Escape to {from} Sicily

‘Solo nel Sicilia’ is the phrase I would have to use to describe my four-day adventure on the ball to Italy’s boot. After hearing about the amazing beaches, beautiful mountain ranges and charming towns, I was sold when a few of my friends began planning a trip there. We had the idea to see both the West and the East in one jam-packed weekend, to experience as much of the island as we possibly could.

After landing in Comiso a bit early, we were ecstatic to read that our bus to Catania (about a 1.5 hr bus ride) was supposed to arrive in just twenty minutes. An hour later, the five of us began wondering if we had read the schedule wrong. An exploration back into the airport led us to the discovery that the bus had simply just not shown up. We were assured that another one would be coming….at 6pm. We settled in for the long haul, playing Heads Up with my phone and BS with cards my friend Manon had brought. I didn’t mind waiting. The weather was beautiful and I was with my friends.

Our evening in Catania started with a dinner set down a quaint side street bustling with locals. The food was okay, but the wine was even better. A small boy came up to our table and started chatting us up. He couldn’t have been more than eight years old. Sweet Manon gave him a few euros and he ran on to the next table. It saddened me that at such a young age he was already begging. After paying for our food we had the worst gelato any of us had ever tasted. I’m never one to waste a good ice cream cone, but I took about four licks of each flavor before depositing it in the trash. It wasn’t worth the extra calories. What was unique about Catania was the plethora of kiosks that dotted the sidewalks. We discovered one that was owned by Manon’s flatmate’s brother and enjoyed a Nutella smoothie along and a beer.

We retired to our hostel (my first one ever!) and woke up early the next day to go explore the Basilica and main square. After finishing our morning antics we headed to a car rental company to begin our cross-island drive. In the United States, it’s quite normal that there is road work on the major highways—95, 81. There are always a few hold-ups. But in Sicily, the highway is broken. Yes. Broken. Right in half. A trip that would ordinarily take about 2.5 hours takes about 5 hours, but the girls and I took it in stride.

We arrived in San Vito lo Capo and immediately headed to what I had been looking forward to most—the beach. We watched the sun set over the water and explored the tiny town. I was ecstatic to see that most of the people we were saying were locals, a promising sign for good cuisine….that is until we ended up at the most touristy restaurant imaginable in the tiny town. The food was still good and the next day we headed to the beach right at 9am.

Monday arrived and it was time to head towards our last stop—Palermo. We were all really excited to explore the city’s piers, parks and basilica. Things got a little bumpy however, when 200 meters (yes I’ve officially switched to the metric system!) from the parking garage, we bumped the car in front of us. I’ve never seen a fender bender cause essentially no damage to one car and nearly take off the other cars bumper. Our rental company was explicit that we needed a police report, so we called the police and settled in to wait. Five hours and four phone calls later, the police hadn’t arrived, the other driver had left so we packed the five of us back into the car and headed to Palermo airport.

Just when we thought we had escaped all of our bad luck for the weekend, we began to check in to our flight. It was scheduled to leave at 7:15pm and we were there safely at 4pm just in case. As we moved through the line it never occurred to us that anything else could possibly happen to delay us any further. To our surprise, they kept my friend Deanna behind, pointing to her ticket and telling her she had already missed her flight. When we looked at her ticket we realized it was true; she had accidentally purchased a flight that had left at 5:30pm. With just minutes left for the rest of us to board, Deanna was swept away from the Italian version of the TSA to see what they could do about the situation. She ended up having to spend the night in Palermo by herself and take the first flight out the following morning.

As the rest of us settled into the plane, I began talking to Manon about everything that had happened to us over the course of the weekend. As we began tallying up our sheer dumb luck, tears came to our eyes and laughter bubbled over into near hysteria. I’m sure the three rows of passengers between us did not appreciate it, but we couldn’t help but find the entire situation hilarious.

Overall, Sicilia was a beautiful island, filled with incredible scenery and amazing culture. I wouldn’t ever recommend trying to call the police or counting on the bus schedule but I would definitely go back. That is, once they fix that broken highway!!