Italy Day 9

My last full day in Sicily. In some respects a bit relieved, though I guess I am not out of the water until such time as I have returned the rental car and gotten off the plane and found my luggage intact in Rome. I started out early, too early honestly because Italy’s daylight savings time started on Sunday morning but my wonderful iPhone didn’t update until I rebooted it which was after I had already awoken and showered and the like. So instead of getting up at 6:30 I was actually up at 7:30am. I did use up some time so I was not leaving too terribly early but still it was Sunday and I should have left even later still.


My goal as mentioned in Day 8 was to reach Segesta. It is about a 45 minute drive to Segesta if you follow the speed limits but I took my time and drove really about 60 to 70mph rather than the limit of 80 for the majority of the way. I was out the door just past 7am (adjusted for DST) and my goal was to get there at 8am or so. I figured if there was a sign that said it was closed I would try to go to Agrigento instead which would be two hours south of Palermo. Of course 8am was very early to arrive somewhere in Italy on Sunday but I really couldn’t make myself stay in the hotel any longer by the time I left. I was going stir crazy.

I arrived in Segesta at just about 8am and found that the sign only said that the place apperto (opened) at 9:00am. There was no listing of different times for different days nor was there any mention that the place was Chiasura (closed) for any days of the week or say at different times of the year, so I sort of waxed hopeful. Segesta is in the middle of nowhere sort of like Stonehenge is. It is in a remote area and has its own parking lot and a small cafeteria and gift shop. The parking lot was locked up when I got there. I guess that would be because once inside the parking lot you could pretty much get over the whole of the grounds as I found out later. I had to kill an hour somehow and I really only had two choices. The first and least desirable was to just sit there and wait. Even with a radio (that I never turned on) I don’t think I would have enjoyed that prospect too much. The second was to drive off and look around the area to see if there was anything interesting. I chose option 2 and drove out of the location for about 20 minutes or so having the GPS tell me to, “Turn around when possible,” about every 3 minutes. I suppose I could have turned off the sound but in some respects I found it amusing. I did find a small town that had an open cafeteria but I decided I didn’t want to fuss with putting away the GPS for the few minutes even though if I thought about it I already knew how to get back without any issue. Anyway I stopped there for a minute or two and then headed back to the parking lot. The roads were again winding but the location is in a valley rather than on a mountain top (well the parking lot is anyway) but I took my time not out of worry but because I was trying to kill more of it having too much already.

I got back to the site at about quarter till 9 and there was a van of people that pulled up just in front of me. He asked me if the place was going to open. He did speak some English. I said I didn’t know and at that point a man inside the gates appeared and said they were indeed opening in 15 minutes. So everyone unloaded out of the van and we pulled ourselves out of the way in the entrance for the parking lot. They surrounding countryside is quite beautiful. It was a tad grey out and there was a humidity in the air I was not really fond of but the temperature was probably in the mid 60sF so it was at least bearable. After the 15 minutes or so passed the guy opened the gate and the few of us that were already waiting parked and headed in to buy tickets. It was one of the more expensivesingle entrance fees I have paid in Italy at 9 Euro. Still I guess I was satisfied with the location overall so maybe it was worth it. In comparison though the Forum and Coliseum combined was 6 Euros. So it basically could be considered a rip off.

Segento is one of the oldest sites in all of Sicily if I understand things correctly. It has its roots in Greek ownership back in the 6th century BC. One of the main spectacles of the site is a Greek temple that the Sicilians claim is better preserved than any temple you will find in Greece. I will state that it was in great condition. That said I have yet to visit Greece (though soon I suspect) so I cannot yet compare. According to the notes the temple was never completed. It showed signs of being unfinished by still having the notches that were used to move the large pieces of column or whatnot that were used to build the temple. It is very large though and to stand under it really displays the size. It appears that they used to let people walk fully inside it because of some stairs within the now fenced off area where it stands. I was a bit disappointed with that. It is tantalizing to see a set of stairs that I cannot reach that would have allowed me up and into the actual temple grounds. Anyway, I still really thought it was an incredible piece of history to see. In my start I actually was going to visit the other areas of the site first but I decided to double back and visit the temple before it got too full of people (in case it did anyway). This meant I got a few good distance shots of the structure before I actually got in and saw it up close.

The remainder of the site is spread throughout history. There are more pieces of original Greek origin that dated again to the 6th or 5th century BC. Most of those were modified by the Romans who arrived in the 2nd or 1st century BC I believe. So the Romans really built up the area and it was fortified at times and they even built a large theater that was the other highlight of the location. It was in great shape. It held about 4000 people or so the signs said. I am not sure if there was any renovation done to it but for the most part it looked authentic. I assume that like the temple it was basically intact. The theater is basically the far end of the grounds from the temple. The girl at the desk said it is about 2km from the temple to the theater. Also the main trip is uphill to the theater. I took a detour route that started off from another of the items to see which was a fortification area that was modified into a siege weapon location during the Norman periods of the 1100s or so. I guess it started older than that but it saw a real large number of modifications. Again the Greeks started the site in the 6th century BC or so but then it got modified by the Romans and again by the Normans. The detour pretty much went straight up the side of a hill and it was definitely a good morning constitutional as it were. Unfortunately with the humidity it was tough not to sweat.

As you get up the mountain it is more Roman and Norman ruins than anything. At the very top is the ruins of the Norman castle that was built as a defensive point. The lord was apparently very wealthy and the castle was probably two stories tall. Based on some of the holes in the walls I saw I would believe it was. They believe it was likely to be 10 meters tall or so. Still it is a ruins so there is some guesswork involved. In some respects it is better that they left it in the state that it is rather than tried to rebuild it without knowing what it is supposed to look like. In most instances the ruins that have been uncovered were only found recently. I guess most of them were buried in the soil until the 1980s or so. The stuff up on the hill that is. I suspect they could see the theater without much effort and that the temple never really got buried but the rest of the stuff was more difficult to find until they started to excavate.

One more item to mention on the top of the hill was the mosque they found. Sicily has a long and varied history and has pretty much been occupied by anyone and everyone that could sail a boat nearby. The Moors owned Sicily or at least parts of it for a while and there are other locations on the island that bear this out. In any event they guarantee the ruin once used to be mosque because of the layout of the building which matches both ancient and modern mosques around the world and because there is a definite sign that it is pointing towards Mecca. I guess that is about all the evidence you would need to believe it was indeed a mosque. They say that the Christian lord that built the castle on the top of the hill did what any Christian would of course do when confronted with something from a different religion and tore it down. They didn’t speculate on whether it was used for anything else but at the least the building was destroyed so that it could no longer be used as a mosque. Surprise…intolerance from the Christians? I guess if Peru wasn’t evidence enough, why not more. It does beg the question as to why the temple was not destroyed but maybe because of the recognition of the Greeks and Romans as cultures that preceded Christianity? Best guess I can make.

While up on the top of the hill there is an incredibly nice view of the local countryside and even a few nice places to take more distance shots of the temple. It was incredibly windy up there but with the temperature and the humidity I didn’t remotely find it cold. Everyone around me was still dressed in the types of clothing you would see people in Massachusetts wearing in January (ok probably not the full winter parkas but scarves and the like and heavier jackets than I could have ever believed necessary. I was the only one in short sleeve shirt that was for sure. Still the wind was at times very strong and pushed me around a bit. All the same it did help make the humidity a bit more bearable than it could have been for certain. All in all I am guessing I walked a bit over 2 miles in the site and it was overall a pleasant visit. When I finished with the theater and castle locations I headed back to the gift shop area and bought a slice of pizza and a coke from the cafeteria for “breakfast.” It was a very thick crust pizza but possibly the best pizza I have had in all of Sicily (not that I have had tons of pizza here). I also bought a Kit Kat Dark. I ate the pizza and was finishing the soda when a bee found me and wouldn’t leave me alone so I had to ditch eating the candy bar until I got into the car. I was not ready to be stung and swell up. I ate the candy bar before leaving the site but it was obvious the bar had been stored in a refrigerator at some point. Nonetheless it was still good.

It was the same drive time back to Palermo. I suspected traffic might be light as it was Sunday and that did sort of prove out. I took my time anyway for the sake of it. I had the rest of the day to kill and at the latest I would probably be arriving in Palermo at a bit past noon. I could have tried to find another site I suppose but I figured I was basically on the downside of Sicily and it was best to call it a day. I managed to get into the garage at around 12:20 or so and dropped some stuff off at the room and ate lunch at the hotel restaurant. The only other “guests” in the place were the family of the owner of the restaurant. It is not run by the hotel. I ordered Rigatoni Francesca but was informed there was no rigatoni (in Italian, I am not really sure what she said, I just agreed) and instead I had another spaghetti-Os meal. It was a red sauce with some vegetables in it but other than that I am not really sure what it was supposed to be. How it was different than the red sauce from the spaghetti for my birthday meal I cannot really tell you other than the presence of vegetables and possibly some pork bits. It was good anyway, though I would have preferred the rigatoni to the spaghetti-Os. I accompanied the meal with a celebratory Moretti beer as I was done driving for the day and in all the Sicilian time I had I wasn’t really drinking much alcohol due to the driving and the fact I was skipping most dinners for their lateness. The bill for my lunch was only 12 Euro. I can deal with that. The waitress at least recognizes and seems to like me because though she doesn’t speak much English and I basically no Italian she has been attentive to me overall. I think they kind of make up their charges based on whether they like you or not in Italy because in general I have gotten bills that are less than menu has said it was supposed to be if added up correctly. Maybe they are just bad at math. I am polite even if I cannot speak their language well enough. I hope that is helping.

After lunch I walked the city one last time. I traveled down Tukory to Macqueda and up to the Teatro Massimo. It was open this time and I went in but did not wait around for a guided tour. I was fairly certain there would not be one in English, so what was the point really. I did take a few pictures and poke around their gift shop which really doesn’t even need to exist it has so little in it. After that I backtracked to Corso Vittorio Emanuele and then headed up towards the Piazza Indipendenza. This street is the street that the cathedral is on and leads up to the Norman Palace as well. It occurred to me that it was Halloween and I should have gone into the Cathedral and done the Kurgen thing from Highlander for the fun of it. Ok, it made me chuckle but I never would have done it. A bit beyond the cathedral I found a gelateria and got a caffe gelato (coffee ice cream). It was very dense and had a really good flavor. They garnished the bucket of it with coffee beans and a bunch of those got mixed in to add a bit of crunch at times. It being so dense it was very filling. Realize that within 2 and a half hours I had pizza, pasta and now ice cream. I was very full by this point. I took it up the street to the park where I parked myself on a chunk of wall and ate it. When I was done I continued up Vittorio Emanuele towards the Piazza. I stopped in another shop and bought a water and sat and drank that for a couple more minutes before cutting back across to Tukory. When I reached Tukory I felt it was still early so went past the hotel and walked to the far end of the Universitarie degli Studi before deciding I had walked far enough and turning back around. It being Sunday there was very little traffic all over town and it even looked like streets like Macqueda has been partially blocked off to limit traffic. I guess it being a Catholic island means that everyone takes Sunday as a family and rest day and does not really go out. Some shops were open and many were not. Not really surprising I guess. Maybe more surprising that there were any shops open. Still with the lesser traffic and blasting of horns by impatient Sicilian drivers it was a more pleasant walk than I had in Palermo to this point. The streets are still filthy and there is dog excrement everywhere and that is a total shame. After returning to the room it was basically just sit back and write this as it was not likely I was going to eat dinner so late. I tried to find some soccer on TV but even though I am sure there are at least a dozen games today, none of the stations at the hotel are showing any. It appears I have to gambling on soccer shows and that is about it. One has a strategic board and the guy moves around pieces to show where almost goals happened it looks. It is not terribly interesting. There is basically nothing to watch at all except motorcycle racing and I am not really a fan.

After six days in Palermo I can say this. The hotel I stayed at is more than adequate. It is clean and it is basically comfortable and the room is very big by European standards. I would overall say it is modern even. The location is both good and bad. It is good because it is easy to get to the motorway. I have been saying motorway due to the British voice of the GPS. In truth in Italy it is called the autostrada. Anyway, it is easy to get to the hotel from the autostrada and generally easy to get to the autostrada from the hotel. Having the parking garage does protect the vehicle overall. The fact that more than half of the cars out there have dents or dings or scratches all over them is a testament to how likely it would be to bring it back with more damage. The garage helped protect against that. So if you were to stay in Palermo and use it as a base for driving you could do worse than the Albergo Athenaeum. The bad is that from a pedestrian standpoint it is really nowhere useful. Of course I am not really sure where useful is in Palermo. There is no central location of good sites to see. The little bits of value are all spread out amongst the sprawl. Tukory is a main way basically but there are no real restaurants only snack shops and bars that serve Panini. I think more so than its location in the city my issue is that it is in Palermo at all. Knowing what I know now I would try to find a hotel with parking outside of Palermo and save myself some of the annoyance of the city. There must be someplace nice outside of town that would fit the bill and make things easier. All in all I could have done worse though. I think by this point I am ready to return to Rome. I hope I can get gas and get on my way to the airport tomorrow without too much pain. It is All Saints Day in Italy (the actual holiday that Halloween stole from) on Monday and I am not sure if that means that places are open or closed or anything at all. I am going to try to get on my way by 10:30 to 11am for a 3:10 flight back. This time on AlItalia. I hope to buy a new lock in the airport but bet I won’t be able to. Nothing of electronic nature (not even the camera bag) is going in the suitcase. This means my souvenirs or clothing will be stolen if it is to be. I’ll have to live with that. Never will I fly a budget airline again.

If you are wondering I never confronted the airline. There would be no point I am sure. The people at the desk would inevitably not be able to speak English and more so what are they going to do for me? Refund me money? No, I am sure not that. Secondly, if they gave me anything it would be credits for future flights. As I said, I will never fly them again. Insert expletive here. So basically I figured why infuriate myself further by getting back on a tram to the airport finding the desk and banging my head against a wall. It was about $200 between the GPS and the European maps. I will have to live with that loss. That is all. It still pisses me off but eventually I will get over it. At least the Tom Tom was available and got me to where I needed to be.

Italy Day 8 Footnote

Sorry I forgot to mention this yesterday. Erice is apparently unofficially the city of the cats. I needed to mention that on practically every corner you turned there was a cat. Some of them were mangy and some looked more healthy. There was one point when I found at least 8 of them all sitting together in the same walkway. I just thought I would mention that.


Also, one of the shop owners must have owned a the dog I saw that was carrying around a fairly good sized dead mouse (or small rat). I was going to take a picture of it but the owner got so mad at the dog I figured it was much safer not to do so. I didn’t need a Sicilian’s wrath directed at me.

Italy Day 8

Today I started early again but this time I wanted to make sure I was after 7am on the road to get gas. I suspect it is possible to get it earlier but I didn’t want to have to hang around for 20 minutes on the off chance I was wrong. I figured that they would be open by 7 and if they weren’t I would sit and cry or something. I chose to use the gas station down the street and it turned out the man was polite and quick and even spoke a bit of English. With a full tank of gas my idea from the night before was to visit Erice and assuming there was not much to that I would visit Segesta on the way back.


Fortunately I will be visiting Segesta on day 9 instead of visiting it today because I really really liked Erice a lot. First off it was clean with only one mark of graffiti I found very deep into the labyrinth. Second the town is at least Roman age and possibly older and the structures are mixed between Roman on up to medieval.

Before I start talking about the town itself I guess I need to mention the drive again. The majority was motorway of course, but the last stretch was up the mountain that the town sits on. They use the slogan The Mountain of God. This again meant lots of switchbacks and steep drops. I was sure the GPS was trying to really screw with me when it brought me to a dirt road. Shortest path… There are no rules to exclude dirt roads on the thing. It is a Tom Tom and though my namesake, I would never recommend anyone buy one. The one that was stolen from me was a Garmin and it was much better. First off it was more accurate as to where you are. The Tom Tom is terrible when it comes to roundabouts (rotaries for those of you from Massachusetts). I guess it is doing its job well enough but I don’t appreciate the sense of humor it has. Anyway, I basically did a U-turn and it recalculated a different path from the dirt road and I made it up the mountain relatively unscathed. It was early by Saturday standards so there was little traffic to contend with. I parked in pretty much the first spot I could find which was well out of the main area of town down near the Real Duomo. I didn’t mind the walking at all.

The town has a castle. I arrived at 9 to find out that until the last Sunday of October it does not open until 10 until 7. Starting with October 31 it goes to Saturdays only from 10 to 4. So it would be opening anyway I was just very early. I walked back to the street I came in on and found a bar and had a coffee and a apple turnover. Both were very good. First coffee I have had since the espresso after dinner in Rome. It was press coffee of course, that is all they do in Italy. Not my favorite but it was good nonetheless. Not as chalky as the British version.

After breakfast I walked through the town to get my bearings. I was still early of course but all the little tourist shops were starting to open. I have not seen a ton of tourist shops in Palermo so to find a bunch was very nice. Along the way I found one of the many churches that are open to visit and found you could buy a full set pass for 5 Euro so did that. In the long haul of the day I visited almost all of them. A couple never opened up. Oh well. There were no rules against pictures, just no flash. I think I visited about 8 or so in the course of the day. There was also a bell tower that was very cool. Of course when it was just past 10 I tried yet again to visit the castle but it was still closed. I figured that something that I was finally thinking was a truly cool place to visit in Sicily was still going to throw me the zinger but I hoped as with most Italians that the people who opened it were late. So I continued around the town visiting churches and gift shops and basically had a good time. I had only worn a short sleeve shirt and it was a bit breezy up there. I didn’t bring the long sleeve along like I did when going to Etna. I probably should have. Anyway, the family now has a new hooded, zip-up sweatshirt because I bought one and wore it for the day to cut the breeze out some. It worked very well actually.

Not long after buying the sweatshirt I made a 3rd run at the castle and this time it was indeed open. They date the castle’s foundation to Roman times where it was possibly a temple dedicated to Venus if I read everything correctly. The castle ruins that make up the site now are apparently medieval period or older and rebuilt many times over to what would last be a Norman castle. It is called the Castle of Venus, I presume due to the Venus temple. They think there were hot bath from the Roman period as well that had been excavated. In any event it was a very beautiful site and exactly what I tend to go for when I am traveling. It is much bigger looking on the outside than in but that is because there is a separate tower that is not open the public that was later part of the castle was well. Inside the walls is basically ruins and there are no buildings standing aside from the entry building which may have been rebuilt. I cannot say, but probably. Still there is a lot to see inside and there are some beautiful views of the surrounding country-side. The entry was 3 Euros and so far I think it is the best 3 Euros I have spent in the trip. They do give you a nice pamphlet and I took a ton of pictures.

There is also a broken lower defense tower or something like that a bit down the hill on the north side of the mountain (I think, my sense of direction is horrid) and I saw someone standing in it at one point. It looked precarious to get to but I figured I would take my chances. After finishing the actual castle I found the path that led to the towers and the location did get a bit much for my fear of heights. There were some sort of unkempt stairs around the structure and I walked down to see what was down there but I had to stop when the railing-less steps really started to look steep. I came back around to the main path and found what apparently was the door to the building but first off it was half closed and I could see all sorts of loose debris right inside the doorway. But the reason I didn’t go in was because the door was basically on a ledge where there was but a small lip of rock jutting out rather than something that looked solid. Think Wile E. Coyote on a mountain cliff just before it breaks and that was what I saw. No it probably really wasn’t that bad but I figured one of two things would happen, I would slip and no one would know until it was time for me to check out of the hotel or second and the more probable, that ledge would break as I stepped on it. So, yes, I chickened out and did not go into it. Sorry.

After returning to civilized land I wandered a bit more because I was looking for someplace to eat. I couldn’t really make up my mind what to do. I don’t think I was the only person not sure where to eat based on a couple families in the same confusion. I guess when you get down to it, Panini shops seem as fast food as McDonald’s and it wasn’t really what I was in the mood for. Nor pizza at this point. So after doing circles for quite a while I decided on a the Ristorante Venus. I had grilled lamb with roasted potatoes. The lamb was done in olive oil, lemon and some herbs including oregano and parsley. Unfortunately it was small chops that were mostly fat and the meat was cooked a bit more than I would like but it was still very tasty and enjoyable. It was a guarantee I had to get an oil spot on my cream colored shirt. No wine or beer for this due to having to drive and I was expecting to head out right after I had eaten. It was already around 2 to 2:30 I would think by that point.

In some respects I suppose it is a touch sad that I have less to say on the place I enjoyed the most than on some of the other stuff, but I think a couple things are happening here. First I visited a ton of churches. I am not religious and one church is like another in as many words to me. I don’t think I could tell you the names of any of them without looking at the various paperwork I got along the way. Second, Though the climb with the car was a bit trying, I didn’t actually stall at all. I did get stuck behind a truck that stalled but I didn’t act Sicilian and blast the horn at him continually, instead letting him fight with it to get it started again and get going. If it weren’t for the GPS putting me to the dirt road the drive might have been an almost nothing thing. I am not by any meaning of the word going to say I am good at driving manual shift, probably not even passable, but I can survive it all at this point. Additionally, I think it is easier to explain the details when it is out of sorts rather than something you enjoy. I would say mainly that I enjoyed it and would advise anyone I know to visit Erice if they got a chance. I would not say the same for Palermo, say. Palermo feels worse than Lawrence honestly. Part of the fun of good places is discovery. Discovering bad places is not quite as enjoyable and perhaps it is best to capture why you think so. Erice was well within my bounds to taste. I think over the course of my travels and blogging I have shown a defined set of rules of what I enjoy and that should be explanatory enough. So yes, the good times are shorter than the harder times.

Now on to the harder times of the day. After I got done with Erice and it was past 2:30pm or so I had to get back down the mountain. I was curious if the GPS was going to try to send me through the dirt road again but it did not. Nor did it choose the way I went up the mountain though that was a valid two way road. Instead it found this really steep and instant switchback to instant switchback road that was mindbogglingly tight and had no field of vision as to whether there were any vehicles coming in the other direction. Again, this is a road that David would have loved. I was basically horrified and switched between 1st and 2nd gear the majority of the way. I probably looked like a prototypical old woman driving down this mountain. In any event, if you’re reading this David, Sicily is for you. Just don’t stay in Palermo and you will love it. I think it took me about 45 minutes to an hour to go what amounted to less than 5 miles (not really sure what the distance was but I bet it wasn’t that much). I only stalled when the GPS had me take a sharp left but then said, no not that sharp left, though what it meant I cannot say and I had to try to reroute at last second down another road that was incredibly steep and on me before I realized. I stalled before I turned in and it wasn’t much to get going again. Still, that was my stall story for the day. I will say I was terrified of the idea of stalling while coming down the sharp and steep hairpins but I managed to not do that, probably by driving 5 miles an hour. I am sure I let out a sign of relief when I realized I was in the clear of the mountain after all that. The GPS did me one more trick when it came to a roundabout and I had to do a U-turn to get back on track but overall the rest of the drive back was fairly uneventful. I pulled into Palermo a bit before 4pm and only had to suffer a small bit of traffic. I am not sure if I mentioned this but the A29 motorway becomes not a motorway through Palermo. It has traffic lights that allow people to walk across the highway by stopping traffic. I am not a genius by any stretch but I can’t understand what is so difficult or expensive about building flyover bridges for the pedestrians to use to cross the street. Worst case dig a tunnel. I am sure they can make one or the other handicapped accessible if needed. It seems more sensible than creating fake traffic on a motorway.

Now that I am on slight rant mode I should point out a couple things about Italy and Sicily. First of all, no one rides bicycles at all. In Europe I have gotten very used to the idea that everyone bicycles around everywhere. The only people I have seen riding bikes have been Arab immigrants. No Italians at all. I bet more people own cars than do not. So that leads into the question of the European green movement. It does not exist in Italy so far as I can see. No bikes, everyone drives, fewer windmill turbines, nothing resembling recycling of bottles or cans or any sort of trash that could be, and so on. In a couple of places I have passed through I have seen large piles of garbage bags filled to the brim just stacked along the side of the road. It does not appear that there will be any removal any time soon. I know I have already compared Italy to Peru but I really have to say that whether they are part of the EU or not they really feel as much like a third world nation as Peru was. This from a country that used to be the seat of culture for the whole world. Take all of this as you will. I am just disappointed they are not cleaner and more well kempt than they could be. At least Erice was very clean and stood out for that reason. I should expect that had some bearing on my opinion of the city.

Anyway, at 4pm or so I started writing this before the day became too tangled but there was still some time to use up in the day. With that in mind I realized I could go for a walk and probably get out more money. I still had a bit but gas is expensive and I would have to purchase at least one more full tank before I returned the car to the rental place. So I walked down to where I last got money to wait in line for a few minutes and find out the ATM was broken. I decided I could walk back down to Macqueda and try the one I saw there and it also wasn’t working. It appeared that there was something going on with the ATMs for the Bank of Sicily. This meant I would have to range even further, as if deep in Macqueda wasn’t far enough. I took a gamble and moved down to the next main street which is Via Roma. This was my first time on Via Roma and it seemed like the nicer shopping area for the locals or something. I was correct in believing it might have a bank machine that was not Bank of Sicily. There was one from BNL which is a European chain. I was able to get some money from there then for the sake of it I walked back up the street that had the cathedral to the Norman Palace and back around to the hotel. From there I just decided to watch some videos and call it a night.

Italy Day 7

I started off early again and was out the door about 20 minutes before 7. I can tell how bad the main street gets later in the day and I want to be able to make the U-turn I need to make before it becomes a fight to the death. Plus I had the intention of reaching Etna for my birthday. I figured there probably isn’t a better treat in Sicily (at this point a bit disenchanted with Sicily) than to stand on top of an active volcano and once again tempt the fates.

Etna is near Catania and is about a 3 hour drive away. In each direction about 2 hours is highway and then there is an hour of cutting through farmland, city and eventually mountain roads. Obviously, you start out with that on the way back. I have to say the one major plus is that I am not really that far from the motorway in this hotel and the car is actually protected in the garage. I have somehow managed to get the car in and out as needed so far though it is indeed a scary process. I am not sure if I pointed out that the car is a Fiat Panda. I probably did but she and I got really acquainted over the past couple days so I guess it is fine to repeat it. It is light blue and a boxy looking thing (not as bad as those Scion things but still not exactly attractive). I suspect it is probably a sort of equivalent to a mini-van for the Italian family since parking spaces are so tight.

Motorway driving is basically very easy. Once up to speed it is 5th gear and hold the accelerator pedal. I am sure the Panda is a 4 cylinder at best (maybe 3? Probably 4) and going over the longer hills was often an issue. The rules of the road appear to be right lane for travel and left lane for passing. You are only supposed to be in the left for passing. I think the Sicilian (and probably Italian) mind believes that if the right two tires of the car are in the right lane then they are in the right lane and it is cool to travel in that position. I would say about 50% of the people drive that way. The trucks, like in Denmark appear to have lower speed limits than the rest of the vehicles. It appears they have an on average 100-140 or so speed limit in kph. That equates to 60 to 80mph or so. The majority of my day was taken up in this endeavor so there really isn’t a lot to talk about otherwise. I can say the countryside is very pretty to look at and there are huge swathes of the A19 that are raised structure highway. By that I mean it is a lot of bridge over the terrain rather than built directly on the ground. It ultimately means there are tons of expansion joints and what might be a peaceful motorway ride is taken up by the flop flop flop of the tires passing over the expansion joints. Anyway it was still not that terrible a ride. The traffic was light once outside the Palermo perimeter except for a couple road work areas which also weren’t even that terrible.

I did start out with a stop at a gas station, the first service plaza on the motorway. I was at half a tank and figured it was a long drive and best to just get the gas as soon as possible. The guy at the station forced me to take Super rather than regular unleaded gas. I couldn’t speak Italian and he was taking me for it no matter how much I protested. I don’t care what kind of gas the car gets, it is not mine. He then had the nerve to try to take a tip from me. I told him no in simple terms that he understood so he got none of that. If he had given me the cheaper gas I would have been happy to oblige. It might mean I cannot use that station again. Ah well. After gassing up I pulled a bit forward and parked and grabbed some chocolate chip cookies and a bottle of water for the ride. I was again skipping breakfast and had only eaten one time in the previous day so it made sense. After about 80 or 90 miles or so I found a place to pull over on the highway and take a picture of Etna from a distance and ate the chocolate chip cookies. There were mass produced stuff that appear to be made in Spain but they hit the spot anyway.

Not long after that it was off the highway and through a crowded city where I had to climb a hill in stop and go traffic for what seemed an eternity. This probably wouldn’t have meant anything to me except I stalled at least 3 times on the way up as people kept stopping unexpectedly. I had managed to only stall starting up the car on the way out of the hotel this morning to that point. Fortunately once clear of that hill it was mostly empty of traffic and indeed the further up I got the less cars there were. David would again have loved driving the windy roads up the mountain. I should point out that I took the granny approach and made it to the top relatively unharmed going say 3rd gear most of the way.

There was a touch of clouds at the stopping area when I got there. Etna is about 11000 feet tall at its peak. I suspect the area of the Silvestri Crater is about 7000 feet or so. There are a bunch of souvenir shops and snack shops. I checked out all the souvenir shops and then walked up to but decided not to ride the cable cars into the now thickening clouds. I have an affirmed fear of heights and I will tell you for certain that the inability to see below is actually worse than the ability to see it as I later found out. Instead I walked some of the paths that appear to be used for the Land Rover treks through the mountain. They weren’t giving any due to the weather and the state of the volcano I guess. I saw the excursion place turning people away. I might have tried that otherwise. While hiking I saw some people off in the distance standing on some form of path. That was the Silvestri Crater apparently. I was curious how to get there but realized it was not from the path I was taking. I turned back at that point and then found a place to have lunch consisting of a luke warm slice of pizza and a coke. It was ok food and the place had a bathroom which I needed at that point so it worked out.

By now the clouds which appeared to be fog since ground level is in the clouds at that point had really rolled in thickly. I was torn between heading down or trying to wait it out. I decided to explore a bit more and I found the path to the crater and decided to take it. It said 20 minutes. I am not sure how long I took. The first view of the crater is from its lower side. I have to say with the lava rock and the fog a lot of it gave the semblance of what many people might think the upper tiers of hell might look like. The fog was constantly giving off a prismatic rainbow just at the edge of sight that I am sure was not caught in any of the pictures I took. It was a really neat effect though. As I walked around the crater I found a path that went to the higher side and against my better judgment I climbed up it. I got probably very close to the highest point to look at it but skipped out the last 20 yards or so because well it looked like a darned narrow path and I could already feel the height and with the extra thick fog I couldn’t really see how far down was on either side. We all know the greatest fear is the fear of the unknown and the fog basically created that for me. I took some pictures from height of course I am not sure what people will think of them, there is little to see but cloud filled air. Anyway, the way down was loose volcanic soil (so was the way up I suppose but it bothered me less) and I had a time trying to keep calm and to keep my footing at the same time. There are some narrow stretches of that path that are fairly steep. I must have looked the worst sissy in the world mincy stepping my way down. At least I didn’t drop to my butt and worm down, though the thought did cross my mind. Finally the path widened out again and I was able to make it to the base of the trail a few minute later.

I am not sure which was worse the trail or the driving down in 10 foot visibility. I recognized there was no end off the clouds in sight and that the mountain was only getting more crowded. The GPS had me go the wrong way down one of the roads and I tried to avoid it three times but eventually gave up and went with it because I couldn’t figure out how to get the proper way. Maybe you are supposed to go higher then loop around and down. I could believe that. Either way I was fortunate that no one was coming up when I went through their way down. No harm no foul I guess. From there it was the tight turny roads for about 3 or 4 miles I think before I finally got out of the clouds. It was strictly 2nd gear until then when I upped it to 3rd in the visibility. All in all it was a nice visit though I would have stayed longer without the vapors about me. Of course I knew I had to contend with a 3 hour return drive so I guess it was a reasonable 2 hour stay. By the way, it was indeed in the colder state up there. I think it might have been in the low 50sF or so. I wore a long sleeve and short sleeve shirt for the occasion. I was less inclined to think the people in their winter clothes were overdoing it up there. I was the only one so lightly dressed though. The clouds did rewash my hair and beard though.

The drive back apparently took me a different way than I went in. Not a big deal but at one point it had me try to take a road that was obviously closed. Chiasura means closed and that is what the sign said. I did a U-turn and continued on the road I was on before that and it seemed to understand that the road was closed and reset right away rather than trying to route me through it no matter what. I was surprised at that. Anyway after that the majority of the ride was uneventful for the most part. I tried to get gas at the last service station before Palermo but unfortunately it was mostly being remodeled and they had one pump open and 5 cars waiting. I drove right back out and opted instead to just get gas on day 8. The car is at a bit less than half so it will need more. All in all the driving amounted to say 250 miles round trip, maybe a bit less. Effectively I had again doubled my driving time with manual transmission but with so much of it highway I am pretty sure it doesn’t count as much. I got back into Palermo at about 3:45 and got into the garage with only 1 stall.

After getting back I started to write this for a bit and then went for a walk. I asked the man at the desk was there a good place for dinner and he said yes but it opens very late like everything else. I asked where it was for the heck of it and he said it was near the Teatro Massimo. I figured I could walk there and take a look anyway. I did just that. Down Tukory and onto Macqueda. Moving down Macqueda I found the Praetorian Palace and Fountain and took a couple pictures of them then continued on because the theater was still a fair bit further up. Upon reaching the theater it was obvious it was closed for any visiting (if it opens for that other than for performances) and I walked all the way around it and did find the restaurant he told me about and it was abysmally dark. I had sort of expected that it be closed but perhaps people were inside and preparing stuff or something. Not the case. It probably does open at 8pm like everywhere else. It was about 5:30 or so then and I knew two things. I didn’t want to wait two and a half hours to see if the place did indeed open and the more so I didn’t want to walk back to the hotel presumably at 9pm or later after having eaten. So I chose to walk back to the room instead figuring I would just have my birthday dinner at the restaurant at the hotel one way or another. I did devise a plan to purchase some biscotti on the way back to the hotel and managed to do that. I have no idea what was in what I bought but they tasted good. One had a green jelly type stuff that I couldn’t place the flavor at all. The second looked like it had chocolate in it but had a taste of allspice more than anything and had some chewy bits to it. The last was a standard almond cookie so far as I can tell. I ate them with the rest of the water from the afternoon before.

Now that we are speaking about eating, I know that most Europeans eat much later than we Americans do but to not even open for business until 8pm is something that completely blows my mind. In the northern European countries they at least have service available in the main cities. I would have to consider Palermo a main city if it is the capital and largest city on Sicily. Anyway, they don’t. Also they don’t really have a lot of restaurants per se. It is really a lot of snack shops and pastry shops and “bars” which serve Panini and sometimes pizza. I saw more restaurants in Rome but they realize they are catering to a foreign clientele I guess. I am sure it is off season for tourists here in Sicily. Everyone must come in the summer when it is 40C out. Bleh… I am sure they are instead going to beaches, probably not near Palermo too. Just a guess. I didn’t research traditional visits to Sicily at all.

So I watched a video on my computer until 8 rolled around and then went down for dinner. An elderly couple with their granddaughter got on the elevator from two floors below me and it turns out I sat next to them in the restaurant. I thought it was going to be a quiet dinner until lo and behold a massive rush of kids form some sort of group thing showed up all over again. I guess I should have expected that. Two visits to the place, to gaggles of Italian kids. One was a girl that looked like Harry Potter. Another was a boy that looked like a very very young Tom Baker version Doctor Who. The scarf over the T-shirt didn’t help him. Anyway I ordered set menu number 1. It involved a spaghetti with some form of tomato based sauce that was named specially but I couldn’t say what it was supposed to be. The secondi was grilled sausages and fried potatoes. Both primi and secondi were very good and very filling. I was stuffed by the time the fruit came around. It was a choice of uve or melo (if I got it correctly). I chose melo which was a pair of apples instead of the grapes. The meal also included a ¼ bottle of wine. I chose red which was a Sicilian variety that was decent and a bottle of mineral water along with the customary bread. All in all it was a good but noisy meal. And very late by my standards. Can’t see doing that on purpose much.

Italy Day 6 - Long Post

I basically had to get over the issue with not having a GPS one way or another so I got up at 6am and started to get ready nice and early so I could at least exit Palermo before it got far too full of traffic. I had no idea how to get around and some zen was going to have to happen. I managed to get the car in reverse and back out of my space and turn it around and get out the gate all in due course. It took two tries at having them open the gate to get out but I did manage it. Of course getting out of the garage requires climbing a steep incline to get through the timed doors, though on the second look it might actually have sensors to stay open as long as something is inside it. I hope so anyway. I am still not good at driving a manual transmission. By that point in the morning I had 2 hours under my belt. I was hoping it was going to have sensors that open up the doors automatically on the way out, but no, you have to call them to do it then get in the car and get up the hill. I am not good with it under pressure that is for certain so only 2 tries I guess counts for something.


Of course once I got out of the garage it was a question of where I was going. My intention was to get to a town called Caccamo to see the castle there. Their information claims it is one of the largest medieval castles in all of Europe. Of course I got lost and instead of heading west I believe I started heading south. I really just decided to go with the flow for a while and see what signs came about. Eventually I was certain I was very far south but I found a sign that said this way to the A29 which would bring me to Palermo. I decided that at least I could find the A29 and make my way on to Caccamo if I could sort that out. Then along the way I saw that the signs also were pointing the way to the airport. No I wasn’t thinking of flying back to Rome, I wasn’t packed and had none of my stuff… I was thinking maybe I could rent a GPS from the rental company. So I decided to drive there and it wasn’t too bad to do. I found a reasonable parking space for the few minutes I would need. Of course I don’t think anyone ever gets tickets or towed in all of Sicily for all the signs that say so. So many people violate parking laws that the police would have no chance to get everyone. I guess no one fears the retribution at all.

Inside the rental place it was obvious a large flight must have just come in because there were a lot of people in line at my rental place. I guess it is not just Dollar/ Thrifty but also AutoEuropa. Anyway after a few minutes in line I managed to get a different girl than the one that had “helped” me the other day, although she was there and recognized me. With some pointing to signs and a bit of effort I explained I had already rented the car and wanted the GPS. It took a bit but they realized it could be done and she found one in the back of the booth but it was not powering on. She took me out to the car and we powered it on with the car running and it did actually work. Going back in I had to sign an agreement to pay 10 Euro a day to rent it and then I was on my way. This did make me feel a lot better. I was able to change the language from German to UK English for speaking and to American English for writing with a bit of guesswork. I think it took me less than 5 minutes.

Set up properly I put in a course for Caccamo city center (not knowing exactly where to go for the castle though I knew it was on a mountain top and likely not near the center of the town). This took me back through Palermo and on past, say about 40 miles or so. I cannot be certain. I managed to get through the ugly parts of Palermo with only one minor and one serious stall (the second I thought I was in first but must have shifted to 3rd by accident. Anyway, the rest of the motorway was not so bad and it was a bit of learning what gear for what speed. I am sure I am not at all fuel efficient when it comes to all of that. I started the day with about an 8th of a tank used and finished with half a tank left. I am sure some of it is the amount of driving I did. Anyway getting back on to the trip at hand I was able to make the correct turns according to the GPS but it decided a shorter route was through a tiny 1.5 lane road that goes up the mountain a slightly different way than the main SS258 route. It was squishy and steep and every time a car came in the other direction it was rather tough to make the both of us fit. I did manage a major stall because I hadn’t realized how steep it was getting and didn’t manage to get into lower gears fast enough. All the same I was able to get moving through some strange pass of fate that allowed me to not drop back down the hill and then have to contend with the 2 cars that were coming when I had just got through to the top. This put me on the actual route and it was a full 2 lane road from here. I think maybe it was 20 more minutes of driving to site of the castle. I could see it from the car and there was a large unused parking area so I chose to use that rather than search too hard because well I had to get out and walk by this point. I think it was probably around 11 or 11:30 by this point and I had been driving since 7am. That is certainly a lot of driving for me, especially in the manual. I guess I did increase my driving experience by 200% though so that was nice. I should give the recognition that every road I was on aside from the motor was 100% up my brother David’s ally for driving. This went in both directions. They were all windy mountain roads with lots of sharp drops, hairpin turns and steep inclines and declines. I am amazed I made it through it honestly. I suppose I wouldn’t think twice about it if the car was an automatic but it was a feat for me.

Caccamo Castle was about a 3 minute walk from where I parked. The whole town looked deserted except maybe a couple locals. I walked up to the gate expecting it was closed on Thursday but indeed it was not and I could enter. The ticket counter was inside a side building, I think just above the stables. It cost 4 Euro to enter. None of the people there spoke English of course. I might have been the first customer of the day. I walked around the outside areas that were allowable and also found the main building which was apparently above the ticket counter. It is nice looking from the outside when you can see it. I suspect I would have to have driven down to the lake to see the castle on the mountain in spectacular fashion but I had decided already that was not going to happen. It appears the castle was lived in until the 1960s or so when it was sold to the Italian government to be made into a historic landmark. Having been used to then it had electrical and the like installed and there was obvious modern stuff that they were probably trying to keep out of sight poorly. I should point out that no one was inside the main building at all. If I was not supposed to take flash pictures there were no signs and no one to tell me not to. There was also no one to tell me not to go here or there and checked out everything I could. I could tell there was another floor above the one I was able to get into but I wasn’t going to break their barriers anyway. So while it is probably a fairly big castle it felt small due to the limitations of where you can go on the grounds and inside. I walked around everything 2 or three times to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Just as I was deciding to leave some new guests did show up so at least I wasn’t the only fare for the day. It is obvious some renovation work was done on the castle and the grounds. The walkways would be treacherous for someone with weak knees or ankles though.

After seeing the castle I thought I should walk the town a little and see if there was any place to get decent pictures from. I wandered a bit, found a couple of the churches (yes, every town has 20 or so churches, probably more churches than residents). I found a couple spots to get some decent pictures, got stuck in a dead end then backtracked and headed to the car. It was about 1pm or so and the GPS said it would take half an hour to get back maybe. I figured on longer but it was not really too far off. In leaving the parking lot I forgot the parking brake again. I did manage to rectify that of course.

I should point out that I broke the suction thing that attached to the windshield trying to take it off. Not really sure what happened but it came down in 2 pieces. I had to wedge it in the stuff slot above the radio for the trip back. That seemed to work though I had to watch it sway back and forth on shaper turns and the sun sort of washed out the screen a lot in that position. Anyway it worked. I also didn’t mention the weather conditions. It was probably 65F or so all day. There was a hint of cool in the breezes that were coming in but not anything that would really make me think that I was going to need a jacket at all. Everyone was staring at me though because I was in a short sleeve T-shirt and they were all bundled up in their fullest winter clothing. This went for tourists as well as the locals. In fact when the girl from the rental place went outside to the car to test the GPS she put on a big puffy winter coat for the less than 5 minutes we were out there. I was wondering where she had gone when she came out with it on. I was able not to laugh but I do think I smirked because I just do not get the idea that 65 is cold at all.

The GPS guided me into the hotel very easily and it was not very confusing at all coming from the west. At about 1:30pm it was not too traffic-filled either so I was able to get to the hotel reasonably easily and even lucked out that some guy in a moped was leaving the garage as I came in so I didn’t have to stop and run through the nightmare of getting started and into the gate before it closed. I went up the desk and fortunately the man there spoke English very well and I was able to borrow some super glue to fix the GPS bracket while I ate lunch in the restaurant in the hotel. It appears to have held and I am not using it until tomorrow at this point so perhaps it will continue to work. Won’t know till I try it. At the least if I can fake fix it to give back to the rental company I will be happy. For lunch I had an eggplant lasagna that was made with spaghetti-Os instead of lasagna noodles. Ok, they weren’t really spaghetti-Os but they were O shaped pasta that looked a lot like them. It was tasty and enjoyable. I bought a gigantic bottle of water not knowing what they meant when they said grande. I brought that up to the room after I was done. I honestly didn’t know what I was ordering as the menu was in Italian only. I just pointed at something and hoped for the best. I think it worked out. I was full when I was done. I think the water did remind me I hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before though. There are really no other restaurants around the hotel so far as I can see. Oh, not minutes after I sat down at the restaurant the entire crowd of noisemakers neighbors I had the night before showed up to have dinner also. It was obviously something tour provided and they were having a family style setup that actually looked very nice. It meant that the 2 people serving were overwhelmed and of course the nice quiet lunch I was hoping for was anything but quiet.

After lunch I dropped some stuff off at the room and aimed for the Catacombe Cappucini which are a few blocks away from the hotel. The claim to fame of the catacombs is that the local Cappuchin order used to mummify their dead and many of the locals and display them in the catacombs. There are a lot of mummies in there. They do not allow you to take pictures so I had to buy a pamphlet that shows some of it for those who are interested. There are people there of all ages and from times as old as at least the 1500s to 1920 when the last mummy was made. Apparently the Italian government outlawed the practice around then and people that did it moved on to elsewhere or died. The 1920 mummy is that of a 2 year old girl and is, no surprisingly in the best shape of the bodies. The truth is that most of them really don’t look so much like mummies anymore. There are a few that still have skin, especially on the face, but most are bare skulls honestly. The one thing that you can see immediately is how short these people were. I am thinking 4 feet and very little in general. I assume the mummification shrunk them some, but at 5’7” I would have to have been a giant among them.

I can’t say that it took a ton of time to go through the catacombs but it must have been at least 45 minutes or so. I was not rushing. It was 3 Euros to get in and 1.50 Euros to buy the pamphlet. I detoured my route back to the hotel to find a bank to take some more money out for the future and got back to the room by about 4:40 or so. Kind of an early stop but still a very full day. Due to the hotel restaurant not opening until 8 for dinner I have been avoiding eating that late and I haven’t the will to try to scour until I can find someplace else to eat so I have been subsisting off 1 meal a day. I think my stomach is shrinking a bit when I expected it to be growing. I don’t believe in stress but I guess I may be feeling it because I have not really been hungry most of the time anyway.

Italy Day 5

Today I decided my best bet was to really see what I could find of value in Palermo. I don’t think it is really a tourist town at all but it does have a few sites. The weather was not going to be great and it is getting light only at 7am right now. On Sunday morning that will change to 6am or so as they turn their daylight savings time. I decided on a rather late start where I would not get out of bed until 8am. I know this is totally against my way but I think I am still frozen about the manual transmission car and the lack of a GPS. If I had been smart, as soon as I realized it was stolen I should have turned right back into the office for the rental place and rented a GPS as well. I suppose I still have the option to go there and rent one anyway. I am sure though that I will have to confront the angry woman who spoke little English again to do so.


First I asked the desk of the hotel if they had a city map and they did. I was not really sure what I was looking for. As I said this is not a tourist town and the sites are not, “Wow, that’s obvious.” So after orienting myself to the map I chose to head down the road I started yesterday with the intentions of turning left a short distance down. It appeared to be a road that would bring me to more locations of interest. I managed to find instead, probably because I passed the road I was looking for, a very long set of streets that made up a fresh, open air market. It was nice to make my way through it. It didn’t appear that tourists don’t go down that way too often and after I had passed through the 6 to 10 blocks that made up the course I found myself in a non-descript back alley sort of location. Fortunately I was able to guess on the correct couple turns to get where I wanted to go.

That accidentally happened to bring me right out to the Cathedral of Palermo. It has a fairly nice sized square in front of it and from the outside it looks very big. If there was an entry charge they weren’t doing so at that point and I didn’t see any signs that said not to take pictures so I went in and took a few while I was at it. I don’t think it was anything spectacular. I could not say how old it is. It definitely has a lot of signs of wear and tear that suggest either age or poor upkeep, especially as you look to the ceiling. Either way it was nice I guess, not something you would gasp in awe due to but certainly a showing of the Catholic expenditure of wealth.

After finding the Cathedral I could easily orient myself on the map and was able to find a park that had a lot of tropical style palms and a largish fountain and also a smaller set of ruins inside. It was free and only took a few minutes. I could tell the people at the park were curious to see someone looking at the ruins. I guess they get skipped a lot. Just further up the road I came to the Norman Palace. I am not sure what it used to be but I had found the back side by accident. I suspect it is really used for some form of governmental meetings. Palermo is the capital of the island of Sicily, so there stands to reason that something government-like could happen here. Fortunately, it said to go to the front for tourist entrance and I did just that.

The entrance cost 10 Euro for 2 sets of attractions. The Norman Palace and Chapel was one and the underground wall excavation exhibit. I started off with the chapel which was very brightly done. It reminded me of the city hall in Stockholm due to the mosaics done in gold. I am not sure but I would assume this came first of course. If I remember the history of the Stockholm City hall it is not that old. Of course I could find no dating for the chapel or the palace for that matter. It was in good enough condition that I have to consider it somewhat suspect anyway. The chapel was small though and only took a few minutes to look at. I then moved into the palace area where apparently people can only go in in groups. The lady at the entrance must have given an Italian spoken tour and there was a tour bus tour going through from England that she allowed a few of us that didn’t speak Italian to tag along with. It was very confused and not terribly structured at all. There was a room akin to the city hall of Stockholm where what looked like a governmental meeting might take place but there were also older rooms that did look like they belonged in a palace. It was reasonably well preserved, I assume because it is in use in some way. There were lots of people making sure the tourists didn’t go into the wrong places. After the palace I found my way down to the excavation exhibit which showed all the 5 various stages of the wall from pre-Roman times through to later medieval constructions that they had found. It was interesting to read but I suppose it didn’t really look like much. Still it is neat to think the oldest walls there were well over 2000 years old.

After exiting the Norman Palace (honestly it is not very exciting looking from the outside) I moved my way back up the street past the Cathedral again. In reading the map it looked like a good idea to head to the waterfront to find the Castle of the Sea (Cassel del Mare). I was not sure what it was, but it was printed as number 1 in the tourist map. Since the locations and numbers were not in a specific order I thought that perhaps this meant it was considered the best attraction. Along the way it started to rain and I found an actual sit down restaurant that was open. I decided to enter even though there was no one eating there. I suspect it is because the locals all eat standing up at the various bars and bakeries rather than spending their lunch sitting down. I am a bit surprised at this considering the reputation of the Italian love for food but this seems to be the case both in Rome and in Sicily. People do not sit down to eat for lunch. Anyway, I had a fettuccini with cream sauce and artichokes and buffalo mozzarella cheese. It was very filling and tasty. The pasta was a touch undercooked but I would rather undercooked a little than overcooked any day of the week. I accompanied that with a small Moretti beer.

It was not done raining when I exited the restaurant but it was not coming down hard so I pressed on. There was not far to go to get to the waterfront where there is a large port. From there I turned left which is presumably west and followed the half circle road that rounds the bulk of the port. That brought me to the site of some ruins but it didn’t really look like much. I consulted the map again and yes, it was indeed the Cassel del Mare. Not remotely what I was expecting. I guess the numbering system on the map didn’t really mean much, maybe 1 was the easiest to skip? Either way it was not a terrible waste. It was 2 Euro to visit. Most all of it was outside except one standing tower building that might have been an entryway from a moat. Hard to say, the ruins are very old of course and they have they have excavated I am sure. I did use that building to shelter from some of the rain but after a while it was obvious I would get no stoppage only lesser and harder rain periods. I pretty much saw all of the ruins there and then turned around and backtraced my steps to the Norman Palace because if I was reading the map correctly it would be easy to find the hotel from there.

While I was still in the half circle around the port it really started to come down hard and I had to take shelter under some low trees on the sidewalk that did afford a bit of protection. I think I was there for about 10 minutes before it lightened up enough for me to consider moving on again. At that point I made the trek back the way I had come and found that my guess was basically correct as to where I needed to go to get to the hotel. I was just thinking I would have to turn left instead of right and it was the reverse. But it was only a few blocks back from there anyway and that was a good thing because as I got to the last couple blocks I was met with another very hard bout of rain and I was nearly drenched by the time I actually got into the room.

After that I decided to relax and watch some videos on my computer. I figured the rain would pass though I heard again another serious push of rain come through while I was in the room. It appears that tonight I have some sort of Italian kids tour sharing my floor with me. Where day 4 the hotel was nice and quiet, they are instead loud and knocking on doors and the like making it a bit less pleasant to be in the hotel. Of course the recognizable thing about kids is that they don’t realize there might be others in the vicinity when they are making all the noise. Ah well… at least they got quiet by bed time it seems.

Italy Day 4 - Continued

After getting settled into the hotel and calming down for a bit I opted to take a walk to see if there was anything interesting nearby. Not knowing the area very well and being unable to find a map in the hotel lobby I had to keep it simple I was sure. With that in mind I opted to get to the main street, Via Tukory which the hotel is off of and then take a right and walk until I came to something interesting. Unfortunately, nothing really interesting came before the street layout got confusing and I figured I would end up lost. I could see the mountains nearby to the right and decided that the road looked like a straight shot to them. The funny thing about mountains is that they always appear closer than they really are. I certainly walked quite a distance to get as close to them as I dared. There was something like a highway between them and me and I wasn’t sure it would be safe to cross.

I really didn’t take a ton of pictures because I really didn’t see a lot that was of interest. The thing I can point out is that the city of Cusco in Peru was much cleaner and seemed much less impoverished than Palermo. I am not sure which city is indeed more poor but I think if you looked at the pictures from both you would probably think Palermo.

I need also to point out the road system here. It makes the streets of Boston seem like a simple, logically thought out road plan. I can tell that there are a lot of one way streets and that a road can turn one way in a moment’s notice and that it may turn one way in the opposite direction to which you are going. All of this makes losing the GPS so huge that I basically am still stunned as to how I am going to do anything. Aside from the knowledge that when I drive out of town I am going to have to leave very early in the morning to reduce the suicidal traffic I really need to know where I am going. I am going to make it a goal to see if I can find a way to purchase a new GPS on day 5 but I suspect based on what I have seen so far that it is going to be a nearly impossible task. I just don’t see anyplace that sells modern technology. The hotel does not have even a tiny flat screen TV like the one in Rome did and I suspect that HD is just a fantasy around here.

While walking I found a sandwich shop and had a tall Moretti beer and a ham and cheese Panini. It was good and filling but certainly not 4 star material. Still when I got back to the hotel I just managed to beat some more very heavy sounding rain. I watched a little bit of TV then though I would go downstairs to eat dinner in the hotel restaurant only to find out that it opens at 8pm. It was still well before 7, closer to 6, so I decided I was done for the day, watched some more TV then crashed for the evening expecting a later start than other days to make sure the sun came up and to figure out what I was going to do in Palermo. I suspect there must be one or two nice things to see here but it will take some work to figure out. I have to be careful not to use too much data on the iPhone or the bill will be outrageous. If it was a fully functional GPS I would not care, but it is very poor at the feature even if I was able to use it to get to the hotel. In that sense it would be a waste to overuse it.

Interlude - Lessons in Luggage and Driving Manual Shift

This isn't the full day 4 post but I needed to get this in before long and I might as well start now. Yes, I have made it to Sicily. I flew on a budget airline called Blue Panorama. I am not flying back on the same airline, instead AlItalia.  I had to get up very early to get on my way.I was up at 4am becuase for some dumb reason I scheduled my flight to leave at 7:15am. A saner person would have chosen something like noon. Live and learn. I got to the train station and it was just opening at 5am but the train for the airport was not leaving until 5:52. I was not sure if this would give me enough time to make it but I figured worst case I could purchase a new ticket at whatever cost and just get on my way over here. So the flight itself was uneventful if a bit bumpy due to some inclement weather over Sicily. I think I slept through the majority of the flight because I didn't really sleep well again the night before.

The adventure starts when I get out of the plane, collect my luggage and head over to the car rental place via a shuttle bus. When I get there everyone is going to other rental areas aside from Dollar/Thrifty. It meant no line which was nice. The woman at the desk spoke English very poorly and any time I asked her a question she would choose to ignore it mainly. This for every time I asked if I could perhaps get an automatic, I was willing to pay more.  She deftly ignored every request. I had only the tiniest part of learning manual transmission with my brother and time flew by without a chance to get practice. Then she wouldn't say where the car was which made it difficult to find. After wandering a bit I went back in and asked her to show me. It was nowhere near where all the Dollar signs are, which is a tad confusing.

This is where it gets uglier. I get in the car and go for my GPS that I bought European maps for just for this trip. Guess what. It wasn't in my backpack.I know I didn't leave it behind. Oh, wait, I probably left it in the camera bag (I keep the camera in the backpack but probably forgot to move the GPS). That's when I find the lock had been jimmied on my suitcase and the contents ripped through. The only thing missing was the GPS of course. They left the camera bag and the other contents (batteries, tripod, the like). I was very angry but I tried to control myself as best I could. I was not sure how I was going to find the hotel, still I wasn't fully in a thinking mood.

I started out on the road and headed for Palermo via the highway system. It made sense that I needed to at least do that. Getting out of the parking lot was interesting. I couldn't figure out how to get the car in reverse, fortunately I did not need it at any point, though I will now. I drove until I got stuck in traffic. The highway itself was not an issue. I was able to get on the road and keep moving fairly easily.  Now that I had hit traffic I had to learn how to drive all over again. The traffic in Palermo is made up of psychopaths who make up their own lanes and spaces to enter or exit. This includes the police cars without their lights flashing. I stalled at least 3 dozen times, often forgetting to downshift when I had to really slow down. I am not a fan of this type of driving, manual transmission, no idea where to go, psychos surrounding me. There is not a moment in the city when you cannot hear a car horn blaring. I finally decided I needed to get off the highway and look for where I was going.

Fortunately I still had the iPhone and i has a poorly implemented google maps feature. All the same it was my life line and I was able to use it to get to the hotel. Every so often where it looked safe to pull overI would do so and check where I was. I managed to not really get lost during that time but I overshot one turn then had to make a U-turn which probably was the easier way to go anyway. I got to the hotel at about 11:15 or so. The place really does have parking but it is in a small garage underneath the hotel with a locked gate that you need to buzz to get into and I suppose out of as well. I am not going to like getting up that hill and out the door in time.  I needed to take the book into the room and translate how to put the car in reverse. Apparently I have to lift up the stick and push to the reverse position. I hope it makes sense when I try it.

Anyway I am not done for the day but I am exhausted so I am not sure what else I will accomplish. It has been a very trying day indeed. Perhaps the most trying I have ever encountered while traveling.  The hotel has internet but it is pay as you go so I am somewhat limited in posting.

Italy Day 3

Today started a bit earlier than day 2 but I did not really sleep well. Perhaps the espresso at dinner time gave me more caffeine than I needed or perhaps it was one of my Sunday night insomnia attacks I very rarely get. It was not a matter of being awake really as not being asleep. Anyway, I got showered and out the door by 7:30 or so and was able to try their continental breakfast included in the stay at the hotel. The coffee was a bit rough but not terrible. I had a croissant that was stuffed with nutella. I didn’t know it was stuff till I was a bit into it. Otherwise I would probably have tried something else. It was very sweet.


After breakfast I walked westward towards the river and came upon the Castle of Saint Angelo. It was however closed because it was Monday. During the walk it started to rain some and by the time I got there it got very heavy for a bit. I ended up hiding under a bridge for a little while. This ended up working out well as when I finally decided to get on the move again it was light rain for a bit. During that time I was walking along the river (I assume the Tiber) and there were a lot of very tall trees providing cover. I was very close to the Vatican but I decided I would wait until the return trip to Rome to visit the Vatican. I thought the rain might cheapen it up a bit so I skipped on it for today. Due to the rain I was a bit limited in pictures for the early portion of the day. The rain did eventually go away though the sky stayed overcast all the way.

I went down the river past the Circus Maximus which also allowed for some southern views of the Roman Forum. It wasn’t a very long walk to there technically but I went on a very roundabout route and that made the trip seem very long. I managed to find some maps that explained where the Appia Antica was and decided I would see what I missed on day 2. It brought me to a chance to see the Cisto Pyramid and I opted to turn off course for that first. I was beginning to despair that I had been led astray by the sign when I found it lodged behind another closed monument. After a couple quick pictures I turned around and headed back so I could find the Appian Way.

I did indeed find the Appian Way. At the head is the Termi de Caracala, which is a very large Roman bathhouse. It was 6 Euro to get in. Like most of the Roman structures it is basically in complete ruins, but not surprising since it is over 1800 years old. The buildings were obviously gigantic. I was amazed at how large it was. They had managed to find some mosaic artwork as well in the ruins and some of those were on display in the ruins. Overall for the price it was well worth the visit. By the way Termi means bath house. They manufactured their own heating and water flow for the bath house. It is very incredible to think about from so long ago.

After the Termi I walked further up the road and found the Appia Antica for real. Unfortunately it not being Sunday meant the road was jammed full of psychopathically driven cars and the road is very narrow and does not have much by way of pedestrian space. I still tried to make my way through it but I had already been on my feet for about 5 hours so far by the time I got there. Still I made my way down to a point that would have led to two catacombs for saints but both were closed, apparently for lunch until 2pm by the time I got there. I walked to look at both of them and in the second I found a sign depicting how long the route is. I am sure if I had not detoured or really had decided to head there first thing and found it I could have cleared the course, but as it stands I was more than enough tired and decided to turn around and head for home.

Since I knew where I was going and was making a straight shot it was not terribly long to the Coliseum. I opted to have a late lunch at the Domus Antica which is right off the edge of the Coliseum. I had 2 Peroni and Penne alla Pesto which was very enjoyable. From there I tried to find some of the other nearby ruins because it was still early enough I didn’t want to head into the room. I tried to find the Domus Aureus which was apparently owned by Nero and used by him as a support building to the Coliseum. It is well disguised right now because it is closed for renovations. I had to turn myself around 3 times before I found the actual entrance and the sign that said it was closed. With that I realized anywhere else would be too far out of my way for the day and I headed back to the room. It was too early to eat dinner, besides lunch wasn’t that long before so I just relaxed in the room for a bit.

When it was near 6pm I opted to go back down to La Mensa di Bacco for dinner where I had Pizza alla Capriccio accompanied by a glass of red wine. I followed that with a panna cotta that was enjoyable. I skipped on the coffee to hopefully get some sleep. After dinner it was back to the room to prepare for the early departure to Sicily.

Italy Day 2

Today I woke up a bit late for me but I am sure it was partially due to the excessive duration of the day before. I did not set the alarm on purpose because I knew I would need a bit of extra sleep, and besides it was Sunday. I didn’t expect Italy to be open much on Sunday. I was surprised to find out that overall they were open.


I skipped the hotel breakfast. I had intended to find the Appian Way which is supposed to be closed to cars and open to pedestrians on Sunday but I didn’t really have a map that went out that far and the internet was not available in the hotel room to check google maps. I had looked before at the location and knew that it was basically southeast of the hotel. I had an idea how to get there and tried it. Along the way I found signs that pointed to Appia and assumed that was where I was supposed to head. I visited a basilica because it was along the way then took a definite wrong turn to the south and backtracked until I found the Via Appia Nouva which I followed for some distance (say 2 hours or so before I got to a point where it was difficult to say where I should go next. In checking on the maps as I remembered it, it only should have been a couple miles and if I wasn’t there by 2 hours of walking something really went wrong.

I did find a park that was the Tombe de Latino it said and walked that for the short distance it took up. I found my way back to the aqueduct (I assume) I had already seen then I worked my way over to the Coliseum then walked around that area for a bit. The lines to get in were outrageously long and I didn’t think I could sit through a line like that. I found my way instead to the Roman Forum and Palantine and nearby bought lunch by way of a roadside cart. I had a pizza and a coke and after that went back and bought a Fragela (strawberry) ice cream (gelato). I took the ice cream to the line to get into the Forum and finished it before I got in. Still the line wasn’t terribly long. Much better than waiting for the Coliseum. The ticket I bought allowed entry into both which was a good thing later on. The grounds of the Forum and Palantine are huge. I walked for several (at least 4) hours through them though I do think I hit just about every site in there. I guess by blind luck I basically followed the best path through the place with the exception of one little bit I had to get through at the end where I was required to backtrack.

Inside you see the Forum, the stadium, Augustus’ house (which was very small honestly and not the most thrilling place in the world but I trust it was more opulent back then), several temples and other buildings. It is obvious that Roman structures were not truly built to stand the test of time without severe upkeep. Most of the masonry is very heavy on mortar and thin on bricks except in key areas. I am not an architect but I assume the mortar wears out faster over time than do the bricks thus lowering the structural integrity of everything. I assume more mortar than brick was cheaper and easier to build but again I am not an expert on that stuff. Still the grounds are amazing to see and there are still some interesting items that have survived (whether they were dug up and restored or just survived on their own). One thing is sure is that they had amazing sculptors in their day. The work is incredibly detailed so that even I who am not an art fan can tell it is very good.

After the walk through the Forum and Palantine I went straight over to the Coliseum. The entry line was much smaller and since I could ignore the line to buy the ticket I got right in. I think I skipped the line I was supposed to go through for people who already had tickets but I am not telling anyone there that. I ended up going through an entrance that was meant for the people who just bought their tickets I think. If that was not what I was supposed to do it had to have saved me a half an hour of waiting. Anyway, the Coliseum is very big and what is left of it again shows the Roman method of building. Most of it is basically ruins that have been somewhat renovated. Understand that it was burned down in the 3rd century and then it was rebuilt. It also suffered 2 earthquakes which is why one side is collapsed. All things considered, for something that is 2000 years old or more it is in great shape. Probably better shape than Fenway Park. You get to go through two levels of the Coliseum and it is very crowded. I suspect it is crowded from open to close each day. I did enjoy going through it though and I managed to catch the spiels from some various English speaking tour guides along the way in there and read what there was to read posted around. Not as much as in other museums or historic landmarks but still well written and interesting. I suspect they want you to buy the audio guide to go along with you. A lot of people did that in both of the landmarks I visited. By the way, it was 12 Euros for the two attractions combined.

By the time I was done it was nearly 5:30pm. I had walked all day with the only stop where I sat was when I ate my pizza before going into the Forum. That was probably less than 10 minutes. I took a guess on the proper direction to the hotel and with the aid of the GPS I had stowed in my camera bag was able to find my way back to the basic vicinity and find someplace to eat by about 6:45 or so. I chose to eat at a place across the street from the hotel called La Mensa di Bacco and had a set menu with a glass of red wine. The menu included lasagna which was very good, grilled sole which was good but a bit salty (I used a ton of lemon to try to cut it some which seemed to work) and roasted potatoes which were far too filling to finish after all the other food. It included dessert which was a fruit salad cup that was actually fresh fruit. I accompanied that with an espresso . All that for under 20 Euros. I was happy overall. If only the fish wasn’t too salty.

From there it was back to the room to basically crash for the night because I was really tired. That was over 10 hours of walking really and though I can handle it, it was sort of tough to get out of the chair at the restaurant.

Some commentary on Rome that I should have provided earlier. One is that it is not a very clean city I am sorry to say. There is a lot of trash on the ground. There is less dog poop than Paris had but it is obvious that people do not police their dogs around here either. Second there is graffiti everywhere. I mean aside from just the train tracks there is graffiti on practically every building and sign and wall and fence. In fact it was surprising they leave the trees along to me. I realize that inside the protected areas there is a lot less and that relegated to carvings that may have been there for a long time but still it is disappointing. It appears that Rome has much more graffiti than Copenhagen and Copenhagen has a lot. So far most people that work at the various places seem impatient if snidely helpful. Probably more so than the Parisians. Either way I can’t say I am surprised much. I am just mostly unhappy with the dirty nature of everything. The other thing is how sprawled out the whole city is. I did not expect it to be a tall city and it is not, but it is definitely not just one big tourist area. There are large stretches in between tourist sites that have just residential buildings which is a bit unusual to the other cities I have been to. Their historic sites are so old that most of them are mostly destroyed. Perhaps that has something to do with it. I mean in comparison Stockholm’s historic area is over 1200 years younger.

Italy Day 1

Day one of course is always all about the flight. In this case the flight was almost the entirety of the day even though it did not have to be. I got a ride to the airport for about 6:30pm as my flight was to take off at 9:30. Three hours is more than enough time to get through check-in, security and get situated for the flight but it makes things easier for everyone involved to just get there. I flew British Air and that meant terminal E in Logan which I hadn’t been to in some time now. After I got through all the checks I went to the bar down by the far end of the terminal (I think it used to be named Hoolihan’s but now is O’Brians. The bartender who was there from my previous trips through terminal E was there again and she even treated me to a free beer. The flight started boarding a few minutes late but nothing bad.


On the first leg which is the longer of the two I sat darned near the back of the plane and was next to a late middle-aged German man who lives about half an hour from the border of Denmark he said. While they were serving food and drinks he and I talked about a few things. He had just visited Boston and is an avid fisherman. His English was very good. About 2 hours or so into the flight we both decided to get some sleep and I am sure I slept from that exact point to the landing. I woke up just in time to see us touch down. We got in a few minutes earlier than we were supposed to.

After clearing passport control and herding through the terminal I found that Heathrow doesn’t really give gate information until a plane is just about to board, so I had no idea where to go. I found a quieter spot of the terminal and sat there and slept some more and read while I had what was supposed to be a bit less than 4 hours of layover time. In reality it turned out to be over 6 hours. I was not happy about that. The wait felt like it was forever especially because they never updated gate information. The departures board just said the flight was delayed and its new time, which I didn’t believe (and it wasn’t right by the end either).

The second flight was 2 hours or so and I mainly just tried to sleep on it. I would say the flight was uneventful but in truth we ran into some clear air turbulence and the kid diagonally across the aisle and ahead of me ended up tossing his cookies and his mother spent something like 20 minutes cleaning it all up. It was pretty much everywhere. The turbulence was a bit heavier than normal but nothing I thought would cause airsickness. Anyway, we ended up landing after 6pm Rome local time. I followed through the process of passport control then on to get my bag which was fairly deep in the unloading of luggage unfortunately. After that it was to the train station and the Leonardo Express to Roma Termini (Rome Central Station). In trying to buy a ticket for the train the people in front of me started and argument with the ticket seller and it was looking like I was going to miss the one that was already there but fortunately I did not have to because he shooed them away in time.

The train ride was basically dark. It was already dark out and past 7pm by the time the train was on the move. I couldn’t really see anything. On occasions I could see graffiti but that was about it. The ride was about half an hour long. During the trip I turned on the GPS and watched it try to figure out why the car was on the train tracks so much. When I got to Roma Termini I was able to use it to get me to the hotel without any issues in very short order. It was still after 8pm when I called home to say I made it safe. I took a shower and headed out to get something to eat.

I ended up at Ristorante Alfredo which was one block up the street. I chose it because it seemed crowded and they had outdoor seating that was easily accessible. I had seen the place walking to the hotel. The food was decent. I had a beer and penne al arrabiato which wasn’t as spicy as I would have liked. It was tasty though and I used the bread he brought late in the meal to sop up some of the sauce. I assume the beer was Perroni but I cannot be sure. After eating I just headed back to the room to write this and crash for the night. It was a long exhausting day. The room is small, but not terribly so. The place is neat and clean and not too run down. There is a security buzzer on every floor to keep the wrong people out I guess. I got put on the 6th floor which means up one flight of stairs, onto a lift to the 5th floor and then out and up the last flight of stairs to the 6th. I chose to just use the stairs without the suitcase but it is a lot of stairs really.

I will not be able to post pictures before the return as internet is limited all around.

Flying Tonight for Italy

Tonight I fly for my trip to Italy. I will be flying to Heathrow through British Airways with a longer stopover than I prefer but the price was right, then on to Rome from there. I will be arriving in Italy in the late afternoon.  Currently the weather looks to be in the low 70s which is perfect to me.  I hope it is able to stay in that range for the trip. We'll see of course.

I will of course be blogging up the trip but until I confirm my internet status for both locations (Rome and Palermo) I cannot say if I will be able to post every day.  Next post from the other side of the ocean.

Italy in 10 Days

Ok, so the new job has really torn into my preparation time. I expected that. It is fortunate I did a lot of the planning back when I booked everything earlier in the year. I have a basic itinerary that I have put together for each day that I will be there. Obviously I may have to modify it depending on weather but I think it's a good start.

I have managed to start packing now but I will have to get a few more things in order before then.  At this point I think the change in jobs has sort of caused me to lose some of the anticipation I usually have for a trip because I just haven't had a lot of time to think about it but I am sure by next week where I am not running a class I will be a lot more excited about it.