Leaving Sicily to Go See Southern Italy

 
OMG… talk about serendipity — but first, a quick digression about how to pronounce “Sicily” : It was only on our very last day before leaving Sicily (Can that be just yesterday?) that someone finally corrected us about saying “Seh-Chie-eel-Yah” ! We've been trying to speak Italian every chance we get and have thought that we've been doing pretty well at it… but certainly not even being close in saying the name of the place where you are is a pretty big gaff — a total tell-tale that we're yankie tourists, which I guess I should admit we're doing a better job of when we speak French or I speak Spanish than when we stumble our way thru “Quanto costa … ? ”.

But I digress… We found this out by talking to really old people. It was actually from a conversation that Lynn had with an ancient couple when I wasn't there, so no actual picture. But another example of an amazing encounter you see in this picture from breakfast in the garden at a B&B that we found in Roccalumera, on the Eastern coast of Sicily. We didn't find the B&B until pretty late at night, and from the street view it didn't look that great. But inside the rooms were perfectly clean, very comfortable, and the internet worked easily. And then in the morning we had breakfast “en el giardino  where they had dozens flowering trees, most of which had ripe, delicious fruit. In fact, just after we started eating, Felice, whom we could just barely understand, brought us a plate full of little yellow fruit ("Nespola") which turns out to be “loquat” and was the most delicious fruit we'd had yet — not that it hasn't all been delicious. The man who runs the place, Giovanni, is the younger one in the picture and was so friendly and accommodating — he reminded us of our dear friend Didier in Paris. So Felice is the father-in-law and Giovanni's been running this place for years. We left there VERY grateful for all of their kindness and generosity and had an amazing ride along the Eastern coast of Italy right up to the very Northern tip.

After that we caught the ferry to Italy and were wow'd by the vistas crossing the straights of Messina … but not as much amazed as we were that the cost for us to bring our rental car with us on the ferry was an extra 1 Euro. Yup. I'm not making that up. Once we got up the coast we stumpled upon “Baia Del Capo” near Capo Vaticano on the coast of the Mediterranean, and that's where the serendipity comes in because we had no idea what it would be like when we booked it, but it's a most amazing place with absolutely incredible food and stunning landscaping. After a great afternoon around the pool, my sweetie and I sat outside and watched the 100% full moon rise over the mountains behind us and head out over the sea before we drifted off to pleasant dreams after another wonderful day exploring Italy. Tomorrow — off to Napoles.

Wow… What an amazing day we had leaving Sicily and exploring Southern Italy!