Palermo, Sicily is about a 3 hour flight from Gatwick. Very nice airport and super family friendly.We got in at about 6 pm on Saturday night and took the shuttle bus to get our rental car. I don't think I'll go into the details of the going through security and getting to the gate with our crew, it is total chaos which involves much deep breathing on my part. "Are they ALL YOURS??" I heard that about 500 times.
Curtis and I noticed immediately that there is no clean air act in Sicily, lots of cigarette smoke. And also most public toilets do not have toilet seats. The sinks are really large, very unlike jolly ole England.
The villa that we rented was in Brolo, about 2 hours away from the airport. We pulled up in the pouring rain, and were greeted by Rinalto, a very nice Italian gentlemen, who had started a fire for us in the fireplace. There was also brioche, boxed milk, and baskets of beautiful lemons and oranges and mandarins in the kitchen. We got everybody inside and Curtis and Eli ventured out into the rain to find pizza for us. They came home with 4 mystery pizzas! 2 of them were good, and the other two not really.
Sunday morning we got ready for church, and drove to where the closest Church was. We were driving around, looking and looking, asking people if they knew where a Mormon church was (crazy Americans). We did have service on our phones, so we looked up how to say the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Italian (la chiesa di Gesù Cristo dei Santi degli ultimo giorni). In the meantime, Curtis found an Italian guy who said that he knew where the church was and we could follow him there. It was literally down the street from where we were- in an apartment building! After that we drove down to the beach and played on a beach with huge blocks of cement that were breaking the waves. Santo Stefano de Camastro. They had so many shops with beautiful, hand painted pottery.
The church building in Santo Stefano de Camastro
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| Big Breakers by the sea |
Monday we went to Cefalu. Ancient, rustic. Narrow streets. Beautiful cathedral. We got home after dark, Monday night, in the middle of a hail storm. The power was out at the villa, which meant to water, no heat (and it had been cold). Fortunately the owner was able to find us a hotel in Brolo for the night. No crib for Sadie. That was a good night.
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| Cathedral in Cefalu |
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| Inside |
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| Streets in Cefalu |
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| Cefalu in the background |
Tuesday we spent in Brolo, walking around, and made reservations at BonTempo il restaurante. They didn't actually open until 8 pm, but let us come at 7:30. Curtis and I were both hoping that we could be in and out of there before anyone else showed up for dinner! BUT... we didn't realise that it was Valentine's Day! Oh. Crap. That was awkward. But the best pizza I have ever had in my life. The funny thing was, that around 8:30, when we were almost done eating, people slowly started filtering their way in, but not couples as you would expect in Valentines Day- big families! The Italian family stereotype was true that night!
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| Becky and Ethan at Nino Bontempo's restaurant |
Wednesday Curtis went to Reggio de Calabrio for work and the kids and I stayed home and watched movies and fed the stray cat.
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| Villa Baldaserra |
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| The lemon trees smelled so good after the rain |
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| Mandarins in the garden |
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| Dinner Wednesday was Sicilian Sausage and pasta. Delish. |
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| Sadie in the sink- where the water was actually warm enough for a bath! |
