A picture is worth.....38 Euros!

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Trip Start May 07, 2009 Previous
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  Cefalu, Sicily, Italy
Sunday, May 24, 2009

May 22
We were quite reluctant to leave the Santa Catarina Hotel - everything about it was impeccable.  The only other guests seemed to be a group of German tourists, but we always timed it so that we ate before or after them so it seemed like we had the place to ourselves in the mornings.  Breakfast has been included in all the places we've stayed at in Italy, but this one had a few 'extras' - cold milk (a rarity), a juicer beside a bowl of oranges so you could make your own fresh-squeezed orange juice, a steamer so you could make a soft-boiled egg, and mini-croissants filled with lemon.  We're always offered a cappuccino, café or tea, and are met with surprised looks when we say "No, grazie."  What, no coffee with breakfast?!  How could you?!
 
We checked out and headed north - destination, Messina.  Some intersections had long traffic lights, and invariably at those ones we'd see "squeegee boys"; or men selling packages of tissues, lighters, car sun screens and kids' toys, walking from car to car; or women just holding out a plastic cup hoping for a donation.  There doesn't seem to be much poverty here, but I guess you'll find people begging all over the world.
 
The other thing we've noticed and are disgusted by, is all the litter.  Most of the roads leading into and out of the autostrada (highway) would be considered alleys in Vancouver, as they're only wide enough for one car and there are no sidewalks.  They seem to be lined with garbage - empty drink containers, plastic bags, tissues, cigarette packages, and in one case we even saw a mattress and some discarded furniture.  A few days ago, when we were at the Valley of the Temples, a school group was walking by us and I saw a teacher blatantly crumple up her garbage and toss it into the trees.  A teacher!  The ones who are supposed to be setting an example for the younger generation!  Lead by example, girl!!
 
We've learned that southern Italy doesn't have a recycling program, and it just kills us to throw away water bottles and paper knowing that we could recycle it at home.
 
It took about an hour to get to Messina, and it was a pretty drive because the dividers between the lanes of the highway were filled with flowering bushes - azaleas, rhodos, and some other beautiful pink bush that I'm not familiar with.  Messina is a large city by Italian standards, and is the port city where you can take the ferry to the mainland.  If you picture Italy, there's the toe of the boot and then the island across from it is Sicily.  Sicily could be considered the soccer ball, I guess.  Anyway, the distance between the two isn't far but currently the only way you can get between the two is by ferry - it's the equivalent to us going to Vancouver Island from Vancouver.
 
The reason we went to Messina is because Jim wanted to see two fountains (yes, I was surprised too).  There was a King Neptune fountain and an Orion fountain, both of which he saw/read about in our Eyewitness Travel book on Sicily. We made our way to the waterfront, in the general area of where we figured the fountains would be, and started looking for a parking spot - which seemed like an impossible feat.  There were so many cars and scooters buzzing around and people were double-parked, parked across intersections, tucked into no-parking zones - it was madness.  We saw a car pulling out of a prime spot on a shady street and couldn't believe our luck, so grabbed it.  I thought "This is too good to be true!" (I could hear my mother's voice in the back of my head saying "If you think it's too good to be true, it probably is.") Jim was antsy to get going, so we set out on foot and managed to find the King Neptune fountain (after asking directions from a helpful woman in her store) about 6 blocks away.  It was quite large, made of marble, with cherubs and angels flanking it around the bottom.  I took the required pictures and we retraced our steps.  As we approached the car, I saw a sign that means "No parking, tow-away zone" and realized we had parked quite near it.  Sure enough, there was a ticket on our windshield - 38 Euros!  Jim said "Oh well, we already have a ticket, let's go look for the other fountain."  At that point I had my little hissy fit, saying it wasn't worth taking the risk of having the car towed with all our luggage in it, in a city where we don't know the language, blah blah blah.  Jim backed down pretty quickly, but only to appease me - I'm sure he was convinced that the car would be fine if we left it a bit longer.  As we pulled out of the parking spot, a woman started pulling in and two men in business suits shook their fingers at her, pointing to the sign and telling her not to park there.  Why hadn't a Good Samaritan done that for us, too?  We probably would have done better to just double-park somewhere, or leave the car on the sidewalk!
 
We found the second fountain just a couple of blocks from there.  This one wasn't working and looked a bit neglected.  Jim stayed with the car while I took the pictures (yup, more penises), and then we headed out of town.  I don't know what it is, but I'm not enjoying driving through the cities.  Give me the country roads, any day!  Even with that though, Jim will be driving along the highway at 120 kph and cars will fly by us like we're standing still.  Jim is doing a fine job getting us where we need to go, other than a few minor mistakes (like going the wrong way down a one way street, or going through a red light, but that just adds to the adventure).  Actually, nobody seems to pay attention to red lights and stop signs and we later learned that it's 'suggested' that you stop, but not 'mandatory'.  I wonder what the accident rate is like in this country? 
 
The drive from Messina to Cefalu, our destination, wasn't quite as nice.  The first half hour was nice, with about two miles of palm trees lining the road (instead of the flowering bushes), and after that we hit Tunnel Country.  We must have gone through 50 tunnels, some as long as 3-4 kilometers!  Tunnels are dark, dingy, horrible places to be, and it would be awful if the car broke down in one.  Fortunately, it didn't.  We drove on the autostrada, which is a toll highway, for the majority of the drive, and took the exit to Tindari as Jim had seen a picture of "Unusual natural scenery at the Laguna di Oliveri".  To see it, we had to park the car, take a shuttle bus up to the top of the teeny tiny town of Tindari, and walk.  We had been told that the sanctuary closes at 12:30 and it was 12:05, so we made that our first stop. 
 
The Madonna di Tindari Sanctuary is exquisite.  It is, quite honestly, the most beautiful, well kept, interesting Church (second to the Vatican) that I've ever seen.  The walls were lined with mosaics made with thousands of tiny squares of different coloured glass, there were lots of gorgeous leaded and stained glass windows, and the frescoes that adorned the ceiling were breathtaking.  We were completely in awe.  We saw the famous Byzantine Madonna Nera (Black Madonna),  held up by angels painted in gold.  Around every corner was a new "Ahhhh" moment - it's probably the longest that a Church has kept Jim captivated in his life!
 
From the terrace next to the Church, we were able to look far down below to see the Laguna.  It's hard to describe, but picture a huge, flat, sandy beach with "lakes" interspersed in the sand.  The guidebook says that this is "the place celebrated by the poet and Nobel Prize winner Quasimodo" (and here I thought Quasimodo was just a hunchback!). We could see a few people swimming in the mini-lakes, and they looked like little ants because we were so high up.
 
We had a Panini each and shared a gelato (I'll take the calories on this one) at a little café in the piazza, trying to stay in the shade as much as possible as it's 29 degrees out.  After lunch we wandered through the teeny tiny town of Tindari (I like how that rolls off the tongue) - there's a Roman Villa and a Greek Theatre that we could have paid admission to see but, after Pompeii and the Valley of the Temples, we both feel we've seen enough ruins on this trip.
 
We walked back to the shuttle bus stop, past the vendors selling nuts of all kinds (almonds and pistachios are grown in this region, and they're sold in their natural state, as candy, roasted, shelled or unshelled - lots of choices).  Jim didn't want to wait for the shuttle so he walked back to the car - I was convinced that I would beat him by taking the shuttle, but he managed to get to the car and drive up the hill to get me before the shuttle even got there!  While I was waiting, I chatted with a burro that was tied to a tree nearby, chomping on the grass.  I felt sorry for it, but it seemed happy enough.  It's owner was nowhere to be seen - I presume the burro was used to ferry people up and down the hill instead of taking the shuttle, but who knows?
 
We were back on the road by 1:30, and our next stop was in a little town called Santo Stefano di Camastra as our gas tank was on empty.  We drove through the little town, again set up on a hillside, looking for a gas station.  This town is one of the leading Sicilian centres for the production of ceramics, and the local craftsmen have their wares on display - vases, jugs, cornices and tiles. We pulled into one of the stores and asked a man for directions - I must say, even with the language barrier, we have had no problems communicating with the people here.  We followed the man's directions (he drew us a map), topped up the gas tank, and off we went.
 
We arrived in Cefalu (pronounced Chef-a-loo) at about 4:00, after driving about 200 km altogether, and checked into room #222 of the Hotel Tourist (now there's an original name, eh?).  To get to our room with our luggage, we had to ride an antiquated old elevator that barely fit the two of us.  We had to manually slide open the door, squeeze ourselves in, close the door, press the button for the second floor, and then we held our breath as the elevator lurched and groaned upwards.  We were a bit disappointed in our room at first, as we're paying the most for this hotel (130 Euros/night) and it seemed dark and dingy.  However, once we opened the drapes, and then the French doors, and then the shutters, we saw that we had a balcony which faced back towards Cefalu and we have a partial sea view from it.  
 
We were hot and sticky, so we immediately went to the pool for a swim.  This hotel is right across the street from the beach and there's a long strand/promenade extending from one end of town to the other.  We relaxed by the pool for a couple of hours, and at one point Jim disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a beer for him and a kahlua and milk for me!  This is the first kahlua & milk of the trip - it's been non-existent up 'til now.  He had to teach the bartender how to make it as he'd never heard of it before.  Brownie points for Jim!!
 
We got ready for dinner, and walked along the strand into town (about a mile).  The sun was setting so I kept turning around to take pictures - it was a solid orange ball surrounded by pastel pinks and blues, fading into the horizon.  What is it about a sunset that makes me so happy?  Sunsets and waterfalls and the first star at night...rainbows and kittens and birds that take flight....
 
Oh, speaking of which, while sitting in our lounge chairs by the pool, we were entertained by several starlings that had nests under the balconies.  They'd come swooping out of the sky, dive-bombing the pool, and at the last possible second they'd change their course, dip their wings, and zoom away.  We really enjoyed watching them.
 
Back to our walk into Cefalu....the beach extends all the way to the old town, which was built in the 5th century B.C.  The brochure on Cefalu says "Cefalu is a town bound up with myth.  The first inhabitants of Sicily lived here; Hercules came to build a temple to Jupiter; Daphne is still here, imprisoned in the rock into which she was transformed."  The strand along the beach ended and we entered an archway leading into the medieval part of town, lined with shops, restaurants, entrances to people's homes, rental car companies, banks, etc.  We walked to the end of the first street and saw Porta Pescara, described as "the only one of Cefalu's gates to have survived to our day with its late-medieval structure almost intact.  It's a Gothic arch overlooking the sea, and is the only one remaining of the four that originally pierced the city wall."  We also saw Pubblico lavatoio ditto medievale, which is the area where the local townspeople did their washing up until a few years ago, and it's now a medieval fountain.
 
Jim was getting grumpy by now, as he was hungry, so we had to make a decision - which restaurant would we choose?  There were so many, and all looked good.  We settled on Al Porticciolo simply because the menu looked a bit different from others - honestly, everybody seems to serve the same food here!  We were the only patrons for the first hour, and by the time we left only two others had come in.  The staff greeted us with a complimentary aperitif that tasted like grapefruit juice but boy, did it pack a punch!  Jim had breaded veal stuffed with cheese, pine nuts, ham and some other unidentifiable ingredient, along with steamed potatoes and mixed veggies.  I had tagliatelle (like fettuccini) with prawns and "baby tomatoes" with an orange sauce. It was sooooo good!  Jim and I shared a bottle of Marsala wine, but we couldn't get through it (sorry, dad) - I was feeling rather tipsy after the aperitif and 1˝ glasses of wine, and didn't think it would be fair for Jim to have to carry me the mile back to our hotel!  Our topic of conversation was How We Would Fix the World If We Could.  I think Jim enjoyed the intellectual style of conversation more than the usual 'fluff' that I like to talk about!
 
We sat next to a balcony that overlooked the rocks and the sea, and while we were waiting for our dinner to arrive we stood and looked outside.  Below us, we saw a mother cat and her 3 kittens playing on a pile of wood.  They were so cute!  Another adult cat appeared later, presumably the dad?  They appeared to live on the rocks down there, and later we threw some potatoes down to them.  The momma cat scampered over, carefully picked up a potato in her mouth, and took it back to her babies.  A few of the potatoes ended up going under rocks and were inaccessible, so the momma cat would look up at us as if to say "I can't get it, so please send another one...."
 
After dinner we took our time walking back to our hotel, arriving after 11:00.  My body felt like silly putty because of the wine, so I took my shoes off, brushed my teeth and crashed.  The last thing I remember is Jim cursing at the air conditioner because he couldn't get it to work.
 
May 23
It was another scorcher today - hot, sunny, not a cloud in the sky.  Even the ocean was perfectly calm as there wasn't even a breeze to mar the surface.  After breakfast, we walked back to the old town and wandered the streets for a couple of hours.  We saw the Cathedral and there were a lot of very dressed up people around, so I wondered if there was going to be a wedding there today.  We came back to our hotel about noon and cooled off, then went to a beach bar called Papagajo just down the street for lunch.  It was so casual, that the men sitting at the table next to us were topless.  I guess it's better that the men were, than the women.....
 
Jim had a hamburger panini and I hemmed and hawed, not sure what I wanted, before going with a Caprese salad (the one with the big slices of buffalo mozzarella cheese, sliced tomatoes and basil).  Oh, let me interject here - when I get home, I'm going to plant an herb garden.  I've never eaten basil fresh like this before, and it's so tasty!  Jim and I shared a crepe with nutella and bananas for dessert.
 
Because it was so hot out, we decided just to relax this afternoon.  I updated my journal while Jim watched TV, in order to stay out of the sun during the peak burning hours, and at 3:30 we walked across the street and went for a swim in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It was so refreshing!  Part of the beach was rocky, but the rocks were all perfectly flat skipping rocks.  However, there wasn't a speck of shade on the beach so we went back to the hotel pool and spent the next couple of hours relaxing on lounge chairs, taking a dip when we got hot, and I read for awhile.  I'm reading Barack Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope", and am finding his descriptions of historical political decisions unfamiliar, so when I come across a policy or reference that I'm not sure about, I ask Jim what it means.  He's a wealth of knowledge, that boy is!
 
We headed back to the old town at 8:00, catching the sunset on the way. The nightly stroll had begun and we saw lots of joggers run by.  We've actually seen people jogging at the hottest time of day, running down congested city streets, and thought "Are they nuts?!"
 
I just have to interject here, and say that Jim and I are growing to really dislike scooters.  They are so loud and grate on your nerves when you hear them all day, every day.  However, I must admit, people are pretty ingenuous with them - we saw one man carrying a carpet on his, across his lap, and another man carrying two propane tanks strapped behind him.  We also saw a young child - he couldn't have been older than 8 - being taught to drive a scooter while his father sat behind him and coached!
 
 We had chosen where we wanted to dine earlier in the day, a restaurant called Il Saraceno with a wooden jetty sticking out over the rocks with tables to sit at.  We struck up a conversation with a couple at the table next to us, and ended up staying there and chatting until 12:30 a.m.!  Paulo is from Lisbon, Portugal and is a career officer with the military, and Evana is from Belgrade, Bosnia and has her own company doing HR consulting work.  They've had a long distance relationship for 10 years, meeting up in various places to vacation together as their work schedules permit.  We really enjoyed our conversation with them and all of us were reluctant for the evening to end - so much so, that they invited us to meet them for drinks at their hotel in Palermo tomorrow night (which is where we're headed).
 
My meal was a Saraceno salad (lettuce, radicchio, little mozza balls, diced carrots, tomatoes and shrimp) and catch-of-the-day with lemon sauce, followed by tiramisu for dessert.  It was such a tiny piece of fish; it was gone in 4 bites!  Jim had lasagna and Sicilian cannole (is that how it's spelled?) for dessert.  The only veggies offered in Sicily are eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes. Fish choices range from sea bass to anchovies to octopus to prawns to "catch of the day".  Most of the pasta is spaghetti or tagliatelle, and the pizzas are pretty basic - although we did see a new combination - French fries on a pizza!
 
About an hour into our meal, a couple of security guys with radio head sets came down and checked out the area just beyond where we were sitting, where there was a private table for 8 at the end of the jetty.  Shortly afterwards, 6 people passed by us on their way to that table, and the security guards - six altogether - sat just behind us.  We presume the diners must have been pretty important people, as the chef brought their dinner to them personally, and the quantity and quality of the food brought to them - and the level of service - far exceeded what was bestowed on us!  In fact, it got to be a joke as Paulo, Evana, Jim and I were basically ignored once our meals arrived.  The "important people" finished their meal and left during the time we were still waiting for our bill, and as they passed we all got a good look at them and figured the woman wearing the white pant suit with a face full of badly done Botox must have been The Most Important One.  She looked at me as if expecting my eyes to light up in recognition and awe, but she must have been disappointed....
 
To top off the evening, the rock cats that kept us company last night were back, and this time they brought their friends.  There were 9 of them altogether (minus the kittens), and they perched on the rocks below the restaurant happily accepting food donations tossed down from the onlookers.  
 
We said goodbye to Evana and Paulo and walked the mile back to our hotel, and we were amazed at how many people were just hanging out on the strand - even families with young children, and it was after midnight! 
 
During the quiet moments of today, my thoughts kept going back to three of my friends who have experienced big tragedies while I've been away holidaying.  I previously mentioned my friend Linda, who lost her husband suddenly.  A few days ago I received an e-mail from another close friend whose father died unexpectedly on Monday, and I also heard from a long-time friend that she was laid off her job - one year short of retirement. These are huge, life-changing events, and impossible to prepare for.  I'm reminded of how fleeting our time on earth is, and how important it is to appreciate and enjoy each other while we can.  Live life with no regrets! 
 

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