Travel Day 10/22/15

After a horrible night's sleep (our hotel in Sicily didn't believe in blankets and the bedspread was lighter than our sheet - plus a horrendous thunderstorm), we were on the road before 10 o'clock this morning. Our destination was the airport in Catania. Lou's cousin had called to advise him that there had been flooding in Catania and flights had been canceled. We checked our flight and that was still showing on time. Figuring there could be flooding on the roads, we decided to head straight for Catania. Ciao Milazzo.

There was probably one spot on the autostrada that had damage from last night's rain. Otherwise all the lane closures - and there were many - seemed to have been there quite a while. One section of the road had grass growing between the cracks. Tell me they're working on that road!

At about 11:15, we were about 30 minutes away from the airport. We're the type of people who like to get to the airport early. But for a 5 pm flight that was even way too early for us. We were right near Taoromina but that was too ambitious for a quick stop. We decided to stop playing n Giardini Naxos and stroll along the beach.

Perfect choice. The sun was out, there were shops to look in, and unlike the last time we were there, many of the ristorantes were open for lunch. We spent about two hours then and then continued on to Catania.

Turned in our car, checked in our bags (I was so worried about weight and we were fine) and had time for a pit stop and a drink before boarding. The check-in attendant told us we'd be boarding at 4:20. At 4:10 we left the bar and walked over towards the gate. There was a crazy long, long line already. We wondered if we'd missed out on some instructions!

Once on the plane, Lou started chatting to the flight attendant. I missed the beginning of their conversation but the part where my ears perked up was when Frank told Lou he was born in Brooklyn to Sicilian parents and in 1987 his parents decided to move back to Sicily. He said he misses salad bars in New Hersey, of all things.

The flight was uneventful as was our arrival in Milan. Our airport hotel sent a shuttle to pick us up. Then the same shuttle driver dropped us off at a local pizzeria for our final Italian dinner. Last night to sleep in a hotel. Tomorrow night I'll be sleeping in my own bed.

This blog is not complete. I still have to finish my post for my hiking day earlier in the month. I have photos to post for days (like today) when I had wonky Internet. And I feel the need to give overall impressions which I'll do by category.

Until then, buona notte.

Our last full day - 10/21/15

It's hard to believe that today was (almost) our last full day in Italy. Yes, we'll be here all day tomorrow too. But tomorrow we'll need to deal with returning our rental car, catching a flight to Milan, and staying at an airport hotel. Today was the last full day of vacation.

Our plans for today were pretty unambitious. We got nearly everything done that we wanted to, we enjoyed and we relaxed. We'd planned to visit two tourist spots, one family spot and to do some shopping.

The weather forecast called for higher chances of rain between 11 and 2. Yesterday the forecast was dead wrong so we weren't sure what to expect. We headed to our first tourist spot, the Castello, first. Again, my lack of knowledge of European history hindered me a bit when it came to understanding all that we were seeing. It was originally built in the 11th century and its last purpose before becoming a national monument and tourist site was as a prison in the 17th or 18th century. Even without knowing the who, what, when or why, we were awed by the construction, the layout and the vistas. When classical music was played over loudspeakers, I felt as though I was stepping back in time.

One of the coolest parts of our visit to the Castello was not directly related to the site at all. We walked into what was once a convent, took a right turn and ended up at an exhibit set up by a dedicated historian named Nino whose mission in life is to bring Sicilian history to life. Well, to those who understand Italian. Even without understanding, I learned a few things and was entertained.

It started raining as we were climbing back down to where we'd parked the car. Didn't get too wet at all. Next stop was Capo Milazzo. The drive up had us passing magnificent villas that I'm sure sported great views. It was until we had reached the top that I remembered being there with Lou on our first trip to Sicily. We climbed down to the ancient church of San Antonio of Padova. It's built right into the side of the mountain. Walked back up top, had a quick coffee and took the panoramic road back down to Milazzo, the road we were warned not to drive at night because it has no lights. There were some lovely villas on this road as well.

Our next destination was Pace del Mela and Giammoro where Lou's mother's family lived, where he spent the summer when he was 16 and where his grandparents are buried. We had an interesting drive around, stopped at the cemetery, and managed to go the wrong way on a senso unico for the first time this trip. Driving down, I saw a gorgeous rainbow below where we were up on the mountain. Had we not just made that horribly wrong turn, I might have asked Lou to stop for a photograph.

We thought we'd have lunch over there but nothing is open between 1 and 4 or 4:30. (Our first trip to Italy we only at lunch once, in Milazzo.) We decided that we'd head to Milazzo and find something open here. We passed something on the way called Parco Corolla that I thought looked like a shopping mall so we stopped there. We shared a sandwich at a snack bar before realizing we could have had something better inside the supermarket. It was more like a shopping center with an IperCoop (more of a supermarket than a Super Walmart might be), a McDonald's, the Italian equivalents of Home Depot, Best Buy, Macy's and Sports Authority. As always, we had fun in the supermarket.

Zucca and olives for sale!

We enjoyed some last day prickly pears.

Sicilian eggplant are just called eggplant here.

Lowes has a much better selection of seeds.

We were looking for t-shirts, hats and candy. Apparently, Sicily has no local sports teams. The only t-shirts with writing said Brooklyn, New York and Nets. As if we needed further confirmation that Brooklyn is hot!

Lou really wanted a Sicilia hat. I suggested we drive near the port in Milazzo to look for a souvenir store. We didn't find of of those, but we drove past a cart selling hats and there was exactly the hat Lou had been looking for.

After the nightmare of returning to our hotel late afternoon and needing to find a parking spot, we came up to our hotel room to pack. We may have traveled light in getting here but we acquired enough in a month that we're going home with an extra suitcase.

Evening stroll, dinner out (my third version of pasta ala Norma in 3 days. And since it was our final evening of real vacation, we stopped at a bar on the way back to the hotel for cannolis and drinks.

Lou is going to miss his Chino.

I cannot believe our trip is near its end.

Buona notte.

 

You can't go home again - 10/20/15

My mind is a jumble of mixed emotions. I need time to process what we've experienced and I need Lou to take time as well. And then I need him to share with me. We attempted to revisit his past and sometimes that just can't be done. New roads are built, street names change, construction takes place and time marches on. No matter how many times you've "driven" down a road on google maps, it's not the same as doing it in person. (Having a completely out of date TomTom became an issue as well.)

We left Milazzo this morning in the rain which didn't help matters. I had imagined so many of the photos I'd be taking. That didn't happen. First we drove to Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto. It would be inaccurate to say that it has been built up since we were last there 17 years ago. Rather it was more crowded and certainly less easy to navigate. Traffic was horrible and there was no way we'd have been able to park and walk around. Plus... it was raining.

Lou started rattling names of places for me to plug into the TomTom. Some I was able to find, many I could not. We drove down the road across from the house where Lou was born. I suggested we figure out how to get closer to the house.

We were across the road - and across the field.

It wasn't until we'd turn down a steep road, driven under a bridge on a dry river bed, and turned on to a dirt road that we discovered the house had been abandoned. Since there were morning glories growing on citrus trees in the field, more than likely the fields are abandoned as well.

I wondered about the house. How old was it? How many families had called it home over the years? When was it abandoned?

We started looking for a place (street? town? neighborhood?) called Maceo. We saw a sign and followed it. It led us to a road near the sea where we spotted Dominick, the Sicilian donkey, and a fairly nice-looking hotel seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Okay, yes, it was on the sea.

The young woman at the hotel was able to give us directions to Maceo but it didn't really look familiar. Nor did it look like what Lou has been studying on google maps. It was time to end our rainy explorations and head to Lou's cousins' house for lunch.

TomTom once again steered us wrong but we finally found the street - and the house number - but couldn't find the house. It took phoning Carmelo and asking him what the house looked like to be able to find it.

Carmelo and his wife, Lucia, made us a scrumptious lunch and we had a lovely visit. It had stopped raining after lunch so Carmelo brought us outdoors to see some of the things he grows.

Clever way to keep our shoes from getting muddy in the garden.

Lovely figs splitting on the trees and being eaten by birds.

Gorgeous avocados had me green with envy!

Some of the persimmons were ripe enough to eat.

Lou and Carmelo got to talking about having olive oil shipped to the US and the next thing I knew, we were following Carmelo to Barcellona to leave our car and hop in his to drive to see the brother of the husband of another one of their cousins. We learned that like a whole wheel of parmigiana reggiano, there is no easy affordable way to ship olive oil. I think Lou was disappointed (is frustrated the better word?) but I was fascinated observing the process of people from the community pulling up with bags and/or crates of olives to have Philip's brother (I never did catch his name) press into olive oil. What a busy place. The price he gets for pressing the olives is 10% of the resulting oil. This is a seasonal gig. The rest of the year he's a hair stylist.

Bins of olives with the receptacle for the oil on top

Part of the pressing process. Here the olives are cleaned.

We rode back to our car in Barcellona, but before Carmelo was to leave us, we were going to visit another cousin, Maria, at her gift shop. I guess at one point she had two shops because we walked to the one shop close to the car only to find a sign that said the shop was located somewhere else. We followed Carmelo through the town, got to the store and went in. Maria seemed very happy to see Lou. It wasn't until after we'd left that he told me she had him confused with his cousin Frank

Driving back to Milazzo, Lou asked why I wasn't yelling at him for some of the crazy driving moves he was making. Simple. My eyes were closed. I'm a horrible passenger in the best of circumstances and to me, these Sicilian drivers are insane. I don't need to see it.

Once in Milazzo, TomTom had us all over the place. Part of the problem seemed to be that some streets that were previously two-way are now one. But the biggest, hugest problem is that the big main road is closed in both ways due to repaving. We were stuck n such a traffic jam, and we weren't even sure where we were. Once we hit a familiar piazza and still couldn't find a spot, Lou once again backed into a one-way street to park. Interestingly enough, the trees planted by the curb were planting in the street rather than on the curb making parking much less efficient.

The crowds in Milazzo were crazy. You'd think it was a Saturday night in the height of summer. Since it was a Tuesday night in the middle of October, I wonder how crowded it might be at another time more associated with leisure.

We stopped into a jewelry store to see if we could find earrings for Caitlin. Off the bat, the owner starts trying to upswell us. Once we realized she had nothing that we wanted, we walked out. She was persistent, though, and followed us outside telling us she'd take the posts off one pair of earrings and put them on another. She just couldn't take no for an answer.

There are others who can't take no for an answer either. While at Maria's gift shop, a foreign-born guy walked in trying to sell us cigarette lighters. We said "No thanks." We said, "No." We told him we don't smoke. He just didn't want to leave. Similarly, there are foreign-born young men walking in and around bars and restaurants trying to sell roses. They don't seem to understand that no means no.

So ends another day. We'll see what the weather is like in the morning and then play things by ear. Buona notte.

 

Home sweet home - 10/19/15

I'm writing this at a little after 2:00 PM as Lou and the woman who let us in to the Hotel Medici are walking "around the block" to get some of our suitcases. At this point, we'll just get some. Before we leave to fly to Milan on Thursday we'll need everything so we can unpack and repack in a way that makes sense for flying. As I wait in this small hot room with a view of a roof and some walls, workmen are banging and drilling awfully close. That agriturismo I booked initially is sounding awfully good about now.

You might be wondering why our car is around the block. A case of you can't get there from here. The TomTom got us close. "You have reached your destination." But where were we? And where was Hotel Medici? The first person Luigi asked had no idea. The second person gave Lou directions which were wrong! Wrong in addition to all the streets around here being under construction. Yowsers. I suggested we park the car and look on foot. As we were trying to figure out where to park, I looked up and there was a street sign that read G. Medici, the street we were looking for! Still unsure of where to park, Lou backed into a senso unico (one way) and parked.

We walked back to the G. Medici street sign and followed it around to a barricaded pedestrian street. We followed the numbers from 7 until 81... where we found our hotel with a locked door. A woman who looked like the Italian version of a former friend of mine came and let us in. And here we are! I think we're well-located for walking around Milazzo, but beyond that I'm just not sure.

Our day started in a similar vein. "There's a historic old town center here. We should drive over before we leave Amantea." Pause. "And there's a world famous gelateria. At least that's what a reviewer on Trip Advisor said." I plugged Amantea (City Center) into the TomTom and off we went. Until the roads no longer resembled our directions. We saw signs but like this afternoon, it was simply impossible to "get there from here." I saw the old castle from the distance. I saw a sign about some bombardment during World War II. We had places to go and people to see. I'd seen enough of Amantea.

The drive to the ferry port in Villa San Giovanni was very straightforward. The drive from where we purchased our ferry ticket to the actual ferry was much more difficult. TomTom had us going in circles and of course there were no signs. We let logic guide us and it was only after we made the turn that made sense that we saw the sign directing us to the ferry. We drove onto the ferry and by the time we walked up to the saloon, the ferry was moving. We were in Sicily and unloaded so quickly. (During the unloading, I saw Italian drivers at their most polite, handling the alternate merge onto the ramp very nicely.)

Saloon on the ferry

Off the tourist track - 10/18/15

Today was about driving away from the Italy the tourists know and dipping my toes in the Mediterranean on a rocky beach in Amantea, Calabria.

The water felt cold at first. Then when d gotten used to it, I was sorry I hadn't worn a swimsuit.

As we drove away from Sorrento this morning, I said, "Wasn't it nice to not use the car for the past few days?" Much to my surprise, Lou said, "No! I prefer this to that." "The car to the sidewalk?" I responded in shock and disbelief. Lou said he feels more in control behind the wheel than walking in the sidewalk. I don't understand how that can be but to each his own.

Traffic was extremely light driving from Sorrento to Amantea. It was interesting to watch the terrain change the further south we drove. The temperature rose and fell depending upon our altitude.

Salerno

"Keep left!" said TomTom. Whew!

A little difficult to make out but we saw a few solar farms.

We saw more than a few wind farms.

Autostradas in the north are much, much nicer than those in the south. There are only snack bars as opposed to restaurants. And the bathrooms are not as well-equipped. No toilet paper. I believe we stopped three times, the final time for a reasonable imitation of lunch.

I was expecting something like Takis and got something like Cheetohs!

We got to our hotel, La Tonnara (which I've learned means fishing net) after first going to the wrong hotel called Grand Hotel La Tonnara. Which of the two hotels was totally unimaginative when coming up with a name?

Can you see the Grand Hotel La Tonnara in the background?

Minutes after we checked in, we were out on the beach. The rocky surface made for difficult walking but over an hour spent rock collecting. Which ones to take, which ones to leave behind. We watched the end of the sunset from our balcony while polishing off the last of our limoncello.

Time for a selfie.

Sunset and limoncello

Being totally lazy, we ate dinner at the hotel. There aren't a whole lot of foreigners that come here but we met a couple from England who wanted an inexpensive beach vacation and an American woman named Karen who taught English in Calabria for four years and is now back for a visit. She's written a book and a blog which I'll investigate at some point since she gave me her bookmark.

We're hoping to get to Milazzo early enough to spend time with Lou's cousins tomorrow. Better get ready for bed. Buona notte.

 

Gone in the blink of an eye - 10/17/15

Another long day, but on this type of trip, I wouldn't want it any other way. Today was the day we'd planned to visit Pompeii and to explore Sorrento a little bit more. The train ride to and from Sorrento was more grueling than expected and we spent longer at Pompeii than expected leaving less time and a whole lot less energy to explore Sorrento.

It was overcast and rainy when we woke up so after breakfast we decided it was a good time to check out more of our hotel. The architecture of the hotel is kind of confounding. There's no rhyme or reason to the numbering of the floors. I think it's just a bunch of interconnected buildings built into the side of the mountain.

The pool and the view from the pool

 

The solarium? I expected something classier.

A spot of autumn seen from the solarium

This was a tunnel connecting floor 5 where the reception hall is (as opposed to floor 5 where our room is - to the 6th floor where the pool is.

By the time we got back to the lobby, the rain was gone. We'd never walked as far as the train station, not that it was far.

Remember the Giada show I'd watched that sent us to Capri? On that show, Giada had an old fellow in Anacapri make her a pair of sandals. (I took his photo but haven't downloaded it yet.) I've been looking at sandals since. There are this sandal makers everywhere. I've had a top price in mind and until this morning, I hadn't found a pair I liked in a price range I'd consider. Walking to the train this morning, I found the pair. Lou encouraged me to get them right on the spot... so I did!

Lou and the shoemaker talked while the sandals were being made. It was a common conversation. He told Lou how hard it is to scrape together a living here. The tax rate is about 50%, with no deductions, paid twice a year.

Beside encouraging me to buy the sandals, Lou offered to carry the sandals for me all day. What a guy! Remember, we were going to Pompeii.

We bought our train tickets and waited for the train in the midst of a very large crowd of mostly teenagers. The train had a malfunctioning signal to indicate what the next stop was. We needed to be extra vigilant in following where we were in order to know when to get off.

I was all tour guided out so I downloaded the Rick Steves app which included an audio walking tour of Pompeii and map to follow. (If you ever go to Pompeii, request the free map from the ticket counter. We learned this after the fact. After we were already in the site. After we'd already spent €2 on a map we purchased in the book shop.)

Pompeii is huge. Rick Steves told us his walking tour would take about 3 hours. That was what we'd planned for. We were going fine at first. But Rick Steves' previously recorded audio tour had no idea what would be under renovation and Rick Steves doesn't know me! I don't do well on uneven surfaces.

Look at these roads! And this one was in good shape despite the grooves from the chariot wheels.

Our first disappointment was the plaster casts of victims being out for renovation. Really?

Time to move on to the next spot. I think our favorite two spots were the bath and the fast food place across the road.

Part of the baths' locker room

 

Time for a quick bite?

We were a little more than halfway through the walking tour when an exit was closed, then a road was blocked, then another road. We were sort of lost. Just sort of us Lou could locate us on our purchased map but we couldn't figure out "how to get there from here." Good old Rick Steves said it was a 15 minute walk from where we were to the amphitheater. Okay... so the way I walk we were more than half hour away and then nearly an hour back to the exit. I'm hoping it's true that if you've seen several well-preserved amphitheaters you've seen them all. We headed for the exit. By the time we left, we'd been there over 4 hours and had walked nearly 13,000 steps, many of them with great difficulty for me.

Five years ago, in Cinque Terra, we got fined for not validating our ticket before getting on the train. I wasn't going to make that mistake again.

 

 

Back in Sorrento, we had a quick snack and then did some shopping. Lou wanted a Neapolitan coffee maker. We walked to a store where we'd seen several earlier in the week.

After last night's lackluster dinner, I suggested we go back to the place we'd eaten the first night. It opened early and I wanted to try their burrata. Good choice.

On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped to buy an extra suitcase for all our purchases that we've been carrying around loose in the trunk of our car. We'll have to get that stuff home somehow.

It's only 10pm and Lou has been sleeping for more than half hour. I'm not ready for sleep but it will feel good to get my feet up. Today's 17,000 plus steps were the most difficult of the trip. Even more difficult than the 21,409 I walked on the day of my Val d'Orcia hike!

When you next year from me, we'll be in a beach resort city that foreigners rarely travel to and that most Italians have never heard of. Buona notte.