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Published: February 22nd 2008
Fish market via Palermo
Happiest purveyor Ive ever seen.Caio everyone. It's your trusty blogger back for another epic entry. This time it will be covering almost all of our trip through Italy. Minus, of course, Rome and Naples. We haven't really had good internet access since leaving Naples. I am now back in Rome, where I'll be for the next few days before flying to
China, and Dan was also here, but he left today for Barcelona (Espana). Since we last spoke (or you stared @ a computer screen while I paraded around the world) we have since gone to...in chronological order:
Sicily (Palermo, Agrigento, Catania) and the Amalfi Coast (Amalfi, Atrani, Ravello). Paul split off in Catania to go to Syracuse and then on to Northern Italy before heading to Spain to meet Dan. Some of it was good, and some of it was not as good. Some of it sucked big time. Regardless, I feel devoted to making this blog interesting (
which means I'll lie if I have to...just like any good memoir)!
Palermo
---Palermo is Sicily's biggest city (I think), and is located on the northwestern tip. It connects Sicily to mainland Italy via boat. It was gigantic.
---The train ride to Palermo from Naples
A protest in Palermo
Not sure about what exactly...but recently there seemed to have been a lot of mob members being arrested, and I think it had something to do with their prosecution. Fighting the mob with a mob. was
brutal. It was almost 10 hours and it departed @ 10:30pm. I didn't want to pay the extra 30€ to get a bunk to sleep in. Big mistake; I played Twister with 4 Italians and a tiny Moroccan for 10 hours.
---One of the Italians told me he liked my hair (which is rather long now). I didn't know if he was mocking me or not so I told him I liked his nose. There was a silent understanding of my superiority.
---The 3 of the Italians got off @ Messina which is the major port city that connects trains via boat from mainland Italy. The train just rides right on to the boat and is shipped across the strait. Seems dangerous to me, but what do I know?
---Arrived in Palermo @ 8:30am. Didn't sleep well. In fact I didn't really sleep at all.
I felt like a million bucks. Someone give me a flame thrower.
---Went to go see a theatre with a floor large enough that it used to hold elephants on it in certain shows. Sounds amazing. But wasn't worth 5€ for 25 minutes. This has been the general experience in Italy: foreigners shell out
Food stand in Palermo
Beans. Who wouldnt want beans? a lot of cash. Don't they already have a monopoly on cheese or pasta or women? Do they really need tourism too?
---Witnessed the small, fledgling beginnings of a protest. Later on the news I saw that some people got arrested and there was some damage to some local shops. We don't know what they were protesting but I got in the middle of it and took pictures any way.
Fight the power. Probably not getting royalties on Mario Brothers.
---Walked through some side street markets. A fascinating look at local life. Men butchering fish on the spot. The heads of swordfish. Eels. And of course the standard melting fish ice all over the ground. Made me thirsty.
---Went to see a church. It looked like a church.
---Waited till 3pm to catch a bus out to a local town, Monreale, to see their Duomo. I spent most of this time wishing I was asleep. Nobody granted my wishes. So I bought a huge bottle of Fanta and hotwired my circuitry.
Nobody should ever drink as much Fanta as I have in one day. It's nutritious right? There's, like, oranges in it.
---Monreale was actually very beautiful with over 3000
Monreale Cathedral
Upside down...tricky tricky square feet of gold murals. There was a lot of Jesus on the cross stuff. There was the main cathedral, the domes,
some other stuff, an upper terrace, and a lot of sunrays. Anybody who knows Dan he was giddy like a girl with a 50 dollar gift certificate in Victoria Secrets.
---Went back to the hostel and watched Italian Wheel of Fortune.
It's ridiculious. The host dances a lot, the contsestants guess the puzzles with only 3 or 4 letters on the board, and they use a lot of words that I didn't understand. Probably because it was in Italian.
---Next day we woke early and went to see the Catacombs of Palermo. It was a pretty interesting experience. We walked across town and eventually found it. You walk underneath a graveyard, and come into an underground hallway network
face to face with over 200 skeletons, erected with loose wires, wearing nice suits and traditional garments of their time. Their most famous preservation was a family and a few young children, including a baby. The skeletons' eyeless gazes were piercing.
---Afterwards, we departed for the train station to head to Agrigento, a smaller city, and I was looking forward
Door @ Monreale
Interesting colors to some peace and quiet after being in Naples and Palermo.
Agrigento
---Agrigento is southern-central Sicily. It's relatively close to the coast and has a fairly small population. Its open fields and unobstructed views reminded me of an image of Hollywood Italy
---We arrived in Agrigento and went to go look @ some churches. One wasn't open. It was raining. I got wet. The 2nd one was a disappointment. I was over it. We left and went to find our hostel. On the bus we met some young girls who helped us get there. They were very helpful. Score one for the Italians.
---Discovered my waterproof jacket isn't waterproof at all. Damn, we're in a tight spot (inside joke).
---It was raining and cold. What else to do other than drink wine?
We didn't know either.
---The next day we went to visit the Valle dei Templi, which in English means Valle of the Ruins. Incredible. It was a bunch of ancient temples in a valley. There was also a garden and a museum. Pictures say more than my words can, so you can check those out. The museum did have one thing that really sparked my interest: a
collection of photographs (B&W) of people in Agrigento. They were fascinating to say the least. Check out Dan's blog to see some of them. They captured the emotional essence and time of whatever was happening.
They made my camera hide in shame.
---Went back to the hostel (which was really more of an RV, which was nice b/c we had our own kitchen and dining room) and relaxed for some time. I was really tired.
---Relaxed some more
---Didn't want to leave.
---Next morning went to get breakfast and when I asked for my panini “scalda, per favore” (warmed up please), he simply called a guy's name,
and the man came out of the bathroom, took my panini with his barehands and walked back to the kitchen with it. Nobody knows what he was doing in the bathroom, but I shuddered in anticipation for my warmed breakfast sandwich. It also took them 10 minutes to warm it up. Very suspect. Last time I give them my 2.30€.
---We had a hard time finding a hostel in Syracuse, so we decided to go to Catania next.
---Onward, hither (inside joke).
---
Catania & Mighty Mt. Etna
---On our train ride
to Catania we rode a very futuristic looking train, something out of Star Trek. It was all very overwhelming for us.
So overwhelming that Dan decided to use the SOS button in bathroom instead of the Flush button. Chaos ensued. A loud piercing screech of an alarm went off. A conductor had to come to turn it off, but on his way his head exploded from the sounds. Women and children got thrown off the train, dogs married cats, locust fell from the sky, Dick Cheney stopped drinking and shooting people, and finally the coast guard showed up (even though we were in the middle of Sicily...I guess technically it's an island).
Dan was so super embarassed. Some parts of this story aren't true.
---We were planning on hiking Mt. Etna, an all day affair, and as we approached Catania, we could see the beast of a mountain from
three cities away.
---Nobody was out when we got to Catania. It was practically desolate. It was a Sunday, so that meant that everyone was @ church or watching a soccer game, and it felt like a ghost town. A tumbleweed rolled past me as soon as I got there.
---Walked
Monreale candle holder
A very dark cathedral makes for creepy shadows about 10 minutes to our hostel and past the reminiscents of a fish market on the way there.
It smelled good.
---Catania did not seem like a nice place.
---We decided not to go look @ anything. The surroundings were so depressing, and not safe looking. So we cowered in our hostel instead.
---Met some Canadian chefs. Talked to them about foie gras, kitchens, booze, and butchery. It made me miss the kitchen.
---The hostel was connected to a huge bar and restaurant. It was pretty makeshift, technically just a tent outside, but we made good use of it anyway. Some made too much use of it...
---Went to bed. Woman chef comes in and trips over my shoes and almost knocks a bed over. She leaves. Later she returns, more intoxicated. Knocks over a table with olive oil on it. Doesn't pick it up, but goes to bed. Maybe nobody would notice. Later her boyfriend comes in and she tells him what happens. They turn on the light and move the table. The couldn't pick the olive oil up as easily. Later two Australians come back from the bar and crashed.
Some time in the middle of the night one either falls out of bed or rolls out of bed and pukes all over the floor for some time. He tries cleaning it up with a sheet while the woman chef whispers “Oh my god...” softly to herself in shock over and over again.
---Next morning we woke up @ 6:30. Someone tie a piece of meat to my neck and let me into a dog kennel.
---We go to the bus station and try to find a bus to Mt. Etna. It takes us half an hour to find one and we try asking some Sicilians in vain who look at us like we are speaking Pigmy.
---After the night before
I was grumpy. Grrr.
---It was -1 degree celsius when we got to the midway point on Mt. Etna. It was my first time being in the snow. I was rather tickled.
---Had a strong urge to make a snow person (
yeah, I'm PC).
---The views were incredible with all the snow intermixing with the molten lava rock from Mt. Etna (which is an active volcano, errupting in 2002 and 2006). At the top of the mountain you could see the steam coming from the crater vents.
In the summer it is possible to hike all the way to the top, however, in the winter the mountain is brutally iced over in many parts and it is impossible to hike without snow gear, picks, etc. We were going to try it anyway, until we realized we might die. Then we opted for a 20€ lift ticket to the half way point up the mountain. It definately wasn't as challenging, but we still got to take in the whole mountain on the way up. At the top it was ridiculiously cold, I had 5 layers on and I was still freezing. Walked around for some time defying the weather. Then wussed out and went back inside. The rest of the day I spent walking around the areas that I could and playing with snow.
---Waited forever for our bus to come back, and it was late. What the F. Almost froze to death. Then it came.
Amalfi Coast
---Paul decided to head to Syracuse. Because of a booking mistake, Dan and I were forced to skip it and head to Amalfi, which is south of Naples, and inbetween Sorrento and Salerno, on the top of the Mediteranean
JC @ Monreale
Taking one for the team. gulf of Italy.
---Rode in a cabin car on the train with a bickery kind of old Italian couple. The man asked us for help at one point with his crossword puzzle. We humored him and he was forever grateful. His wife got annoyed with him when he forgot where we were going and they argued in Italian for a bit. It was entertaining, and Dan and I threw small coins at them in amusement.
---Got to Sorrento, and had to catch a bus. A bus we didn't know. So we asked every single driver that came to the train station. One of them, after I grumbled in disappointment (hey a big backpack gets heavy after a while), barked at me like a dog.
Big beef with that guy now.
---Bus to Atrani (in between Amalfi and Sorrento, where our hostel was) was a great experience. Dan was forced to put all of his bags on his lap when a man asked him to make room for him. I, on the other hand, had 2 whole seats to myself.
Nobody wants to sit next to Asian people in Italy. Game, set, and match.
---
The views were incredible. You've all seen
Monreale tower door
So super ridiculiously large. pictures of the Amalfi Coast but probably never known it was Amalfi. Check my pictures for a better description, but in short, the land is basically on the edge of the coast on cliffs. The land is terraced, and everyone lives on the edge of a mountain or a ravine. The towns are quaint and cozy, and there is no flat land anywhere.
---Riding a bus in that area was not fun for me. It is very similar to the Highway 1 drive after big Sur going towards San Luis Obispo, except in a big bus that looks like it falls off cliffs easily. I was pretty sure we were going to die at certain times. And we did. No we didn't.
---When we got to Atrani we couldn't get anyone to answer the door at our hostel. We were pretty sure that we were going to have to find another hostel, now that it was dark, or sleep in our sleeping bags (more so an option for me, not Dan, he would be a popsicle by the morning). So we ate dinner and mulled our options over. Then we tried one last time, and to our rescue came Felipe,
Monreale @ Sunset via the terrace
Not as good as Dans bird shot. Whateva. one of the managers/owners (?). He didn't have a reservation for us that night, but he let us stay in an ensuite rather than a dorm for that night and the day after for basically the same price as 2 nights in a dorm. He was a really nice guy.
---The next day we woke up, got free breakfast from Felipe's brother, who is also very nice, and then headed to Ravello (a town on top of the mountain overlooking Atrani). We walked a million steps. My legs still hurt. We finally got to Ravello, stopping every now and then to catch our breath and take in the views of the gorge-ish area that Atrani rests in.
---Walked around Ravello and went to a church where they have the blood of an apostle in a case that supposedly changes colors in July.
I'll believe it when I see it.
---Took our time walking to Minuta, a town on top of the mountain west of Ravello. Past a million barking dogs behind fences that looked like they wanted to rip our faces off. Nice doggy.
---After we got to Minuta we walked around a bit and then headed to Pontane, and
then continued back down the mountain to Amalfi. The whole area is within view of each other, but because of the steep mountainsides it takes forever to get anywhere.
---On the way we past spectacular views of the folliage and ocean, small person-made figurine towns on small embankments of towns, lots of elderly people (I know, I know the highlight of my day), men on horses carrying dirt and cement, sheep, goats, lemon groves on terraces, and of course the views.
---When we got to Amalfi we went to their duomo, cathedral, and the tomb of St. Andrew the Apostle. We got led around, along with some other Italians, by a very pushy padre, who kept calling me Korea. One of the other Italians also made me annoyed when he told me to move faster when we were walking through a hall through a door at the end, and I couldn't go faster because Dan and the padre were in front of me. He even sort of gave me a push.
It was the first time where I've been genuinely angry with someone since being gone. I turned around, pretty much ready to fight, and gave him an icy stare,
he gave me one right back, and we left it at that. Korea will invade Italy one day, I'm sure of it - mark my words.
---Afterwards we discovered the Emerald Grotto (cave), one of the highlights of Amalfi, was closed for the day. Damn, we're in a tight spot. We needed to check train times for the next day, but the internet cafe didn't open till 4:00, so we split up and killed time.
---
I had an embarassing moment in a restaurant. I went to use their bathroom and took a huge deuce bomb. It's no secret, I'm no gentleman on these blogs. While I was in the bathroom, a woman came knocking on the door. I realized I was in the wrong bathroom, and had to walk past her out of the restaurant as she was waiting for the supposed woman to finish in the lady's room.
She looked confused. I left quickly.
---Dan and I met up afterwards and decided not to go to the internet cafe, and headed back to Atrani (only 10 minutes when you walk on the road, not the mountain - just to give you the idea of how close everything is).
---We
decided to get pasta for the first time in Italy, because we had to do it before leaving. So we did. And it was good. All was right in the world.
---The next day we left for Rome, barely catching our train because our bus dropped us off somewhere a couple blocks away from the train station and we weren't sure where we were.
---On the way back to Rome, I got yelled at twice by the train employee to keep my feet off the seats in front of me. So I stuck my feet on the window where he could see them plainly. I was still pissed about the guy in the cathedral.
Take that Italian.
What Does the Future Hold for Our Caped Hero?
China. Peace out Italy. It's been fun. Thanks for reading.
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Mark my words
Not that your ego needs it, but the pictures are beautiful. WTF were you making with that fire..it looks satanic to me. Watch out Italy.