I took Italian in high school. My parents and grandparents spoke Sicilian, but I didn't learn it until the 1970's when I spent 3 weeks in Sicily with my family. When nobody around you speaks a word of English, you learn their language VERY quickly. I also spent a month there in 1979, which helped. However, as my mother and I don't use it all that often (my kids think we're talking about them!) anymore, I've started to lose it. When I visit, it starts to come back, but I haven't been able to afford that in five years.

St. Lucy is very big in Sicily, because she was from Siracusa. My mother said her family would NEVER eat wheat on her feast day (December 13th I think?). She was either martyred or raped in a wheatfield, and had her eyes put out as part of her torture, but God restored her sight. That's why she's the patron saint of eyes.