Hello again. My travels are soon coming to an end, as I fly home in only a few short days, and I have a sudden guilt and reminder of this blog. Wrap it up, wrap it up, wrap it up!
But first I have to speak to these amazing places we visited because they are worth mentioning.
We spent most of our time in Sicily situated in the small, beautiful tourist town of Cefalu. Cefalu is right on the beach and about an hour of outside of Palermo. We probably wouldn't have heard of this place, except for that Michael's second cousins live there and operate a travel agency business. They welcomed us and found us a lovely little apartment to stay in for the week, which was right on the water. We couldn't have found a better set up. From Cefalu, we were able to make day trips out to places like Palermo and Taurmina (which overlooks Mount Etna). We were also able to relax and enjoy the beach. The best day trip though, was to the very small town of Polizzi, tucked away atop some mountains. This was the town where Michael's Nonna and Nonno came from, and where a bunch of his relatives still live (from his Dad's side). This was a really cool day. These relatives (his dad's cousins and others) welcomed us so warmly, made us a huge feast and took us around the town and introduced us to so many people. We got to see lots of old pictures of Michael's Nonno as a young man and Michael's dad as a small boy. Michael's Italian had been getting stronger and stronger throughout the trip, but this day was a real test. No one there spoke any English, and there was no one around to translate or help. So it was all Michael. He was able to communicate to them throughout the whole day, and translated back and forth to them for me. We were able to share funny stories all day, and we had a really great time.
After about a week in Cefalu, we headed to Trapani where we were flying out to Birmingham from (read: more 1£ tickets on Ryanair!). Getting there was a bit of a nightmare, as we hadn't preplanned too much (as we often don't). What would have been a 2.5 hr drive, took us literally all day. We took a train to Palermo, and then caught another train that was supposed to take us to Trapani. Instead it dropped us off in the middle of nowhere for 3.5 hours. We were stranded in no man's land. It wasn't fun. It taught us a lesson about planning that you'd think we would have learnt months earlier. Apparently on Monday's there are no direct trains to Trapani (how very random. Why Monday's?). Anyway, we arrived in Trapani at around 9:30pm (keep in mind we had left Cefalu around 11:00am). The man running our B&B was a huge ass about this. For some reason this was a MAJOR inconvenience to him (even though we called him and told him we were going to be late, and even though he LIVES there, so is around all the time). A big effing jerk. Anyway the location of the place was great. We were right on the water. We spent the next day walking around this small city/town, enjoyed the sun (though I got super burnt) and had a lovely dinner on our last night in Italy. It was a bittersweet goodbye. I really feel like I got to know this country on so many levels, and I adore it to death. I can't wait to go back. I have seen 9 out of the 16 provinces in Italy. I have seen more of Italy than I have of my own country! Anyway, Mike and I made a deal to come back very, very soon, and probably for longer term.
During our "last supper" outside on a patio with a band playing nearby, we got joined by a... special new friend. An older man in gypsy like clothing sat at a table beside us, and between his swags of his personal bottle of hard liquor, stirred up conversation with us that we rather couldn't avoid engaging in. I can't even remember the full details of this conversation, but it was pretty hilarious. Mike was bothered, as he was hoping for a nice romantic last dinner in Italy without any guests. Anyway, Salvator (as we soon learned his name was) was getting increasingly drunk. He told us stories of his life, how he has travelled the world and lived everywhere. How he would never go to Ireland because, according to him, it is "a war zone, the most dangerous place in the world; you really risk your life when you go there" (though he has never been there himself, and this caused a bit of a heated argument between me (who has been there) and him (who hasn't)). And though he would never go near the likes of Ireland, he has lived in Israel (or "Palestine" as he still calls it) for many years. "Greatest place on the earth," he claims. "I built myself a hut with palm trees and lived for free for ten years! Just fishing and enjoying life!" Also, we learned, Salvator happened to be an ex-actor. He said he was in the original production of Corniglia, but got cut out of the later version that came out. He talked about the film industry as a horrible, disgusting business full of ugly, ugly people. And that Corniglia is a film about ugly, disgusting people. And that the people involved with the making of Corniglia were ugly, disgusting people. (Apparently the director or some man tried to make a move on him. To which he responded with, "I am a man! I was born a man. I do not like other men!") We learnt that he is staying in Trapani now for a while, and though he was vague about his living quarters, he mentioned that his mother lives about an hour outside of Trapani. At one point, towards the end of this highly entertaining night, I was coming back from the bathroom and I heard Salvator saying to Michael, "We could get together... we could meet later." and Michael repeating, "No, no, no, no." (We had the easy excuse of leaving the next day.) Apparently Salvator had offered Michael his mother's home address for us to get together, which Michael politely refused to take.
At the end of the night, when both parties had finished their dinners, we awkwardly left, half wondering if Salvator was going to try to follow us home. Luckily, he didn't. He left saying, "Such bad luck, I always meet my friends on their last day. Bad, bad luck. You both, beautiful, happy people. Great people."
The next day, before catching our flight to Brum, we walked about looking for some snacks, and saw Salvator on the streets selling his gypsy gear. Immediately upon spotting him, Michael said urgently, "Oh my god, there's Salvator, turn the other way!!" We thought it best that we leave our goodbyes with him the way it had been. Plus, we didn't want to buy his shit.
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