Living La Vida Loca

The best laid travel plans sometimes give way to unanticipated curveballs. We were supposed to do a biking trip in Slovenia and Croatia as part of a larger European vacation that included as-yet undiscovered (by us) parts of Italy. Alas, Andrew decided to go off on his electric bike on a sunny day – solo – and missed a sneaky speed bump in a quiet neighborhood…resulting in an over-the-handlebars accident that left him with a broken clavicle, many fractured ribs, and a significantly bruised ego. Thank G-d for helmets!

The end result was a couple of weeks of recouperation that he described as “worse pain than (imagined) childbirth”. After making it clear that he had NO idea what childbirth felt like, I played nurse during his recuperation, and the electric bikes will soon be sold, perhaps replaced at some point with simple pedal assist versions. The impact on our travel plans? We changed our itinerary to a walking tour of Normandy and Brittany in France which turned out to be wonderful.

First stop: Sicily

As planned, our first stop was Sicily – the beautiful sister island off of mainland Italy. We’d visited many other cities and countryside areas of Italy but we’d never explored Sicily and were curious about how it differed in culture, cuisine, and topography. We wanted to find a home exchange on Sicily but there were not many choices that would work for us. We were thrilled to have our daughter, Ruthie, be able to join us for this part of our trip, so we really needed a place that could accommodate mutual privacy, be located near but not in some of the key cities we wanted to check out, etc. We ended up in an Airbnb villa near the very small town of Scopello and the beautiful Zingaro Nature Reserve. While the villa was lovely, it ended up more remote than we’d have hoped, with distances to other cities and villages less accessible and more harrowing than we were comfortable with given the insanity of drivers in Italy as well as distances on non-highways. We live and learn. Despite this, we has a wonderful time getting quality time with Ruthie, enjoying some of the most spectacular seaside vistas, swimming in crystal clear bays, and simply relaxing. Details follow.

The Zingaro Nature Reserve

From a location standpoint, the villa we stayed in had a pathway down to a small cove with a rocky beach – typical of the Sicily shore. This was a lovely feature although the “private” beach was adjacent to a “public” beach that users overflowed from. These are not the wide, sandy beaches we are used to on the California coast, and while the scenery is stunning, the Italians are obviously very accustomed to sharing small sunning areas with many of their fellow bathers. Truly a bit of a beach party. We spent a good part of one day hiking and exploring in the nature reserve that was literally walking distance from our villa, with the goal of at least getting a taste of swimming in the incredibly clear (and brisk) water. The reserve sits along one coast of the island and has paths down to half-dozen coves reached only by hiking or boat.

The hike to this first cove inside the reserve was worth the effort. While the water was cold it was crystal clear and very refreshing after our hike in.

A Day in Palermo – If You Dare!

The manager of the villa we stayed in was a delightful woman named Lydia who really looked after us during our stay. She lives in Palermo and we got along so well that she offered to take us around the city for a day. An offer too good to pass up, Andrew (that brave soul) drove into the city so we could meet up with Lydia. It soon became clear that Palermo was way too crowded for our wandering taste and the local drivers are, in a word, insane. Never mind that parking is nearly impossible – pedestrians, despite the law, do NOT have the right of way…crossing the street is an exercise in playing chicken with cars and motorcycles. Literally! In spite of the logistical nightmare, we did manage to meet up with our sweet guide who took us around all the tourists to see some of the historic beauty, have lunch at a gluten-free restaurant owned by her friend, and arranged a private pass to tour a private estate turned art exhibit. Lydia’s significant other was the overall project manager for this beautiful conversion.

[Photos: Left – Central Palermo; Middle: Historic statues; Right/below – Estate turned art exhibit]

A Glorious Day at Sea

The most memorable day in Sicily for me was our day out on the water with a young driver who owns four boats with a partner for taking tourists out for a sea view of the island and swimming. He took us along the entire coast from Castellammare del Golfo (a town not far from where we were staying) all the way up to San Vito Lo Capo.

The weather was stellar, and we had the chance to stop in a few of the half-dozen coves along the coast. Ruthie and I decided in one of the coves to swim from the boat to the beach and back. It was great except as we were on our way back to the boat we spotted some small pink jellyfish. While Ruthie was cool and calm I was a bit freaked and to stay calm we started singing from Finding Nemo: “Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming…” Whew! A good laugh was had as we climbed back to safety.

We did spend a bit of time in the very small town of Scopello and took a walk around and a meal in Castellammare del Golfo. The former was unremarkable, with the latter a more vibrant seaside town with some nice bars and restaurants worth checking out if you are on that end of Sicily.

Lessons Learned

Sicily is certainly a beautiful island with a different vibe than other parts of Italy. Granted, we didn’t get to the best known areas of the island (if you watch The White Lotus, that was shot on the opposite end of the island), so where we were doesn’t give a full picture of the variety of sights and sounds. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the relaxation, good company, and beautiful views. We did learn a few things even as seasoned travelers…

• High-end Airbnbs can be overpriced – for what we paid we’d have done better in a boutique hotel w/breakfast included.

• We really needed to better scope out the accommodation location before making a commitment. We were very far from places on the island that would have been fun to explore – even with a car we were remote.

• Crowded, larger cities are not interesting to us in general. We have been to enough European larger cities that we are ready to branch out – perhaps to Asian or other geographies not yet explored. In general, we are more interested in smaller villages and towns where it’s easier to engage with locals vs tourists.

• Do NOT drive in Italy!…unless of course you have a death wish. We LOVE Italy and it’s people and culture…we’ll just let locals do the driving.

Next – on to Trieste…