Drive to Palermo & Cinisi

---

We woke up early this morning to get a head start on our long drive to the northern part of Sicily. We ate a quick breakfast at the Cavalongo and checked out of our beautiful villa. We really enjoyed our stay at this resort in the country. It was so beautiful and peacefully quiet that we would highly recommend it anyone looking for a base location in southern Sicily. We punched in the name of Cinisi into Bonnie our GPS and hoped that she would get us there without any problems. She calculated a 4 hour drive from the Ragusa area to Palermo in northern Sicily. Cinisi is a small town just on the west side of Palermo where we plan to stay for our last week of holidays. Off we go with no problems until we reached Agrigento. Bonnie wanted us to head up a highway called the A19 which would have lead us direct to Palermo, but in typical Sicilian fashion, the highway was not finished and we couldn’t access it from where we were. As a side note, the highways or Auto Strade in Sicily are fairly good roads and we never saw a toll booth, or one working anyway. However, the Sicilians will build huge flyovers or tunnels that go nowhere. Apparently the government will start a project and run out of money or the Mafia will get involved and shut it down. If you plan to drive in Sicily, it would be best to have both an updated GPS and a map because of these unfinished highways.
Since we couldn’t access the highway Bonnie wanted us to go on, we were a bit lost and weren’t sure which direction to go. Bonnie has lead us down a goat trail before, so our trust in her was a bit shaky. She kept trying to take us back to this imaginary road and wouldn’t recalculate so off we went on our own until we saw a sign pointing us to Palermo. We ended up on the wrong side of Palermo, in rush hour, so we had to navigate ourselves through the crazy streets trying to figure out how to get to Cinisi. It was a very frustrating and stressful moment, but we managed to come through without any accidents or any of us killing each other. Once we got to Cinisi, and to the marina and airport, we had to give Leigh a call so she could guide us in to her home. Sicilians don’t necessarily have home addresses, so they will tell you directions instead. How they get their mail, we have no idea. Leigh was home and she stayed on the line with Ron as we traveled down this back lane right beside the Palermo airport. It wasn’t the nicest looking area; in fact it looked pretty rough. There was lots of garbage on the ground, stray dogs picking through it, cows and donkeys in yards amongst regular looking homes. It was a neighborhood where anything went. Finally we got to Leigh’s place which is a 2 storey home with a large veranda, small car port and gated yard. We were met by 3 dogs at the gate, all strays that Leigh saved from a terrible life on the streets of Palermo. Leigh is a New Zealander and has lived in Italy for 20 years. She was a soft ball player and played in Alberta for a year and a half for a team within the league that Ron’s team played for back in the 90’s. He befriended her on Facebook of course and when he mentioned we were coming to Sicily she offered up her home to us. Of course Ron hardly knows Leigh and it’s been 20 years so we really didn’t know what to expect. Leigh had a friend in from Belgium, an older gentleman named Louis. He used to be a sailor working on oil tankers in the North Sea and Persian Gulf. He was a very interesting fellow and once he realized my heritage was Belgium, he took quite a shine to me. Leigh was a great host that afternoon, opening up bottles of Prosecco and wine and plates of meats, cheeses, olives, bread and nuts. However, we quickly realized that our new host, being a free spirit, wanted to carry the afternoon of drinking and eating well into the evening. We were hauled off in a banged up minivan to a small town nearby for dinner to a place where Leigh knew the owner. We arrived to find a small uninviting entrance to a tiny restaurant, but when we went out to the back, it opened up to a huge treed backyard with many tables and a lot of locals enjoying their meals. We had a great meal there and the atmosphere was very festive. It helped that more wine and beer was being poured and of course we had to have a shot of lemoncello. We’re not big drinkers in the sense that you should get stupidly drunk so all of us were careful not to fully indulge, but we couldn’t say the same for our new friends. We should have insisted one of us to drive back home, but Leigh ensured us she was fine. We should have listened to our instincts as that ride back was terrifying for all and made us realize that no matter what anyone says, if they look drunk, they are. Take the keys! Our only saving grace was that we were on a back lane and not the highway. Leigh’s home has 3 bedrooms and we each had our own, however the bathroom where we were was not working, so we had to share a small bathroom on the main floor. Leigh loves animals and has saved 3 dogs and has a few cats too, but they are covered with fleas and they roam all around the house. We found them on the beds and in the room that Dan & I were in there was this dark scrawny one eyed cat that smelled. She wouldn’t leave the room without hissing so we had to put up with her for the evening. This area of Sicily has a lot of mosquitoes and there are no screens on the windows, so Dan and I were fighting off bugs all night long. Dan had about 3 hours of sleep and I had none. Between the animals, the bugs and what I thought was fleas everywhere, I knew we couldn’t stay there another night. Dan had 18 bites on his back and face and I had about 10 from God knows what. The next morning after talking with everyone we decided to drive to the town of Scopello and stay in a B&B that we found online. We were honest with Leigh and she understood, but we felt bad regardless.
Scopello is a beautiful hilltop town right beside the sea about 40 minutes west of Palermo, right across the bay. The B&B was called Antica Cascina Del Golfo and was located high up the hill above Scopello. It had the most fantastic view of the sea and the Palermo bay that we had ever seen. It was absolutely stunning. The host there was Georgina, a beautiful dark haired Sicilian with bright red nails and lipstick. Her English was fairly good and she was happy to see us so she could practice her English. Because we called her that morning to reserve, she had everything ready for us with 2 rooms right beside each other. Since we were in the country again, there was no internet and no TV. However, the place was spotless and modern and very comfortable and included breakfast all for only $70 euro per night. We booked for 3 nights not knowing where we were going after Wednesday. We went to the town of Scopello and toured around realizing that it was only a couple of streets filled with restaurants and hotels. Scopello is where people from Palermo come in the summertime to get out of the city, so it’s very small but quaint. We had a great meal in town and then traveled back up the long windy steep hill to our B&B for the night. Dan and I slept really well that night.

Wine count 30.
 

---

Photos

Driving
On the road to Palermo

Scopello Area
View of the Sea

Anchors Away
Tuna Factory near Scopello

B&B
This was our room at the B&B near Scopello

Ron Scopello
Ron enjoying some wine and talking to his Mother on the phone. Fabulous view!

Sun Rise
The sun rising Scopello

B&B Scopello
This was our room.