To the islands

Sometimes when there is a language barrier you have to be careful about how you word your question.  Like when we asked at the information centre in Reggio di Calabria about the ferry to Sicily.  They assured us we would have to go back up the coast to Villa San Giovanni, that was the only place the ferry left from, nope, no ferries from Reggio.  Amazing in a port town!  We were quite surprised when our host later told us not to worry, that we could catch the hydrofoil and they ran at least hourly from a spot only a few minutes walk away.

They were all wrong. It did leave nearly every hour - but it was a catamaran. The trip takes about as long as the Manly Ferry.

We toured to Lipari via Messina where we had lunch before joining Sunday's only ferry to the islands from that port.  We could have gone to Mezzari but by the time we added an additional train and bus to the trip we wouldn't have had time for lunch!  Our accommodation, as promised, is a ground floor unit with a private (ish) terrace area.  Unlike its ad on booking.com it does NOT have room service or even a restaurant - both of which we're unlikely to use anyway (and you should have heard the swift talking we needed to do to get an ice bucket to chill our supermarcarto vino and beira!) (Edited to add that on checkout they tried to charge us four euro for bar purchases.  I looked blank and said we hadn't ordered any drinks.  Which of course we hadn't.  The cost, we were told, was obviously a mistake!)

The ferry stopped at Vulcano for long enough for us to know that we didn't want to stay there.  The pong was quite unbelievable and neither of us had any desire for a thermal mud bath, no matter how good they're supposed to be for you.  Onwards we went, our faces buried in Matt's clean hankies.

Lipari town is fairly small but the castello and museum of antiquities were well worth a visit.  We spent a long morning there, but at least this time we left before we were escorted out.  The strangest thing we saw?  Not the exhibits, the gum trees!  No wonder so many Aussies visit (on the ferry over the seats in front AND the seats behind had Aussies in them), it smells like home.  Or it could be that we were the only visitors from Oz who were not offspring of the post war diaspora.

The next day we thought we'd go to Salina for lunch.  We nearly fell over when told the cost of the ferry!  Luckily for just a few Euro more we joined a tourist trip that went right round both Lipari and Salina with multiple stops for shopping, swimming, and eating.  In general the swimming stops were too short and the stop at Lingua on Salina was way too long.  Two and a half hours in a town with two streets, four restaurants and no shops.  Clearly no Italian blood running in our veins as we explained to the waitress we were used to light and fast lunches (in order to fit in more walking and swimming of course).  It was, however, delicious.  I'm sure my shellfish were straight off the boat.  I even ate and enjoyed the bait as we sat and watched Stromboli send out enough puffs of toxic smoke that the seismologists would know it was still an active volcano.  Not really close enough to photograph the action.  I'm torn between my desire to take better photos (meaning more equipment and weight) and knowing if I buy it I have to carry it!

An abandoned town or resort on the coast of Lipari

Tasty tasty bait on Salina

Not lost at sea

In the distance you could see Stromboli.  

While on Lipari we actually dined one night at a restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet "Europe on a shoestring" (dunno how it fit THAT category) and it was great.  Food was tasty and well presented, the cats were friendly and greedy, and we correctly guessed the chef had worked in Australia.  Possibly the use of ingredients like finger limes were a give-away?  Lipari was also where we made the food sensation discovery of the trip (so far).   Take one take-away lemon granita at sundown.  Add a slug of gin from the stash in your bag.  Enjoy...  In the interests of science we have tried to replicate the success of this experiment with other flavours but much to our surprise the lime wasn't as good and the mint was so much like a sugar toothpaste fusion it went down the sink (luckily before we added the gin).  We have named this important concoction a  “Diana’s downfall” – granita and gin and a change of name for me because Italian’s can’t deal with a woman’s name ending in e.   Perhaps it still needs a sprig of fresh mint?  Hmm, more research is required. We may also have tried a few local vinos and some of the street food.  We did consider trying ALL the local delicacies but kind of got stuck on the pluck panini and left that for someone more adventurous food wise to report back on.

We left Lipari on a morning ferry to the Big Island and even managed to make our train connection.  The ferry port and the railway station at Milazzo are four km apart and they don't seem to discuss timetables with each other.  The trip up the coast is slow, but mostly interesting .  We cheered at the families setting up their picnics on the free beaches, immediately adjacent to the paying customers - the thing about Italy I really DON'T get - paying to sit down in a crowd at the beach when there are 100s of km of coast!

Arriving in Palermo it was hot and humid and historical.  We arrived by train from Milazzo and soon found the free bus which wound around the narrow streets of the old part of the town.  We squeezed on with loads of locals who used it more than the tourists and (thanks to the wonders of google maps working offline and Matt’s mad map reading skilz) found a stop close to our B&B.  We only had to brave the traffic and cross the road to get there…

Pedestrian crossings in Italy are always challenging I find.  These were possibly closer to chaos than any others – and unlike Rome, no handy nuns to shield you from the craziest drivers.  We soon worked out the rule was to close your eyes and imagine a protective bubble that would cause cars to miraculously stop for you.  And then proceed to cross with your eyes still shut so you couldn’t see how close you came to certain death. Oh all right, Matt peeked.  I sure didn’t.  I just held his hand and prayed!

Don’t think we spent all our time eating and drinking because we did manage a few cultural icons.  The Capuchin Catacombs fuelled my taste for the macabre.  What a WEIRD thing.  While there were a few very old mummies on display (mostly priests) the vast majority were between the 1830s and 1880s.  Maybe the really old ones have turned to dust?  You could see incredible detail of the clothes the corpses were preserved wearing and one baby looked like a lifesize doll, still with hair and clothes perfectly preserved.  Matt tells me that one was wearing a porcelain overlay/deathmask.  Others were little more than shrouds and skelitons.  We were fascinated to see how they were arranged too, one section for entire families, another for virgin girls, yet another for professional people (and yes we did speculate on their professions).  What Matt thought was weird was while professionals were heralded there was no similar identification of groups of skilled craftsmen or artisans.  Don’t worry, no photography was permitted so I shan’t freak you out any further.

The architecture of Palermo is worthy of 1000s of words with so many layers of rulers and cultures building on top of each other.  At one turn, the old port’s keep is the centre of a dog park, while in the city the magnificent Norman/Moorish buildings jostle for with modern buildings and medieval facades. 

Our accommodation overlooked the Calla; the original old port, repurposed as a marina – Bru, you would love our view.   

 The street art was also interesting, both formal and informal.

Before we knew it, we were on board another ferry, this time heading overnight for Napoli.  Once again, the food was shocking!  And we thought the Mediterranean people were supposed to love their food so much even the take away was good.  It's so not.  Matt got caught out with the meat option which was quite pricey (although was supposed to include vegetables which he declined) and Di’s ceasar salad was an interesting interpretation of the subject.  At least it had chicken not anchovies I suppose!  We know we should buy our dinner on shore and bring it with us, but it was so hot (36 degrees) we were afraid of giving ourselves food poisoning between the supermercato and the port, a good 45 minute walk with our bags.  Our cabin, however, is a GREAT improvement on the one we had from Croatia as we have a porthole and an ensuite.  It was worth visiting the ticket office to buy our tickets as the double cabins offered online were only inside cabins and the same price!   Still no double bed, but this time we had a window.  Daylight woke us before the alarm and our 6:30 disembarktion.

Next stop Naples and a few famous antiquities.