The road to Palermo

Danillo dropped me at the station of Roccalumere around 12pm. The few and far between trains was due at 12.20 and I had a long journey to get to Palermo around 6pm. It was only a 30min train then a wait for an hour or so before the bus to Palermo.

I was a bit sad to leave, but in the helpx program its all about experiences and moving on to the next place. I think Danillo was a bit sad too. So I don’t do “goodbyes”, its just “until we meet again”s for me.

The bus from Messina to Palermo started out ok until 30mins in and atop a hill, fortunately next to a petrol station it broke down. All 50 passengers were unloaded, luggage and all and waited for another bus to arrive. It did 45 mins later and we were on our way again. I noticed the landscape was completely different on the northern coast. A lot more commercial and the residences were mostly multi storey apartment blocks around 30-40 years old. Apparently a lot were disturbed during an earthquake and not surprising as most of the mountainous countryside was tall rocky cliffs along the coast. They built the freeway in some places 80mtrs above the ground on huge concrete pylons that stretch for miles between tunnels through the mountains. I now know where all the concreters come from .... Sicily!

I eventually arrived in Palermo, a dirty city as I viewed from the bus window. Many Northern Africans along the streets, it didn’t seem like I was in Italy at all. At the bus station my instructions were to get the bus to Palermo Airport, one hour away as Antonio was meeting his son who had flown from London via Milan and daughter who lives in Palermo.

I waited for almost an hour at the airport carpark before he arrived in his Mercedes. An old one at that! We waited a while longer as Andrea, his son, had lost his luggage in transit. It was still in Milan and we would need to return to pick it up maybe tomorrow. Andrea was a lovely guy, a finance manager for international trade in London so his English was almost perfect. Ornella, a little grumpy most of the time was okay with English but pretty much didn’t say anything to me the whole time she stayed at the villa.

We arrived at the villa and Antonio introduced me to another helpxer, Koleta from New Zealand. She had flown from New Zealand for 2 days to spend 4 days in Sicily, and fly back....Crazy. I said she could have gone to Lygon St and seen more of Italy than being here in the villa! But more on that later.

After a quick tour of the villa, it was late so Antonio started preparing dinner of Pasta and tomatoes. I was asked to chop an onion. No in fact I was shown how to chop an onion. My Australian way was not good enough apparently and that it wouldn’t taste the same. Now he was coming into his own and aggressive and quite rude. I said I am a mother and have been chopping onions for quite some years, but not good enough he said, so I left him to do it his way. I thought this is not going to work for me if he is going to act like this all the time. 2 hours in and I am ready to leave already!

It seems that Antonio, being a professor of Economics isn’t a good people person and definitely a my way or the highway type. Once I got to know him I knew how to handle him but there were a number of times in the week I was there I was ready to walk out. In fact by the Wednesday I rented a car and left for two days. I returned on the Friday night to help out with the changeovers as agreed on the Saturday. Most of the jobs were around the villa cleaning up and doing some of the gardening. I usually just found things to do because he didn’t really have enough for both Koleta and I to fill in the days 5 hour work program. He would say its time for a swim in the pool and we would stop for the day. We would help make some lunch then relax by the pool most of the afternoon. I mentioned making a list of things for us to do, so we can just do them, but it never happened. Cest la vie!

He took us into Balestrate on the Saturday night where it was the fiesta for one of the saints and the town was lively in the Piazza. A band was playing and the streets lined with market stalls of all kinds of wares. Families and teenagers all strolling around the narrow streets, eating ice creams and drinking coffees at the cafe’s. Andrea took Koleta and I on Sunday night where we walked around till 8pm then he picked us up and we went to get his luggage from the Airport. We stopped for Pizza with Antonio on the way back at a beautiful little town just south of Balustrate. Balustrate is a pretty uninteresting town compared to many others I have visited in Sicily. In fact if you took away the signs and changed the language you could think you were in any asian village. So many market stalls and an uninspiring beach its not a picturesque village apart from the Piazza. It is here that it is lined with upmarket cafes and gelatarias with TV screens showing the World Cup games in South Africa. Take that away and in winter it would be dull with a capital D!

The week went on, Koleta had no transport either and I decided enough was enough with Antonio, I am going to rent a car. The villa was located about 4kms in the country from Balestrate and no public transport, you are abandoned with the only means of getting around was to ask Antonio or Andrea for a lift in and be picked up. Too hard and not convenient most of the time, I was like a caged bird. After our 5 hours work we had no way of getting to see anything. Koleta was going back to New Zealand with just the view from inside the villa garden and Balestrate, nothing historic and definitely not the real Sicily.

Antonio was kind enough to drive me the 20kms to the airport even after our disagreement. Then Koleta and I went back to the villa to collect a few things to go off for the evening for dinner and explore some of the area. We got the car from around 5.30 so off to Segesta we went.

A Temple/Parthenon high on a hill in a rural area built in the 5th CenturyBC. Incredible how they managed to hewn the rock and carry it up from the nearby quarry to build this magnificent structure. Luckily when we got there it was closing time and some quick smooth talking the guy let us in the gates for free after claiming “Roma have closed the tickets, come back tomorrow”. The old we are from Australia and leaving tomorrow. (Not exactly true for me, but Koleta was going back to NZ the day after, doesn’t that count!) Anyway we strolled uphill to the Parthenon, took a few pictures and headed off towards Scopello. Scopello on the coast is a beautiful little village also famous for its fortified town, now mostly crumbled but had a quaint village square and boutique shops of various kinds. At least Koleta was seeing some Sicilian historic sites.

We headed down to Castellammare on the way back. I usually head for the Porto first as this is usually where the old cities began and likely to find the most historic areas, not the rows and rows of new apartment blocks that pepper these cities now.

We drove tentatively through the narrow streets trying to find our way to the Porto and a place to park. Not easy as most are one way and barely wide enough to fit my little Fiat Panda through. We parked and walked down the flight of stone stairs belonging to the castle onto the port promenade. Here we came across a little sea side cafe. Al Chiosco Polpo serving cozze (mussels), insalata di mare (salad from the sea) Da Giaccomo on the port of Castellammare by the castle. It is run by a Sicilian family where one of the sons, mama and papa cooks and the younger ones serve. It is watched over by the Aunt, and grand mama dressed in black smiles a lot to the customers.

It is here that I have eaten the best Spaghetti Marinara and Spaghetti Tuna on my second visit ever. So Sicilian, so Bellisimo! Koleta and I were so happy to have found this typical Sicilian restaurant serving the taste of Sicily we expected. We returned to Villa Umperato in Balestrate after stopping for late night coffees in the Piazza at Baccos Cafe. Wheels make all the difference!

Next day we were heading off. Koleta hadn’t seen anything of Sicily apart from yesterday and We decided to head towards Marsala and explore some places on the way. Priority one was to find accommodation near the airport as she was flying out at 10am so getting there was necessary around 8am. We found a place on the net closeby to Birgi airport Trapani but couldn’t check in until 5pm so we decided to look for another. Driving around basically blindfolded for accommodation is difficult in Sicily but we managed to find one closer and cheaper. A little villa with cabins and I negotiated him down from 60euros to 50euros...bargain. No pool but clean and comfortable and very nice people. We set our bags in, rested for an hour or so and headed out to explore the area.

Not far from there was Mozia, the site of the salt pans dating back to last century when an Englishmen “Whittaker” discovered the resource of salt and started mining it in the area. There are large and beautiful windmills which were used to manufacture the salt and now stand proudly along the coastline. A beautiful sight at sunset.

Along the way we would stop at every photo opportunity we could. We came across a Lido (a beach cafe/bathing boxes/beach chairs and umbrellas for hire). It was a private club, very contemporary and still quite a few people lazing around in the late afternoon sun. We met an American-Italian woman Irena who was a member and told us about the fiesta on the Saturday night. Koleta was going back but I thought I might return for it. It was 15euros including dinner and wine and entertainment by a DJ. It sounded like fun, I needed to see how these Sicilians spent their Saturday nights. A few photo opportunities and we were off on the road again.

Not far away is Marsala, the town that the delicious dessert wine comes from. Originally started by the Arab invasion it is still the worlds main production of Marsala dessert wines. We parked and came across a free wine tasting enotica close by. After a few tastings we were on our way into the Piazza and walked around the historic town centro. Such beautiful terraced houses lined the streets with window boxes and decorative iron railings. It was a more sophisticated town like the eastern Sicilian ones I had visited so it was good for Koleta to see some historic monuments.

We sat and watched the world go by for a while in the Piazza overlooking the historic church, observing the meeting and greeting with the mandatory kissy kissy’s and ciao’s of the local people. Women dressed up so beautifully for a visit or heading for an early dinner. The young Italian teenagers zipping around on their scooters like ants around a sugar pile. The narrow cobbled streets of cut granite from 300BC are well worn from the foot traffic. Its incredible to think that its been inhabited by Phoenicians, Carthagians Arabs, Spanish and the Romans, destroyed by its wars and devasted by earthquakes in its long history. And yet here we are in 2010 sitting in an ancient land with its beautiful cite (city) lovingly restored.

Later we went to the port again for some dinner at a Gelateria where we luckily were able to get something to eat. After pointing and using our very basic Italian the sort of fried rice and lasagne was heated to just room temperature but edible, a coffee and icecream was filling enough. There was a duo playing, a singer, dressed in white shirt and bling (of course) accompanied by a keyboard player. A little beyond his use by date, but nonetheless entertaining. I requested a song by “Zucchero” (meaning Sugar) because he said he didn’t have the voice for it. He was a legend in the town it seems but unfortunately an old one and not much of a crowd. He sung what sounded like the same songs over and over, but who am I to know.  So we had to make do with another rendition of what seemed to be the same song. Only this time it was dedicated to Koleta and I and seemed to be a love song by his actions towards us. If only he was younger and much better looking! We felt like requesting him to play something we know....perhaps a bit of Jimmy Barnes?? He had the crokey voice for it! Watching the keyboard player, I noticed that he wasn’t playing much at all as it was all pre recorded and at times he would accidently knock the volume button with his one of many drinks and blast the almost empty cafe patrons off their chairs. A short time later we were greeted by two of the Cabiniere who stopped off for a smoke and an ice cream .... of course.

We headed home in the dark, struggling to find our way back to the B&B. We didn’t know the name of it or the area, but knew it was near the airport somewhere and we had driven that way a few times that day, so it was somewhere in the vicinity of Loccogrande. Doesnt everything look so different in the dark? Up and down what turned out to be our correct street, we didn’t realise we were just a little short of the gated entrance. We finally found it and off to bed, Koleta had an early flight to catch so she needed to pack.

Another journey in my gypsy life is about to start.