The Island of Sicily

Commenters have asked for food pictures--and I don't think I took to many. I was always diving in and eating rather than focusing! And for my dear blogger, Colleen, that was my daughter and her M.I.L. behind the Venetian masks in the store photo.

Sicily is a fairly large island to the south of the peninsula of Italy and maybe most famous for the volcanic Mt. Etna. Most of what you read about Sicily will mention that it is a poorer and less pristine part of Italy. I think the Sicilians are a generous and polite people and several went out of their way to caution us about pickpockets and thieves. We did not encounter a single bad incident. My lovely daughter did get the 100-times-over from a man twice her age on the bus into town one morning. They are NOT shy about looking! There are also cautions about the criminal element, since the Mafia began here. (As an historic note, the big M began because Sicily felt it was being taxed unfairly by the main government in Italy but not getting the resources and support. They didn't like the main government setting up all the rules and regulations, so they decided to run their own little government.)

My daughter selected 2.5 days in Sicily because her M.I.L.'s mother's side of the family came from that region---was that clear? Anyway, because we did not have a car and had to rely on buses and trains, we touched only a small part of the island. I missed some great cultural and archeological parts as daughter and her M.I.L. were into the churches!


We stayed at a 1950's type hotel on the far point of one of the lovely beach areas. It was a little bit of a walk to the beach, but we did manage to soak our toes at the end of the days. The hotel is way at the end on the point in the photo above. It looks far from the beach, but I was taking the photo from the first drop off of the bus at the days end.


Each day we took the bus into Palermo which was the primary city nearby. It was a quick 15 minute ride. Then we had to walk a few blocks to catch the bus/train that we needed for the next leg of the day's journey.

The first day we went to a lovely village on the coast called Monreal. We were very lucky in that we got there early in the day. While we were eating a lunch of pizza across from the piazza in the photo below, I saw the police beginning to set up street barriers and various officials in fancy dress arriving. By the end of our lunch we discovered that this day was a funeral for their Archbishop who had passed away a few days before. The death of an Archbishop is a big deal in any country, but especially so in Italy. Dignitaries paraded in with banners and flowers and full regalia for several hours that afternoon and we just sat and sipped our wine and watched from our front row seat. We eventually moved to the church and got inside for a quick look before it had filled and the service started. They even broadcast it on a large TV screen outside. Below, the villagers that lived across the piazza watched the parade from their balconies.


Then we took off for a walk around the village since everything had started to close. Going up and down hills like these is what keeps Italians so thin after eating plates of pasta and pizza.


We encountered small children in the alleys and byways playing and taking advantage of their time off during the funeral. These two lovely ladies below were playing with Barbie dolls, of course!

And here is a sign outside the local day care center...?

The trip back on the bus was an interesting but it is a longer story...which I will save for another day, if reminded.

Our second day in Sicily required a train trip. Trains in Italy are so easy to use and so comfortable and really on time. We took the train to an even smaller village called Cefalu--to look at the church in the picture below.


We hiked outside the city walls and saw are a close-up view of the lovely Mediterranean Sea.


On our last night in Sicily we had eaten so much food that day that we decided on a dinner of cheeses and wine ( a nice Sicilian white) at an outside Enoteka. This was followed by a gelato (or cannoli in my case) in the piazza of the small beach town where we stayed. It was a good decision since we were given the fun of seeing the town wind down as the locals stopped in the piazza and viewed a local classic car show. The drivers were dapper as they had dressed for the occasion and clearly were enjoying the attention!


My next post will be the last of Italy but all about romantic Tuscany.