Neither of us slept very well. The strong wind persisted during the night, or even increased, which meant the shutters and also the glass in the window pane were rattling away. John shoved some paper around the edges of the glass, which helped, but I still wrapped the pillow around my head to try and block my ears.
Feeling a little bleary in the morning, our croissant with jam picked us up again. I am very much looking forward to eating homemade muesli, yoghurt, milk and fruit from breakfast when we get back to Ceret. Onwards. Our car drop-off was set for 11am at Palermo Airport so we were on the road by 9am. The temperature was already 24 degrees at 7am! Most of the 70 minute trip was on the highway, and, as has typically been the case, there was very little traffic once you are out of any town or population centre.
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| Roadside cyclamens |
We found the car-hire drop-off place pretty readily, and a petrol station to fill it up just beforehand. The shuttle van was on tap to take us the 5 minute ride to the airport terminal. John had read a few days ago that today is a national strike day in Italy, so we figured that public buses from the terminal into downtown Palermo may not be operating. We'd therefore booked a bus for 11am on one of the private buslines. It was a good move as it was filled to the gunwales. It was just a 40 minute trip into town. We got off at the Via Roma stop. This is not the closest one to our accommodation but the one we will have to use on our return to the airport. The bus route will be disrupted by the Palermo Half-Marathon on Sunday so we thought it wise to find out exactly where our pick-up point will be. Having jumped out at the bus-stop however, there was no immediately obvious pick-up point on the opposite side of the street for the bus heading in the opposite direction for the airport. We wandered up and down the street a bit but couldn't spy one. We will have to do some digging on Google. The temperature was 34 degrees at this stage, and the sun beating down. We didn't want to wander any further.
So, first stop was to eat an arancino, second stop was a pair of almond granite. You can see a clear theme here. Next, we needed to walk the 25 minutes to our accommodation, which we did slowly. Our apartment is fine, and will do us nicely for two nights. We'd been tossing up the option of taking the short train trip along the coast to Cefalu tomorrow, but have opted instead to stick around Palermo and see some of its sights. We were here for a few days in 2011, but some places we might visit for a second time and we're keen to see some new ones.
I'm writing this while we wait for the temperature to subside a little so we can venture out again. It is 4pm and still 33 degrees. So, I thought I might write down a few observations made during the last week:
- Italian men love to wear blue clothes. Very often, whether sitting at a cafe having their morning espresso, or at a restaurant in the evening, at least 50% (sometimes 80%) of the men are wearing a fully blue shirt or one with dark blue trim.
- Italians have a very sweet tooth but seem to generally keep in pretty good shape. They also take quite a lot of care in their appearance and clothes. Women are often heavily made up and the younger men sometimes go for the manicured eyebrow look.
- No-passing lines on the road mean it's probably a good place to overtake because there is slightly less chance someone is doing the same from the other direction.
- Speed limit signs are completely irrelevant.
- Pedestrian crossings and the corner of roads are a good place to park, or just poke your nose in if you can't park alongside the curb. Sicilians don't so much park as just stop.
- Italian drivers are extremely dextrous at manoeuvring their vehicles in and around each other and street furniture. We've found them very good at allowing pedestrians to find their way across the road. You don't have to put your life on the line like you do in New Zealand.
- Roadside vegetation is very likely to have had a fire go through it. More often than not you will see charred trees and shrubs as you drive along a road. This may be from cigarettes being tossed out the window. Often large areas have been burnt, including roadside olive trees and grapevines. We past one spot today where the flames were flicking through vegetation beside the road barrier. I wonder if insurance policies are higher for those property owners who border a road?
- The tossing of litter onto the ground seems the absolute norm, whether in urban areas or in the countryside. The tossing of bags of rubbish in roadside pullover/rest bays is clearly deliberate and in places is prolific.
- The lifestyle is, as expected, very laid-back and informal. It feels very informal and relaxed, and quite different from travelling through France.
- Sicilians are gregarious, like other Italians we have met, and have been overwhelmingly friendly and welcoming. It's been a lot of fun interacting with them.
- We've walked beside sites being worked on by archaeologists. I'd love to be involved in an archaeological dig, and excavating a place that has had 2000+ years of occupation holds a huge appeal. I wish I had a metal detector.
- John and I have had a few odd dreams, clearly based on a few of the things that have happened to us. One night John dreamed of transforming pigeon poo-ed buildings and footpaths by blitzing them with a high-powered water-blaster. Another night I helped John find a parking space by lifting up the rear end of a Smart-car and repositioning it, as well as heaving another small car further along the curb to create extra space.
Later in the afternoon we went for a walk around the centre of Palermo. The buildings are typically 4 stories and are a number of centuries old.
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| One of the famous intersections in Palermo. All four corners display statues like this. |
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| A typical entranceway to a forecourt and palazzo behind |
We thoroughly enjoyed our wander before heading back to find something easy for a meal close to our accommodation. We found a small local seafood takeaway place that had options of all manner of fish dishes, plus would make a pasta and fish dish on the spot. We opted for the latter and, with a bottle of wine, took it all back to eat at home. The pasta was freshly cooked and delicious, no steaming vats of overcooked food here.
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| The local fish-dish takeaway was very popular with the locals |
A great day was topped off nicely by the All Blacks beating Argentina in the Rugby World Cup semi-final.
