Sicily
To celebrate Mic's 50th birthday, we decided to go to Sicily. In part I
admit, because we were suffering through a horrible heat wave and a hotel would
have AC. How funny that it's only about 60 miles from us, but we had never been
together. We would fly into Catania late at night, take a train to Palermo the
next morning, then rent a car. For some reason, it was much cheaper to do it
that way then to fly into Palermo or rent a car in Catania. I booked a hotel
room, but noticed too late that the office closed at 8 PM and we wouldn't
arrive till midnight. Of course it was nonrefundable. After several phone
calls and emails, she spoke no English and I spoke no Italian, I wasn't at all
sure we wouldn't be sleeping in the street. Luck was with us and the lady was
waiting up. It was a nice enough hotel, close to the train station and in an OK
neighborhood. The hotel was old, with creaky stairs, but clean and well
maintained. It seemed more like a house that had been converted to bed and
breakfast, although our room did have a private bathroom. As soon as we got
there, we heard about the Nice terror attack. Mic's dad lives in Nice and the
festival is something he likely would have been at, so we tried calling. It was
a worrisome 45 minutes before we got a hold of him. He had been somewhere else,
come home and gone to bed; he had no idea anything had happened. We were
relieved he and some other friends in Nice were all OK.
The next morning we went down for breakfast and realized, it was indeed a
house. We found the family sitting around the kitchen table, but they were all
smiles when they saw us. They put us in a dining room and brought a basket of
pastries. I use the term pastries liberally, they were actually stale Twinkies
and some kind of wrapped crackers. We finally got the request for hot chocolate
and tea across, but it was the worst hot chocolate I ever had. It was like they
put a bit of chocolate powder in some warm water and hoped for the best. The
whole breakfast was surprising because there was a nice bakery just around the
corner and Italy is full of the most wonderful pastries around. We tried to
look pleased because they were trying so hard to be hospitable. After an
appropriate time we tried to make our getaway, but we couldn’t find our way out
of the house. The lady who checked us in the night before found us wandering
the halls and showed us into the office, asking us to pay. We tried explaining
we had already paid, but she didn't understand. Finally she called her
daughter, who also spoke no English, and also asked us to pay. I finally was
able to pull up my bank statement and she understood we had paid, but she looked
really, really confused. What she didn't understand was Hotels.com would pay
her, but she obviously hadn't gotten the money yet. She was such a sweet lady
and had tried to make our stay pleasant, but there just wasn't much to work
with.
The train to Palermo was fun; we met an American couple and chatted as we
watched the countryside go by. We decided it looked a bit like the Smoky
mountains to begin with, then more like Wyoming as the mountains got bigger, but
the landscape got dryer, with less vegetation. We picked up our rental car at
the airport and continued on to Trapani, where we had rented an apartment. We
thought the coast road would be more picturesque for some reason, but it was
just a road. The apartment was nice and in a great location, in the heart of
town. Trapani was small, but there were a fair number of tourists since it was
a beach resort of sorts. The streets were very narrow and a maze to get
through. We basically stumbled upon the apartment as the streets weren't well
marked at all. We found an ally that didn't have a 'no parking' sign and hoped
for the best. We were a bit leery since all the 'real' parking spaces were
taken and there were 'no parking' signs everywhere. After a quick unpacking, we
went to check things out.
After wandering around a bit, we hit pay dirt, the
main pedestrian street, with endless restaurants. It was late and we were
starving. One thing we always disagree on is where to eat. While I don't
necessarily need to eat at the first place I see, I don't want to spend an hour
looking for 'just the right place'. This is always a source of contention with
us, because that's exactly what Mic wants to do. I know he's not alone, because
in both Madrid and Venice I was with other people and it was the same thing.
Madrid was especially crazy because there were 8 of us and we wouldn't start
looking till after 9 pm. Honestly by the time they find what they're looking
for, I'd be happy with McDonalds. I think it's especially aggravating in Italy
because in the end, you're going to get pizza or pasta. Why is the 50th
restaurant going to be any better then the first, there's only so much you can
do with pasta. And how do you know the first isn't the best in the city? For
Mic, it's more about the ambiance. Is it just crowded enough? No crowd must be
bad food, too many people and you can't get a table. No bright lights, he's
looking for soft lighting. I really do try to be patient. I completely
understand that life is about compromise. Some things are really important to
me and he sucks it up. This is my suck it up issue, but internally I don't have
to like it. So like every other time, we walked past every single restaurant on
the street. We found a smaller pedestrian street with more restaurants but none
of them were right so we started again. On our 3rd pass, he decided we should
eat at a steak place. No dice, the empty tables were reserved, did we want to
make a reservation? It was past 9, no way. So we made the circuit again and
came back to the steak place, which now had another empty table. Still no, "I
asked if you wanted a reservation!". I don't even remember what we ate in the
end.
On Saturday we took a drive around to see what we could see. Sadly, what
we saw was garbage, everywhere. I'm not sure if there was a strike or what, but
just outside the city and along the back roads, we saw mountains of garbage.
You could see where an entire street of houses had their own trash heap. We
were hoping that by getting off the highway we could find some quaint little sea
side towns, but we didn't. We saw more of an industrial area, then some random
houses alongside the road, then a collection of gas stations, warehouses,
McDonalds etc then open land again. We weren't on a coast road like we thought;
as far as we could see, there wasn't one. We finally came to a sizable town and
parked near what we thought was the city center to look for a nice cafe. What
we found were a lot of businesses and an odd fountain. It had a statue of a
naked girl trying to put whiskey barrels on a bucking mule. The mule took off
and she sat back and just drank the whiskey. The entire statue was a water
fountain, with the whiskey barrels shooting water out of a hole in the
side. OK, interesting, but where should we eat? After walking around a bit we
finally found a little sandwich shop, basically the only place we saw in the
entire town, and were soon back on the road. We headed back to Trapani because
there didn't look like much in this area really.
After a short nap, because we were exhausted from just sitting in the car,
we wandered around Trapani again. The city is a peninsula, jutting out into the
Tyrrhenian Sea. It's pretty small, but interesting to walk around as there are
narrow little allies, and shops everywhere. We headed toward the sea, thinking
we would find a nice promenade. We walked around the last row of buildings and
were almost knocked over by the wind, it was so strong! It was a nice relief
from the heat though. We decided to push on and see what we could see, which
was the sea and a nice view of the coastline. The sun was just beginning to set
and it was absolutely beautiful. We eventually came to the Bastione Conca,
which could have been the remnant of an old fort or watch tower. Looking back
at the town, I thought it looked a lot like Malta. The buildings were the same
style and you could see the domes of several churches. Most familiar were the
small, brightly colored fishing boats bobbing up and down. In Malta, they are
called a Luzzu. We stayed there admiring the beauty until the sun went down.
Time for dinner.
We really wanted steak and the place we tried the night before was still
fully booked so we found a nice looking place nearby. The service was
horrible! The the food was OK, but certainly not worth the hassle. We had to
ask for our drinks 5 times. We finally gave up on olive oil and got it
ourselves. They overcharged us for the dessert, which was supposed to be
included in the set price. All and all, not the best of days, but certainly not
the worst. We still had the AC to look forward to and it was delicious!
On Sunday we set out for the Valley of the Temples. This archaeological
park near the city of Agrigento, is comprised of 8 Greek Temples and the ruins
of many more. They were built around 510 and 430 BC and include the Temples of
Hera, Concordia, Heracles, Zeus, Castor and Pollux, Hephaestos, Demeter,
and Asclepius (the God of Medicine). According to the website http://www.thethinkingtraveller.com/
"Modern Agrigento used to be the Greek city of Akragas, a colony of settlers
mainly from Rhodes and Crete who, having initially settled in Gela, decided to
move west, partly in an attempt to stem the ambitious advances of Selinunte and
partly because the land in the area was ideal for cultivating olives, grapes and
cereal. The city, supposedly founded in 582 BC, soon became prosperous and, in
its glory days, was one of the most important and most culturally-advanced Greek
cities in the Mediterranean." But all good things must come to and end. In 406
BC Hannibal and the Carthaginians, along with allies, sacked Akragas and sent
the people back to Gela. Eventually they returned but of course had to pay
taxes to the conquerors. All was quiet until the First Punic War in 264 BC.
Akragas and the Carthaginians fell to the Romans, like so many others.
It did seem strange to have Greek temples in Italy, but in doing a bit of
research, there are actually several such sites scattered all over Sicily.
Initially we went because we didn't see much else to do in the area, but it
turned out to be quite interesting. We had to park pretty far from the
temples, basically downhill from the site. There was a taxi that would take you
to the top and you could walk down, but we thought the price was ridiculous. (I
don't remember now how much it was.) We started walking and immediately
wished we had brought more water. Which was odd, because we normally bring far
more than we drink. It was very hot and there was little shade, but we pushed
on. I admit every tree I saw, I stood under even if it meant going out of my
way for the tiniest bit of shade. At one point we were following a group of
people who looked like they knew where they were going. They headed down this
path to some kind of garden. We thought that's nice, lets go to a garden.
Until we noticed not only did you have to pay more, but it was down a steep
hill, that we would have to climb back up. And when I think garden, I think
lush, green, flowers, trees... I saw no evidence of that. Nope! Not climbing
another hill in this heat to see sparse vegetation. We pressed on to the
temples.
This park was huge and all around you could see rubble. Huge, uniform
boulders on one place, steps leading no where further down the trail. You could
see it was once quite well developed. Some of the temples are remarkable
intact, though through the centuries, the inhabitants had deconstructed others.
Most still had the columns but little else. They were actually quite beautiful,
exactly what you would expect to see if you were visiting Athens. We had walked
about half way through the park when we finally came to a place selling water.
We were absolutely scorched! It was hot and the sun was beating down on us and
what little water we had was long gone. We had noticed a little train was
ferrying people up and down the hill, but then you would miss seeing the
temples. We agreed we would tough it out and walk the entire way, then treat
ourselves to the train back. And herein was our problem. We had very little
cash on us. We needed €5 for parking and €12 for the train. We only had €20.
Not much left. We spent the remaining €3 on a bottle of water and tried not to
guzzle it. We did have a bit of a debate, spend the train money on water and
walk back? Not a chance! Totally unlike us to have neither cash or water and
you can bet it will be along time before we make that stupid mistake again! The
best temple was of course the farthest away. The Temple of Concordia was
amazingly well preserved. I was surprised at how massive it was, about 30 ft
high, 55 ft wide and 129 ft long. The carvings were quite detailed, especially
when you consider it was built in 440 BC.
After all that walking, we were more then ready for the train ride back.
We were ready to stage a revolt when they only took us half way through the park
and not all the way down to the parking lot. How stupid to pay €6 each for such
a short ride! We were pissed, but that was clearly the stop as described on the
sign. If only we had read it, instead of assuming for that amount of money they
would take you all the way down. Well, at least it was downhill....
On the way back we got off the highway and headed to the beach for some
cooling off. The beach was beautiful, with sand like a proper beach should
have! We found a parking lot and started making the circuit looking for a empty
space. We were about 4 rows in when a man approached us, we thought he was an
attendant. He motioned for us to wait for a car to back out, which we were
already doing. We realized he wasn't a legitimate attendant when all the other
cars just kept going. We debated what to do, if we didn't give him anything our
car was likely to be vandalized. In the end, he asked for €2 and we offered him
a €50 euro bill, assuming he wouldn't have change. He didn't and we said we
would pay him when we came back. He was gone when we returned. I hate being
shaken down like that, it happens in many of the car parks in Malta. Here
people report actually being harassed and in the case one man, even beaten up by
the attendant, even though the signs clearly state free parking in both English
and Maltese. How crazy is that! Anyway, we spent a lovely afternoon at the
beach. Although the water was too cold to swim, we enjoyed watching the
people. For example all the venders selling stuff. You have these people
walking all over the beach selling clothes, sun glasses, hats, purses, sneakers
and who knows what else. The one that I got the most entertainment out of were
the 2 guys selling jewelry. I notice two men carrying a long
table covered in necklaces and earrings. They dropped the table and went
back for a 2nd one. They were soon swarmed by women, old and young. They even
had a few men, but there had to be about 15 people gathered around their two
tables at all times. Eventually everyone who could see them had come and
bought, so they picked up the 1st table and continued on up the beach a bit and
the cycle started all over. There was an older lady next to me that seemed to
be in a buying mood. Everyone who walked past, she bought something. She
was looking at purses from one guy and another passed by. She waved him over
too. As the sun began to set, we packed up and headed home.
And so began the 'negotiating' on where to eat. I wanted to eat near the
beach as it was quite busy and there were a lot of restaurants. Mic wanted to
wait a bit and find someplace less touristy. To be fair, it was a bit early for
us, so I agreed and stated driving. And we passed no little towns that looked
inviting. It was a 2.5 hour drive home so we had some time, but the closer we
got to Trapani, the more I thought we should just eat there. Mic wanted to get
off the highway and head back toward the coast, so in the interest of compromise
I agreed. Just between you and me, I thought what a stupid idea! We drove and
drove and drove. Past the garbage heaps, past nothing and more nothing, some
towns that looked closed down, more garbage and more nothing. Eventually, we
came to a town and started looking for the city center. Just when we were about
to give up hope, we came to a busy street. When I say busy, I mean packed
- wall to wall people! We hit the jackpot, there was some kind of festival.
Luckily I found a parking spot and we waded in. We were carried along with the
crowd and eventually came to a row of outdoor cafes. We found an empty table
where we could enjoy some serious people watching and ordered some pizzas. They
were great, I have to admit, Mic gets a win on this one.
On Monday we began the trip home. Mic wanted to go into Palermo to a
record shop; big mistake! I've driven in Italy several times and I see the
driving in Malta. Nothing I've ever seen or done prepared me for the combat
driving we experienced in Palermo. While there were 2 distinct lanes, going in
opposite directions, you would never know that watching the cars. There were 2
or 3 cars fighting for one late, without regard to oncoming traffic. Stop
lights? Just pretty colors in the sky. What stop/yield/merge sign? One way
street? I'm only going one way. Turning from a side street onto the main one?
No need to look, they'll stop. We were at a stop sign trying to turn right,
looking left as one does, and as I pulled out, I came inches from creaming a car
that had gone up on the curb to get on the inside to turn before me. I had
enough of this, I parked in the next available spot, we'll walk from here! We
never found the record shop, but in walking around all I could say was YUK!
Maybe just the area we were in, but aside from the grafitti that is very
prevalent in Italy, the city just looked run down and neglected. And the
trash, OMG it looked like a dump. There was garbage everywhere! I've seen both
hurricane and tornado stricken towns with much less trash flung about.
We stumbled upon a cafe that looked clean enough and went inside. It was
actually a nice little place, you could see the owners took some pride in their
shop. The food was really good. I got a salad and as I was putting oil and
vinegar in it, I noticed a little extra protein in the bottle, in the form of a
bug. The two people behind the counter were mortified and couldn't apologize
enough. Such a refreshing change from Malta where they would have said something
like that's not a bug or the bug is supposed to be there, you're lucky we let
you eat here at all. They even knocked some off our bill.
We retrieved the car and made our way to the airport without
incident, but the drive there was still a white knuckled adventure. I hear
Naples is the same way. Good to know, no driving in Naples either. Once at the
airport the frustration mounted. First there was a 2 hour delay with no
explanation. The luggage belt broke and it took them forever to decided to get
a trolly and manually move the now mountain of luggage that you had to step
around. We noticed a big sign that said ask about the passenger bill of rights
if your flight is 2 hours delayed, so we did. The ticket agent had no idea what
we were talking about. I said "this sign on your counter, in fact on every
counter here". He said "what sign?" "You have to ask the gate agent". We found
a customer service desk and asked them. Same response, no idea what we were
talking about. I said "you have a big sign right above your head". She called
a supervisor, who was equally baffled. She also told us to ask the gate agent.
We walk away and pass a huge poster right next to the door she went thru to get
into her office. It clearly stated in big letters, PASSENGER BILL OF RIGHTS.
...if your flight is 2 hours delayed you get a food voucher. Of course when we
got thru security there are no gate agents around until they start boarding. We
never even wanted the voucher, it was just so stupid that no one knew about it
when there were signs everywhere saying to ask for it. To make matters even
worse, there was no WIFI or AC in the terminal.
Not our best trip, especially since it was Mic's birthday trip, but we
still had fun together, as always.
Link to pictures
Comments
Post a Comment