Day One: When we touched down in Palermo, the weather was extremely bad with very high winds and rain. So rainy, in fact, that older folks getting off of the plane were literally almost knocked over the handrail. I, myself, was jolted sideways by the wind as I got down off of the plane. We made it to the rental car place and got our car. To make a long story short, the GPS stuff on my phone wasn't working right and all we had to go on was a paper map. Mind you, it's in the evening now, in very crappy, dark and rainy weather trying to navigate our way through streets that were designed before the Norman conquest pre-1000AD. Couple that with a car that had a non-intutive method of putting the car in reverse, to the point that we didn't figure it out until the next day. Couple THAT with the fact that Palermo has some of the worst driving I have ever seen. You could say that we had some trouble finding the B&B, is what I am getting at. You could say that we were nervous wrecks by the time we got there. You could say I had to get out and push the car backwards in the rain and gale winds because of the reverse gear situation. You might say that I was ready to swear off driving forever. But, eventually we made it (as we always eventually do). Our host, Claudio, was sympathetic and met us out in the rain to navigate to the B&B through a dark and narrow alleyway. Fortunately, the Ristorante Santandrea was literally right around the corner from the B&B and was open and serving some pretty top-notch food. Vanessa went with a sort of seafood tartare some sort of fruit juice marinade and stuffed squid for a main course. I had lamb ravioli to start and rolled and stuffed swordfish for the main. All of this food was the sort of thing we had read about beforehand - Sicilians really like their seafood and spice.
Day Two: The next morning we ate breakfast as a group. There was a couple from Washington State who had just started to experience Europe. The was a solo American who seemed to be continuing a long and distinguished travel lifestyle. Lastly, there were two women from Portugal who were also big into food and wine. More about them later. After breakfast we went on a walking tour of Palermo. We happened to be staying in the historic eastern part of the city and making it around to all of the major monuments and such took up the whole morning. We ended up near this place called the Antica Focacceria San Francesco, which was mentioned in a book I'm reading about the history of Italian food and also mentioned in the 'Where to Eat' section of our travel guide. Essentially, it is a huge speciality in Palermo and this is the place that is famous for it. It is a sandwich made out of sliced veal spleen which has been cooked briefly in a savory broth and put on a bun with fresh ricotta and topped with grated mozzarella. Some of you may be thinking "Oh....spleen. Gross." Let me tell you something. This sandwich immediately, and in stunning fashion, rocketed straight into the top three sandwiches I have ever eaten. Also amazing was the price. Two euro. It's delicious street food at its best. So Vanessa and I had two sandwiches and a half-liter of Sicilian red wine for a grand total of eight euro. I would have paid twice that had I known how good it was going to be. So, the moral of the story is to not be down on eating guts until you give it a shot. The whole trip to Sicily was enhanced by one simple sandwich made of guts. Anyhow, we celebrated our good lunch fortune by taking a nap. Later, for dinner, we ate a place which can only be described as sort of a Mediterranean/Japanese fusion restaurant. I know this sounds weird, but it did work and we enjoyed it very much. Later that night, Claudio took everyone staying at the B&B for a tour of the city. Some parts were spooky in the dark (which was cool) and the place took on a completely different character. The group was befriended by two stray dogs that sort of turned into our guard dogs. One dog in particular was very protective of us whenever a car got too close to us and he took to barking at/chasing the car away. Also, both dogs seemed to have a distaste (as I do) for people who try to sell flowers to couples. They sort of attacked one of these vendors (on our behalf) and the vendor was yelling and screaming and brandishing his bouquet of flowers at the dogs to keep them away. The dogs did put on quite a show then, lots of snarling and wild dog noises. After that we hit a late night wine bar, had a drink and went home to sleep.
Day Three: After breakfast, the two women from Portugal and us took the train to Agrigento, on the south coast of Sicily. The train ride itself passed through some of the most beautiful country we've ever seen. After a few hours, we got off of the train in Agrigento and found a lunch spot which served great seafood and such. After that, we went on to the main attraction of the city, the Valley of the Temples. The weather was gorgeous and there were just a few light, fluffy clouds, with a temperature of around 70F. The temples themselves were spectacular, built by the Greeks around 500BC and extremely well preserved. We walked around there for awhile and took the train home. We were pretty wiped and Vanessa had started getting sick earlier in the day. We made a quick stop to the pharmacy for some cold/flu drugs and went on to dinner. The place was down the street from the B&B and didn't look like much but the food delivered hugely. Vanessa had bruschetta and grilled squid. I had a mussel soup and some of the spiciest pasta I have ever had. I have eaten a LOT of pasta in my day and I prefer it to be spicy. This was a whole new level of spice and I would put the effect somewhere near what it is like to eat a spicy curry, on par with a Madras or Vindaloo. I was sweating and crying, but that's what eating spicy food is about. After that, a chocolaty cannoli from down the street and off to sleep.
Day Four: The crappy weather came back but fortunately we were leaving in the morning anyway. We returned the car having only driven it once (from the airport to the B&B). The driving really was dangerous and I wouldn't recommend it. If you must, here are a few tips:
1) Don't make eye contact. If you do, you have just given your consent to be cut off or walked in front of.
2) Lane markings are merely guidelines to assist you. Use them. Or don't.
3) It is actually safer to drive fast than slow.
4) Your horn is an extension of your voice. Use it when you wish you could talk to someone in the car ahead of you.
5) Everything seems to just work out in the end, but it's not because of any outrageous concepts such as traffic laws or a desire for order.
Check out the rest of the photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kbruyette/sets
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