Day 6

Stazzo is a tiny fishing town down a twisty narrow road between the sea and Mount Etna. This is where, after only about 4 wrong turns and a stand-off with a Hummer (more on this in a minute) we find Palazzo Giovanni. (Website description: Immersed in smelly lemon yards, terrace view of sea and Mt. Etna.) We are welcomed by Silvio. Again there is no English spoken here. Silvio is a big jovial fellow in his mid 30s. He and his wife Allesandra own the place and are very friendly. Their daughter, Sylvia is 14 months and charms everyone with her smile.

We are given homemade limoncello and cookies and made welcome. We described our journey and our plan for the coming days. We were given much advice. If I could nominate one person for world ambassador from Sicily it would be Silvio. He has a broadcasters voice and rhythm when he speaks and he is proud and enthusiastic about his island. He is also a complete goof. He begins by telling us how to unlock the front door. There are two locks, the upper lock and the lower lock. Lise is translating… “you put this key (he holds up the keys) in the upper lock and you turn it to the left.” And he counts. “Uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei.” Lise counts… one, two, three… we all get serious looks on our faces. “Then you use this key for the bottom lock.” Keys are shown again. “and you turn to the right, uno, due… sette.” Lise translates “one, two… seven.” “Then you push the handle, uno, due… “ Then he busts out laughing. This is Silvio. He also has 20 tortoises… the oldest he tells us is 120 years old and his name is Ninja.

When we are asked if we had any trouble finding the place we lie and say no and say that the only problem was meeting up with the Hummer on the way down the twisty road. We are told that it belongs to a colonel in the Italian army who vacations at Palazzo Giovanni after each of his 5 tours in Afghanistan where he is stationed with the American forces. I say a silent prayer that he didn’t see the gesture I made and won’t recognize my face if we meet… Silvio makes reservations for us at the local seafood place and we take a couple of hours to relax after the drive. Restaurants in Sicily rarely open before 8pm so we usually have time before dinner to brush off the dust and put ourselves together… a little bit.

Being an island, and being at a restaurant about 20 feet from the sea, fresh fish is the item of the day. Again.

Breakfast is served on the rooftop patio. The view is magic and the coffee and pastries and fresh squeezed orange (and lemon) juice is fortifying. This is what mornings are supposed to be. Period. The Colonel is at the table next to us.

Etna, being a volcano, makes it’s own weather. She is visible in the morning but usually obscured by clouds by lunchtime. I have contemplated an excursion up Etna and enquire. Silvio, it just so happens, knows a great Etna tour outfit. Tours up Etna are a min of about 4 hours and cost around 65 dollars per person. So… Etna is really cool to look at from a distance and, we have Taormina on the agenda.

Taormina has been a swanky tourist destination for a long time. It’s famous for it’s scenery, shops and visitors from Liz Taylor to Michael Douglas, Dame Judi Dench and Antonio Banderas. Goethe described Taormina as “a piece of paradise on earth.” There are plenty of shops and Donna and Lise are able to find stuff to buy!

The drive back to Palazzo Giovanni is made interesting by a storm that sends rivers running through the little streets. There is concern expressed from the back seat that our little car will be washed off the road.

We try the local pizzeria for dinner. Pizza in Sicily offers combinations we haven’t come across before. I have prosciutto, egg, peas and olives. Peas are good on pizza. Who knew?

Tomorrow we head inland.

Ok… so if you know us or you have looked at the dates of the postings,  you know that we are home now. Well, internet access in Sicily isn’t quite what we were expecting so I wasn’t able to post things as they were being written. Just pretend you are reading this as if it were being posted day by day during our trip.