Sicilian Highs and Lows

Marzipan in a window in Cefalu

The beach at Cefalu


Miyuki enjoying the sun.

Beach umbrellas

We had decided to spend three nights in Polizzi Generosa and then make day trips out of the mountains. The first day we headed off to Cefalu which is a seaside town on the north coast of the island, midway between Palermo (the capital) and Messina. It was 15 kilometres of winding mountain roads that forced one emergency pullover and more than one dose of gravol for Miyuki before we hit the autostrada. From there on it was very fast but straight driving until we reached Cefalu. Cefalu is a tourist magnet. The streets were packed with cars and pedestrians. We turned towards the sea and onto a road that ran parallel with the beach. And what a beach! The water was the perfect azure that is always associated with the Mediterranean. The beach is in a bay that is framed by cliffs on either side. The sand is pale and clean and soft. We parked the car and sat at a cafe, ate lunch and enjoyed the absolutely stunning view. After we made our way down between the rows of blue & white and canary beach umbrellas to put our feet in the water. It was flat-calm and bath water warm. Nick stripped off his shorts and swam in his boxers, Miyuki lay on a rock and sunbathed and I rolled up my pant legs and waded into the water. It was wonderful. After, we walked up through the town to the duomo (cathedral). The people of Cefalu are very proud of their duomo as it dates back to the 12th century. Over the alter was a very beautiful 12th century portrait of Christ, however, other than this one piece of artwork and the age, it wasn`t really that impressive. In fact, the main church in Capizzi was far more beautiful. As we walked back to the car, we window shopped - Cefalu is a good place to do that. Clothing, shoes, bags, souvenirs, ceramics, food, and all kinds of other things for shoppers to look at. After a little bit of souvenir shopping, we got to the car and drove back to Polizzi Generosa.

The next morning we got in the car and drove the other direction to Palermo. We had read that there was a tourist office near the train station so we set the GPS for there. Once we were in Palermo and had found a place to park we got out of the car and were hit with a wall of heat and the smell of fish and rotten garbage. This was the hottest day so far; a full 40 degrees. We walked past big full bins of garbage and an outdoor fish stand - thus the smell - and around the corner to the train station. We spent a good 45 minutes trying to find the tourist office which we never found. We stopped at a tiny office that provided phone, internet, fax and photocopy services and checked our email and couchsurfing contacts. The men running the shop were more than a bit dodgy and we were all glad to get out of there. We walked back in the direction of the car, past the smelly fish stand and the garbage and decided that Palermo was not a place we wanted to stay in and that we would visit some other town. As we drove out of the city we saw nothing to change our minds - just a big, ugly, dirty, hot city. We drove, instead, to Termini Imerese which is a smaller city just east of Palermo. It was still hot but a much prettier and friendlier town. We had lunch and then walked to a park where we watched an older gentleman feeding the pidgeons as we sat in the shade of big palm trees. We thought we would do a little sightseeing or shopping but we had forgotten that all shops and businesses shut from 1-4pm. At this point it was 1:30 so instead of wandering the streets doing nothing we decided to get back into our air conditioned car and drive back to Polizzi Generosa.

It was slightly cooler up in the mountains and as the afternoon turned into evening we walked to the piazza to have dinner at a bar. Because it was so hot, the bar owner set up a table for us in the alley beside the bar - the only spot with shade. About halfway through our meal, a very irate man drove up - we were sitting in his driveway. I guess that this was an ongoing problem between him and the bar owner. We stood up and carried our table to the side of the alley as the driver and the bar owner yelled at each other. Then, the woman working in the pharmacy next door came out and started giving all the young people who had also been sitting in the alleyway drinking their beers, etc., hell as well. At this point we decided that we should give up on the rest of the day and watch tv in the air conditioned comfort of our hotel room.

Climb Every Mountain

Polizzi Generosa

Outside and inside the cave houses of Sperlinga.

Climb Every Mountain
When we left Piazza Armerina we headed deeper and higher into the mountains. Last year I read a book about Sicilian mountain villages called The Stone Boudoir. From that book I had heard about two villages that interested me in particular: Sperlinga and Polizzi Generosa. Sperlinga is a tiny village of about 700 people. Evidence establishes the town well before 1300 BC as it was occupied from at least that date. It has a medieval castle perched at the top of its mountain. That alone doesn't make Sperlinga special. What does make it special is the network of caves and tunnels that have been dug out of the sandstone there. And until about a decade ago, all the caves were inhabited. Today, all but two are empty.
We pulled into the village and stopped for lunch at a small bar overlooking the mountains and the valley below. Like so many places we have seen, the view was stunning. In the bar they had a collection of post cards from all over Europe. We had a few post cards of Duncan with us so I gave one to the owner of the shop. He was very happy to get it, put it up with the others and gave us two post cards of Sperlinga, including one of the cave houses. We asked him where we could find the houses and he conscripted a teenage boy named Salvatore to take us on a tour of the houses. We followed him through the town and up a steep hill. At first we could see the cave houses from a distance but then we followed him along a narrow stone path that hung on the edge of a cliff. We saw a number of houses that were padlocked. When we asked why they were no longer inhabited, he said that people had died or moved away and no one had moved into them even though they were still owned by the families. We continued on down and found some that were open and had been left with furniture – beds, stone pizza ovens with chimneys through the sandstone roofs, chairs, religious pictures. Some had weaving looms and one had even been a schoolroom at one time. It was wonderful to have the chance to see inside these homes, even if they are no longer inhabited.
We drove on to Polizzi Generosa. The road to Polizzi Generosa is hard for us from Canada to picture. Picture (if you have driven it) the Hope-Princeton Highway. Decrease the width of the road by a third. Add a hairpin turn every 200 metres or so for more than 10 miles and then picture being tailgated and passed on the hairpin turns. That was the drive to Polizzi Generosa. Fortunately the people here are extremely friendly and as we walk down the streets people greet us with a buon giorno or buona sera. It is also a lovely, picturesque town with the requisite stunning views. The roads here, however are narrow and cobbled and steep. We didn't have a couch booked for three nights so we found a pensione that is owned by a very young guy. He is a real go getter. At 22 he works full time in an engineers' office and runs this pensione in his 'spare' time. It is a very nice little pensione with 4 rooms and we were glad to find it.

Piazza Armerina - The Cultural Mosaic of Sicily

These are the stacks in the library in Piazza where they keep the oldest books.
The ceilings were works of art.

The entrance way into the library courtyard.

One of the piazza's in Piazza Armerina.

This indicated that this building was constructed in 1666. Not a church or museum or anything like that - just a building of row houses.

Piazza Armerina – The Cultural Mosaic Of Sicily
After bidding Nello goodbye, we made our way to Piazza Armerina. We had arranged 2 nights with a couch-surfer by the name of Merrilyn who is from Sydney, Australia. Piazza (as it was known until the end of the 19th century) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are mosaics there dating back to the Greek period. The influence of the various conquerors is evident in various parts of the city. In Monte Quartiere (the Monte district) the roads are built in a fish-bone pattern which is typical of the Normans. There is also a church there dating back to the late 1100s. The wrought iron work on the balconies is definitely Arab, and as I said, the mosaics are Greek. Piazza also has an interesting recent history. The Duomo, or cathedral took 200 years to complete. When the diocese had run out of funding, the Barone Tricone and his consort Lady Laura Assente raised enough money to finish it early in the 20th century. Much more recently, in the 1960s and 1970s, Piazza became a centre for hippie communes, attracting mainly young Scandinavian women and young Sicilian men. The influence of these communes can be seen still today as there is a relatively large foreign community, an open an welcome attitude to foreigners and one commune still operating.
We found Merrilyn's two-floor apartment halfway down a very steep and very narrow cobblestone street. Merrilyn is a very interesting woman. She has been living in Piazza for three years and moved there after have spent several years WOOFing (I forget exactly what WOOF stands for but basically it means working on a farm for your room and board). She knew that she wanted to live somewhere in Italy and she settled on Piazza because:
it was cheaper in Sicily than other parts of Italy,
it was a large enough town to have all the services she wanted,
people there are very friendly including to foreigners, and
there is a foreign community.
Merrilyn has opened up a small book store in the back of her friend, Ula's shop. The store is for books that are not in Italian, but in all kinds of other languages. She doesn't actually sell her books, people can trade their old books for new ones, as long as they leave a donation that goes to an organization that makes micro-loans to help people in Africa start small businesses. She also runs a free-of-charge English group for adults wanting to learn to speak English. Many people in Sicily are either unemployed or under-employed so there is a lot of hidden poverty here. There is an expression in Italian – la bella figura – which means something like to make a good impression, but it is much more really. It is tied into the pride of the Italians. They would rarely allow themselves to be seen in unstylish clothing, yet they would be willing to dig through second-hand shops so that they can find clothes that fit their standards, even if they pay rock bottom prices. The price is not important – the image is. So, Merrilyn is providing a real service. In a town that has so many tourists, being able to speak English is a marketable skill, and Merrilyn is letting people who could never afford English lessons have the opportunity to acquire this skill. Oh, and did I mention that she is 60?
Merrilyn gave us lots of information about living in Sicily, buying a house, cultural gaffes, etc.. She also, very kindly allowed us to use her washing machine and gave us a whole floor of her apartment. One night her friend, Mustafa came over to visit and cooked some amazing Moroccan food and we sat on cushions on the floor of the top floor balcony. Up the hill from Merrilyn's place we could see the duomo light up as the sun went down and we could hear the church bells ring the time.
In our wanders around Piazza, we discovered a couple of wonderful cafes – Cafe Mirus has the best gelato in Piazza and is run by two brothers. One, by the name of Ferdinando, speaks English and is extremely friendly. We also met the owner of the Cafe des Amis. He has been running his cafe for years – I would guess he is in his 60s – and he makes the best arancini around. Arancini is a rice ball about the size of a racquetball and is filled with either meat and peas, or spinach or ham and cheese. Then it is breaded and fried. It is a truly Sicilian dish and is extremely delicious especially when you get them right out of the pan. The owner was also very friendly and allowed us to go into his kitchen and see how the arancini were made. We told him that we had heard his arancini were the best which made him very happy and he gave us some mini cannoli to try. Again, very delicious.
Also in our wanders we found what was for me the highlight of our finds. We walked past the Jesuit College which had been turned into the municipal library. Merrilyn had suggested we go in. We walked into a beautiful courtyard. As we made our way around we came to a door. We peered in the door and were beckoned in by on of the librarians. We walked into a stunning room lined with ancient books. He ushered us into another room that was full of paintings that I can only guess were 300ish years old. Besides books, there were cases of archived pottery that I can't even guess the age of. We poked around for a little while and then we went to speak to the three librarians working in the first room. We told them that I was a librarian from Canada. They pointed out some of their oldest books that were over 500 years old. For me, it was an honour to see a library that that and such old books so well taken care of.
We stayed an extra day in Piazza but finally we had to leave. I think we were all sad that we were leaving. I am sure that Nick and I will be back there and it is definitely on our list of possible places in which to retire.

From The Shores Of Acireale To The Peaks Of Etna

Before I continue to describe our adventures, I must say a couple of things about our GPS. On the way to Capizzi, Jackie managed to turn on the voice to the GPS and set it for "Canadian male". It started out just fine but then the voice began to get odd. Sometimes it would say things like "Turn right-left." so unless you were actually looking at the GPS you wouldn't know which way to turn. And then it began to insult me. It would say things like "Oh my god, you've screwed up, you've made a mistake. Turn the car around." One time it actually called me the "dork behind the wheel." And no matter what we tried, we couldn't turn the voice off. So instead we have turned the volume all the way down. I half expected it to say "What are you doing Hal?"

Anyhow...the day after we visited Capizzi we continued on our way east along the northern coast of Sicily. We were headed eventually to Acireale which lies somewhere between Taormina and Catania. Unfortunately, when Nick plotted out our route on the GPS, he chose no toll roads which took us through mountain passes and fields but fortunately also took us through spectacular mountain villages. This country is full of surprises - at one moment you might be looking at a filthy field full of goats and all their droppings but you go around a corner and suddenly you are confronted with a spectacular castle hanging off the rocks on the side of a mountain! We crossed down to the eastern coastline until we drove into Taormina. Taormina is a beautiful coastal city that is well known as a tourist area and has been for generations. Numerous famous people have made their way to Taormina and its spectacular beaches and quaint building and Greek ruins including Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor and Tennessee Williams. Unfortunately, the things that brought the rich and famous to Taormina also bring scads of other tourists and we drove through the city looking in vain for a parking space. Finally we gave up and drove to Acireale where we would find our next couch.

We found our next host in his parents' summer home, one block from the sea. It is a lovely house surrounded by a jungle-like garden complete with banana trees! Once again the fruit was amazing and delicious and Nello, our host was an intelligent young man with a great sense of humour and a desire to be a terrific host. Our first night he took us into Catania where we visited a museum about Sicily during WWII. Because my uncle Rex had been part of the Canadian forces that had landed in Sicily and had won the Military Medal for bravery here, I was very interested. But the whole thing was done so well that even Nick, who usually hates anything to do with war, enjoyed it. Afterwards, we met up with Nello's girlfriend, Delia, and went to a Jazz concert in which her brother was playing trumpet. It was outdoors and the ambience was perfect and the music was great. Later, we went to a cafe and had something to eat. It was about 1am and the streets were humming - people everywhere. By the time we went to bed it was 2 am.

The next day we went up Mount Etna. Etna is the highest and largest volcano in Europe. As you drive up you can see the results of the last two eruptions in 2006 and 2000. The landscape looks more like a moonscape. Once we reached the restpoint we had some delicious but very overpriced lunch and bought our fair share of souvenirs. Then we took a gondola up the volcano almost to the top. The views were spectacular and you could see the steam rising out of Etna. It was very impressive.

When we got back to Nello's home he packed up his textbooks (he is studying to be a civil engineer) and he took us to another concert - this one was more pop and rock. We enjoyed this one just as much and after we went to another bar/cafe but this time in Acireale and again got home about 2am. It was very enjoyable spending time with Nello and seeing this other side of Sicilian life - that of a university student. We also had the good fortune to meet his dad the next morning and he took us out in his garden and cut a bunch of bananas off the tree for us to take with us. Again, a wonderful experience

There Is No Place Like Home, There Is No Place Like Home

After we left Marilena and her mother in Delia we took the road that goes to Mistreta where Nick's cousin, Gina lives. Gina is a high school teacher of Latin and ancient Greek. Her husband, Silvestro, is a retired lawyer, and they have two children: Nino is 20 and a law student and Maria is 17 and is still in high school. Mistreta is a beautiful small town - clean, well kept and friendly. Gina and Silvestro's house looks nice from the outside but inside! Well, stunning is the only word I can think of. The house has been in Silvestro's family for a number of generations so it is very old but it has the best of Italian homes. Beautiful patterned tiles on the floor, lovely wood work, high ceilings with antique chandeliers. Actually the house is full of antiques of all sorts - Gina says she lives in a museum! The one thing that impressed me the most was a book that Nino showed me that had been published in 1668. For such an old book it was in amazing shape. One of the nicest treats however was seeing Jackie, Nick's cousin from Ottawa. By pure coincidence, she had booked a holiday to Italy at the same time as us.

We left Mistreta that afternoon and drove to Santo Stefano, where Gina and Silvestro have a lovely villa right on the water. We spent the afternoon swimming in the sea. It was warm and private and we had a wonderful time. Miyuki and Maria swam together and seemed to really hit it off.

The next day we left Miyuki with Maria in Santo Stefano and Nick and Jackie and I drove to Capizzi. Capizzi is a small mountain village of about 3500 people and it is the town where the Cacciatos originate from. Both of Nick's parents were born there as well as Jackie and Jackie had not been back since she left when she was 18. The road to Capizzi was an hour of one hairpin turn after another. When we reached Capizzi we drove through the town until we found a place to park. We stopped a passerby and asked him where the city hall was. Gina's sister, Mimma, works there as the city clerk. The passerby looked at us and said (in the Capizzi dialect) 'Oh, you are the city clerk's cousin! She is waiting for you..' The word had spread that Nick and Jackie were returning to Capizzi. We were ushered into City Hall where we met Mimma and Antonietta, another cousin who Jackie and Nick had never heard of. We were introduced to the mayor and then we were swept off to an amazing lunch of antipasto, baked ricotta, veal, horse steak, pasta, and on and on. Then we were taken on a tour of the town. Everywhere we went we met relatives and people who remembered Jackie and Nick's parents. We were invited into people's homes and shops, and were stopped every block or so by someone else who had heard we were in town. We met Carmela who is Mimma's aunt (not sure what that makes her to Nick) and she is a true Sicilian grande dame - a lady in every sense of the word. She was very kind to us, but it was clear she is a woman who is used to being listened to. One of the true treats that day was a visit to the main church. For such a small town, the church was beautiful and imposing. At the front there was a silver hand on a long stick. This silver hand apparently contained the actual finger of St. Giacomo (St. James) and they were about to carry the hand from church to church throughout the town. Jackie (who was named after this saint - Giacomina) said to us that Capizzi is a town caught in time. People still speak the same dialect as they have for decades, the festivals have not changed, and the attitudes and the thinking of people is still the same. Everyone knows everyone's business almost before they do. Personally, I loved the town, but I can see for someone as private as Jackie, it could be overwhelming. Finally, as the sun was going down, we left Capizzi. I think we all were grateful that we had been there, for different reasons. I think that Jackie had put some ghosts to bed, Nick had been able to see family and visit once again where his parents had come from, and I had been able to see small town Sicilian life a little closer. By the time we were driving back it was dark and I had to drive very slowly which was a good thing since as we turned the corner around one of the hairpin turns we were greeted on the road by two white horses, 9 cows and a calf. We stopped on this isolated mountain road and watched the animals for a few moments, listening to the cowbells - this was a sight out of Sicily from 100, 200, 1000 years ago. Then we wove the car past the animals and drove back to Santo Stefano.

All Roads Lead To Favara

Saturday morning we woke up early in L'Hotel de la Residence to the smell of freshly baked bread. Emmanuel, the owner, wakes up every morning at 5 to bake fresh bread for his guests. When we went down for breakfast he brought us wonderful coffee, a carafe of orange juice and this bread that he had just baked. There were croissants, mini baguettes and buns with chocolate baked inside.

After we finished our breakfast, we thanked Emmanuel and climbed in the cab that had come for us and headed off to the airport. Our taxi driver was very friendly – chatting away to Miyuki in French once he realized she understood him and not looking at the traffic. He sped and tailgated all the way to the airport. Fortunately it was 7am on a Saturday and there was not too much traffic. The wait for the plane was mostly uneventful except for two things: Miyuki met a frenchman who was dressed as a nun – yes, I said nun – and who was carrying a bicycle horn. When Miyuki went to ask if she could take his picture he said yes but only if she honked his horn! We also met a couple of Canadian girls from Quebec who were working in Paris as chiropractors and were off to Palermo for the weekend. We chatted while we waited for the plane about Canada, Paris, Cegep, travel, work and life in general. Unfortunately we didn't get to sit with them on the plane or see them afterwards but we wish them a good weekend in Paris,
When we got off the plane in Trapani we were hit with a wave of heat that surrounded us like a blanket. It was not as humid as Paris had been but OMG it was hot. When we got in our rental car, a cute little Ford Fiesta with (insert sounds of angels singing here) air conditioning, the dashboard had a reading for the outdoor temperature and it was 39 degrees. With a few directions from the information desk we drove off towards Agrigento and then on to Delia with me at the wheel. Just a few comments first about driving in Sicily:
1. On the autostrada you take the speed limit and multiply it by 1.5 or 2 (or more) and that is how fast you drive.
2. You MUST drive in the right lane. The left lane is most definitely just for passing.
People pass you all the time. Even if it is only one lane in either direction and other cars are coming.
3. Never wait for anyone to give you space to cut in – that will never happen – just go.
4. People use their horns here more than at home but not as much as I expected.
5. Driving in Sicily takes balls, patience, and a certain 'go with the flow' attitude but it can be fun!

As we barrelled down the autostrada I found myself going faster that I had ever driven before (150ks!) just to keep up. The signage on the autostrada and state highways (strada statate) is good but when you get off onto local roads you are on your own! We used Leslie's GPS which was a godsend in some respects and a headache in others. We would never have found our couchsurfing house without it but several times it directed us to roads that were blocked off for construction. And, apparently in Sicily construction happens very very slowly. We got lost 4 or 5 times and had to stop for directions on several occasions. The directions were sometimes good, sometimes not so good but always given with certainty and friendliness. One lady working a fruit stand in a town whose name I never did get, gave us the best directions drawing us a map and then giving us a handful of fresh apricots!

The land in Sicily is a real dichotomy – every possible bit of land is cultivated but those parts that are not are wild and rough and raw. Parts are desert dry and others are lush and green with trees and bushes that are covered with pink or white flowers. We saw huge cactus plants growing in rows along the side of the road and huge palm trees along the side of the autostrada. The autostrada is beautiful and smooth – perfect highway for travelling on – but when you get on to the side roads everything changes. Signs disappear, they are narrow – sometimes just barely wider than one car width – the blacktop is bumpy and cracked. The carabinieri (the Italian version of the RCMP) are everywhere yet people drive very fast and what we would consider recklessly without being pulled over. Yet I have been pulled over twice, both times I wasn't speeding or breaking any laws as far as I could tell. When they realized that I didn't speak Italian, they let me go with a “Prego”.

We drove south from Trapani towards Agrigento hoping to find the road to Delia. As we drove through Agrigento we saw the ancient Greek temples up on the hill that overlooks the sea. The sight was stunning. Nick set the GPS to take us to our first “couch” in Delia, northeast of Agrigento. This is when we had our first problem with the GPS. We followed the directions very carefully and they took us to a highway that was blocked off. We followed the detour the only way we could and ended up in an area called Favara. There is nothing there but a state courthouse (which resembles a prison more than anything else) and a children's clothing store. We reset the GPS to give us a different route and it took us to ... Favara. Then we tried driving to another town and set the GPS again which took us to ... Favara. Finally we drove quite a distance away to yet another town, reset the GPS and this time, after driving through farmers' fields and past goats and donkeys and up and down hills we finally found Delia and the home of our first host, Marilena and her mother Giovana. Marilena is an architect who was unable to find work in her field so now she teaches art history in a high school in Enna. She lives with her widowed mother and she has three brothers: one lives in Toronto, another one lives in Delia and practices radiology and nuclear medicine and her third brother runs the family farm. Marilena gave us the whole third floor to ourselves complete with a balcony with the most stunning 180 degree views of the fields and hills of central Sicily. The colours were rich and beautiful. I know people talk about the colours in Tuscany but I can't imagine they are any more brilliant than in Sicily. Marilena made us feel so welcome. Her mother cooked wonderful food for us and we sat up and talked all evening. Giovana, Marilena told us, was afraid of having strangers in her home but you would never have known from the way she treated us. She made sure we had more than enough to eat all the time and she gave us Saint Antonio talismans to keep us safe as we are driving. On our last day staying with Marilena and her mother they took us to their farm. Marilena walked around with us and we picked peaches, apricots, mulberries, nectarines, plums, and so many other things, I don't remember them all. There were orchids growing wild on the ground, and olives and oranges that were not ready to be picked yet. There were 5 very friendly farm dogs, 14 farm cats and numerous chickens. Marilena's sister-in-law took us to see all the animals and fed us wonderful gelato. Afterwards we sat eating the fresh fruit (which is far more delicious than any fruit I have ever had) and watched the sun go down and the various kittens playing on the patio. It was a spectacular day.

Before we left Marilena, we made a trip back to Agrigento and toured the Valle di Templi or the Valley of the Temples. This is an ironic name as all 5 temples sit on the top of the hillside. We had an excellent tour by a guide who was originally from New Jersey. I don't remember everything that she told us but it was extremely interesting and thorough. We were driven to the top of the hillside and then we walked from temple to temple as she explained what we were seeing. As I said, I don't remember everything she said but I do remember how often the Sicilians were invaded – by the Greeks, the Cartheginians, the Spanish, the Normans, other Italians, and of course the British, Canadians and the Americans during WWII. It was an awe inspiring feeling to walk on the stones that had been placed there well over 2000 years before.

After our tour of the temples, we drove to the beach. We started off looking for the Strada di Turki (the Turkish Steps) which are very famous and supposed to be very beautiful. Unfortunately there was no parking to be had so we drove east until we found the next beach, parked the car and found ourselves a spot on the beautiful sandy beach. We all went in swimming but by that time I was already quite sunburned so I covered myself up and sat on the beach looking a bit like a colourful mummy. Miyuki fit right in in her colourful bikini but Nick and I absolutely looked like tourists. Italian men do not have the aversion to the Speedo that North American men do, and I would say that Italians – or at least the ones that were on that beach – are far more comfortable with their bodies that North Americans, and they are also more comfortable with their sexuality as we saw several couples making out on the beach to a degree that would be frowned on at home.

During our drive around Agrigento, we got twisted and turned around in a very narrow street. We were looking for the piazza and as we drove up the street it twisted and turned and got narrower and narrower. Finally we were stuck. There was nothing to do but back up. I had no more that two inches on either side of the car and as I slowly backed down the street I caught the side mirror on the stone wall and popped off the back. A group of men – immigrants from Africa – came out and using sign language helped me to back down the street. Then they and Nick picked up the back of the mirror and with great discussion that jumped between Sicilian, Italian, English and their own language they finally were able to put the mirror back together. Later we discovered a lovely scratch on the side of the car. Since then I have scratched it one more time and I expect there will be more before we leave Italy.

Once again we set the GPS to take us back to Delia and where did we end up???? In Favara. I think I will have nightmares about Favara for the rest of the trip.

As I type this, I am sitting in the lobby of a small hotel (Hotel de la Residence) in Beauvais, about one hour north of Paris. We left Duncan on Wednesday afternoon and drove up to Nanaimo fully expecting a wait since it was the beginning of the Canada Day long weekend. But miracles do happen! No wait! Especially surprising when we got off the ferry in Horseshoe Bay and saw the line up for Nanaimo all the way to Caufield. We dropped by Leslie's house to borrow her GPS (Thanks Les!) and went on to spend the night with Sheila who drove us to the airport in the morning. We flew AirTransat to Paris in a very full plane with very small seats. The flight was long - nothing you can do to avoid that - and we were all very happy when the plane touched down. In fact the passengers broke out into spontaneous applause on landing! Really the flight was uneventful except that we had to move our seats. The two ladies sitting next to Miyuki were both wearing tons of perfume and Miyuki had an asthma attack because of that. Fortunately we were able to move and Miyuki was okay but I would like to see airlines become scent free. Once you are on a plane with nowhere to go, it is a huge problem for people with sensitivites to scents.

We landed in Charles de Gaulle Airport - I must say that for a city the size and importance of Paris, CdG is not much of an airport. It is disorganized and dirty and the people working there are not so helpful and certainly not polite.

We took the train to Port Maillot in the centre of Paris and then caught a shuttle bus to Beauvais Airport. We took a taxi to the hotel we are in tonight. Our host here is called Emmanuel. He is the quintessential Frenchman. When he told us that he couldn't get us a taxi for the morning so we could get our flight he shrugged and said "Oh, I don't know, perhaps you will have to walk." He did eventually find a taxi to come and take us in the morning. When Nick was having trouble connecting with the Wifi his response was "Don't be so stupid Monsieur." yet, he wasn't being mean - just French.

We went for a walk to find somewhere to get something to eat at about 1 but of course the restaurant had closed. Instead we went to a little bar - the Auto Bar - which had pictures of cars everywhere. The proprietor was a young guy with pretty good English. We were the centre of attention there - I don't believe they get a lot of tourists here - until several emergency vehicles converged on a building about a block away. Not sure what was going on there but it certainly engendered a good deal of conversation and shrugging amongst the people in the bar. The bar owner came to take our order. He said "Do you want meat? I can make you meat and frite maison!" (Frite maison are really really good fries). So I had some kind of steak. It was wonderful. It may have been beef or horse, not really sure. There were a couple of young guys, early twenties, hanging out in the bar. At first I thought they were customers but then one of them stood up and went behind the bar. I realized then that he "worked" there. As we sat there it became clear that what he thought was working involved shrugging a lot, saying 'Je ne sais pas' a great deal, and instructing others while he did nothing himself. We came back about 3 just in time because the rain started. I don't think I have mentioned that the temperature is 32 degrees. The rain led into one of the most spectacular thunder and lightning storms I have ever seen or heard. The thunder rolled one after another after another loud enough to shake our windows. I could see the lightning even with my eyes closed and the wind, which was blowing the trees so hard I thought a couple of them might uproot, was blowing the rain against the windows so hard that it sounded like sand or pebbles and not rain. It lasted a couple of hours and then it completely cleared up again.

So, what am I learning today? You cannot have even one iota of control when you travel in another country, especially one that uses a language you don't speak. You have to trust - trust that things will turn out the way they are supposed to. Trust the people around you. Otherwise you are closed to all the wonderful things that can come to you.

I think that is all for tonight. Take care everyone. Love you all!

PS. Sorry some of the pictures are sideways. I am exhausted and can't think straight enought to figure it out tonight. Take care.

D N M

Today is June 22nd. We leave Vancouver Island in 8 days. Here is our plan for the next several weeks.

July 1 - fly to paris

July 2 - arrive in paris stay overnight at hotel

July 3 - fly to Trapani drive to Delia in Sicily

July 4 – drive to Agrigento

July 5 - drive to Cianciana and then on to Nick's cousin’s house in Mistretta

July 6 - visit Sperlinga and Polizzi Generosa

July 7 - visit Capizzi where Nick's family comes from

July 8 - drive to Taoromina then to Acireale

July 9 - in Catania

July 10-11 - drive to Piazza Armerina

July 12 - drive to Palermo

July 13-15 - in Palermo

July 16 - drive to Milazzo

July 17 - drive to Tropea,Calabria

July 18 - drive to Ceglie Messapica, Puglia

July 19 - visit Alberobello

July 20 - drive to Rome through Pescara

July 21 & 22 - in Rome

July 23 &24 - Drive to Ferrara

July 25 & 26 - in Padova visit Venice & Verona

July 27 - drive to Milan

July 27 & 29

in Milan

July 30 - flight to Paris

July 31 & August 1 - in Paris

August 2 - fly home

So, I will do my best to post everyday and if I can figure out how to post pictures using Nick's iPad I will put pictures up too. Hope everyone enjoys it!