, it’s just a crummy little town on the sea….that happens to a couple thousand years old. It has its issues just like any other city…. there’s garbage on the streets, there are crumbling buildings awaiting restoration everywhere you turn.. but there’s low crime and for the most part the populous seems to be very upbeat…. and of course, there is the sea… I think my daily visits to the seaside have helped to preserve my sanity during these troubling times.

    America is in a terrible divide at this moment. It’s worse than I’ve seen in my entire life and I’ve seen a lot. People are entrenched in their views and each sees the other side as the real "enemy". There’s no crossover….there’s no common ground. It is an absolutely horrible situation especially viewing it from the outside. The leaders of the nation seemed to be encouraging this division because it helps to solidify their base. That is one of the reasons I came here. I wanted to see what was happening in America, but not within inside, but from afar… I wanted to see how America was affecting the rest of the world and it’s not a pretty picture. I’ll just leave it there…

     So I spend my time not on the problems of America, but on the practical problems of being a disabled person living in a foreign country and getting around best I can. Saturday was an absolutely gorgeous day with temperatures in the high 60s and I toured the entire peninsula on my scooter. I stopped at a few stores and picked up some groceries in anticipation of some friends who planned to visit on Sunday. On Saturday night, I stayed in and made an eggplant Parmesan. Two former coworkers and friends of my daughter Kara from Rochester World School of Inquiry, have been spending a few months in Sicily. I was so excited to show Laura Drake and Michael Weisenreder around the western tip of the island. I was the tour guide for a change. I took them up and down the peninsula and showed them all the sites that I’ve been able to hold in my heart. We had some great conversation and had a nice eggplant Parmesan for lunch and promised to get together again in the not too distant future. It has helped me to think about what is important and what attracts me to this place….This is not Cancun. This is not Aruba. This is not vacation land….This is John’s last stand…..

With peace,

John Bernunzio 

A town of the sea with a mountain hovering over it

The Egadi Islands in the distance the home of the Odyssey.  I told Grace we would take a trip there

High atop Mt Erice…. A sparsely populated town atop a 2500 foot mountain that was home to the temple of Venus.

The sea is always changing and is ever constant. That is the great puzzle of life.

Of course, with all the complex thought that goes into living overseas, there’s always gelato to turn to when the anxiety level is high. My favorite has become black cherry almond which I can pronounce perfectly as.. croccante amarena!