sicily, italy

Sicily in a word – unique. Not having been to the mainland, this is the only taste of Italy I have had, but it was certainly sweet. I did find Sicily to be a land of contrasts, there are flash resorts, wealthy tourists and inflated prices everywhere, and yet very poor infrastructure, and public services that are non-existent or visibly struggling to keep up. I feel like these juxtapositions present themselves in the apathy of the local Sicilians; rubbish is tossed over the shoulder and never in a bin, there’s a distinct lack of drive and entrepreneurial spirit that you see in other burgeoning economies (see Albania), and in discussions with locals you often find the glass is half empty. This is not a comment on Sicilians themselves, but rather an observation of how their treatment as “southerners” has impacted their outlook on life. Through discussions and further research, I began to better understand the tumultuous history of this island, and how its people often feel persecuted and forgotten by the “northerners”, someone said to me, “they don’t like us because our skin is darker”, and until only a few years ago there was a political party who’s key policy was to remove Sicily from mainland Italy. There is of course the Mafia history too, which hangs like a dark cloud across the entire island. I wasn’taware of the intensity and barbarism of the various mafia wars that spanned most of the 20^th century, nor how far-reaching their impacts were - in the later years the Mafiosos would become more brash and began targeting innocent police and magistrates. Take walking tours for example, many would be called “Tour of Palermo by Foot (No Mafia)”, the history is undoubtedly interesting, but for the many innocent people that were caught up in it, the wounds are still fresh. None of this is to say the Mafia has disappeared either, they have just graduated to more sophisticated macro-crime, controlling building licenses, permits, property developments and other ‘legal’ endeavours. During our time in Sicily the government gave final approval to build the world’s longest suspension bridge connecting mainland Italy and Sicily, discussing it with our driver Salvo he stated, “we desperately need it, but I don’t think it will happen, and if it does the Mafia will control it anyway”.

To seek salvation from a tumultuous past and uncertain future, Sicilians head to the beach. As we round the corner and ‘our’ local beach, Spiaggiadi Guidaloca, opens before us, Salvo exhales and declares “welcome to paradise”. And it is. Crystalline water, smooth white pebbles, colourful umbrellas, joyous faces and a beach hut selling cold Messina and Arancini Ragu. From first light until last you will find Sicilians by the water, and with endless bays and beaches of all shapes and sizes, each more beautiful than the last, it’s not hard to understand why.

Our home for the week belongs to my friend Yulia, it’s her summer escape located about 15 minutes out of Castellammare Del Golfo. With a gorgeous view of the adjacent mountain and surrounded by olive trees, it is perfect. We spent many afternoons and evenings sitting on the patio enjoying a delicious homecooked meal and a local wine. And local is the key. We cook using olive oil that is made from the trees on Yulia’s property, eat vegetables that are grown nearby and wash it all down with wine that comes straight from the local barrel – I could get used to this.  

The absolute highlight of our time here, and perhaps of the entire trip to date, was the boat trip we took to Isola Favignana. The water here is the clearest and bluest I have ever seen; I almost catch myself taking a huge gulp as it’s so impossibly clean it seems cruel that I can’t drink it. It’s perfectly cool too, soothing our hot, dry skin that has seen way too much sun of late, completely revitalising us. Hannah and I dance with schools of fish, judge each other’s dives off the front of the boat and enjoy ice-cold Peroni’s, mixed in are stops by underwater caves, dramatic cliffs and beautiful port towns. But the best part was meeting Deanna and Salve from Melbourne, and Sonia and Francesco from London, all of which we had an instant connection with, like meeting old friends. We coyly asked if we could join them for lunch and so we feasted together on fresh seafood, getting to know each other better over chats ranging from family history, Carlton’s ongoing blues, their shared experiences as Sicilian descendants and most importantly, a lesson in perfecting Aussie slang. As the day wanes we make our way back to port in Trapani and venture out together for sunset Aperol’s. Watching the sun set by the water alongside our new friends is a great feeling, and plans are made to contact one another when we are next in Melbourne or London and vice versa – if you guys are reading this I’m holding you to the promise to catch up!

Okay we are woefully behind on the blog, and I don’t feel like rehashing everything we did in Sicily in great detail, so I won’t. Instead, here are some recommendations for this amazing place.

1. Practice driving manual if you haven’t done sofor a long time and intend to drive a manual car
2. Visit and eat your way through the Ballaromarket in Palermo, taking in the smells, sights and sounds
3. Head to a local greengrocer and get some of thebest organic produce in the world
4. If you plan to drive in Palermo, be confidentand don’t ever stop!
5. Check out Erice for great views and a delicious Genovesebaked by the nuns
6. Eat everything pistachio –cannoli, doughnuts and pasta too

Hannah's Thoughts

Onto our third country Sicily, Italy! Jesses co-worker very kindly let us use her holiday house and said we were welcome to the car on the property as well. Jesse had spoken about this and said he hadn’t driven a manual for a long time, and I assured him that he would be fine, how hard could it be? We had finally arrived after along day of travelling, the sun steadily going down, and Jesse insisted on driving the car to the well. I did think it might be a push, however Jesse insisted, “might as well bite the bullet” he said. Jesse managed to drive to the well fine, with only a couple of stalls inbetween. However, it was the way back down the hill that was the issue when we missed the turn off, so we then had to get it back up the big hill to the property. Fifteen stalls later and in the middle of nowhere we realised that we needed to get some help, the car just wasn’t working. Luckily, we weren’t too far from a hotel, Jesse swallowed his pride and went to ask for help while I waited with the hazard lights on in the car, in the middle of the road. Moments passed and a nice Italian women came and gave it a go, with her foot on the accelerator revving as hard as she could she said in her broken English “I think something is wrong with the car”. This night was turning into a disaster, and I had to bite my tongue to not say to “Jesse, I told you we should have waited till the morning”. The lady went back into the hotel and two of her other colleagues came and tried as well. Rubber smells, billowing smoke from the engine, something definitely wasn’t right. With many hand gestures and broken Italian on our end we managed to say “leave it, we will need to get it fixed”. We had to leave it for the night and call the only person we knew on the island, our driver, who said “ring me any time if you have any issues”. Little did he know we were going to have an issue one hour after dropping us off. Many dollars and stress later we had secured an automatic hire a car for the rest of the week and Jesse managed to get over this whole fiasco after a day or two…

We splashed out on an all-day boat trip and boy am I glad we did because it ended up being one of my favourite days on the trip so far. Crystal clear waters, amazing scenery, new friends from Melbourne and London and amazing food, we certainly were spoilt. I think it was fate as we were asked by the company if we wanted to change the day of our tour to one with better weather, wanting the best possible experience we said “sure that still works for us!” and honestly if we didn’t change the date we wouldn’t have met these awesome people and had the experiences we had. Due to the price, we deliberated on doing this day at all, but I am so glad we did. Before I left, I was told by a handful of people, “do all the things, you never know when you are going to get back there!”.

We often went on little adventures to the local well for water, at first I thought this might be a tiresome task however I grew fond of going there. It was a chance to meet friendly locals, see the beautiful scenery at all different hours, watch the local farmer corralling his herd of cows with their bells clanging against their necks, and see the natural ecosystem that had been created around the well, lizards, tadpoles and frogs. An arduous task soon became a nice little part of the day. It was also much nicer to be able to drive to the well without any stalls!

On one of our last days, we couldn’t be bothered driving and paying for parking at a local beach so instead we ventured to the nearest hotel pool. We were told for a small fee that we would be able to use it. We went down the hill and asked how much and the owner said what we thought was “thirteen”. After we left to get ready, I said to Jesse “was that thirteen or thirty?”, we had been burnt before. We went back and got all geared up and headed down again. It was in fact thirty Euro meaning we just paid sixty Australian dollars to use a pool, it would have been cheaper to have gone to the beach... Nevertheless, we stayed until we were wrinkled, swiped the hotel Wi-Fi and endured barking dogs, rogue hairs and a bomb competition between the kids.

Arrivederci Sicily, I'll miss your arancini balls, incredible clear water, pisaticho canolis, beautiful scenery, messina beers and friendly locals.