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.