We Escape Sicily

 

We did it. We have fled Sicily. As I said before I was never comfortable with coming here. Why? I don't know but for years every time we got close to coming I would run away. Exactly what we should have done from day one when the world kept throwing up barrariers. We only stayed as long as we did because we had paid for a rental and could not get the money back. And, as nice as the last place was, we still left five days of rental paid for.

The world is back in alignment. We knew this when we got to the escape vehicle, the ferry, and it was waiting and we drove right on, after buying the ticket , and we made our get away. 

Sicily in the rearview mirro

Now, how far shall we go? We had made reservations for tomorrow in Taranto at the heel of the boot. Total journey was going to be eight hours. The original plan was to stop about three, but we pressed on, putting as many miles between us and Sicily as we could. Just as it turned dark we pulled into the hotel. The universe, showing that they were happy with my decision opened a parking place right in front of the Hotel Europa. We wanted a place to sooth our wounds and choice hotel with a great water view over an apartment . The staff on our arrival were great and treated us like returning long time guests.

We took an evening stroll. This is a very active town with lots of restaurants of varying quality. We had a couple of gin and tonics and a appetizer at one of them then strolled the long way home. On the way they threw us an impromptu welcome concert.

The first time Cafe Che Vicki has been open on this trip

You pump 2.01 eur, they pump 2,28 eur. That is a liter people, so get off Joe's back about gas

October 29 My Birthday

Today is my birthday. I am "72" years old. Other people seem to disagree on my age but that doesn't matter it's my age. Judge Lenderman has informed me that I have seen 2,7010 sunrises and sunsets. I lived through them all but I can't say I saw them all. But I can say I saw the majority of them. 

I enjoyed a morning breakfast at the hotel looking out at the sea. It is very calming and for some reason another it's nice to be in a hotel where everything is taken care of. Sure we don't have a big apartment to roam around in but I'm thinking that'll be an advantage to keep us out walking the streets. And I did just that after my breakfast.

The breakfast room

Vicki, like myself slept in. My sleep in was 6:45 and hers was 10. After she took her breakfast we went for a walk through this part of town. There's a long strolling mall with shopping and restaurants and it was quite busy. We walked about 10,000 steps and came back to a restaurant that we thought we would like and got spritzes. It was not as great as it looked but the spritzes hit the spot.

Since it is my birthday and I get to do whatever I want I went to the kabob shop for lunch. I found it to be an excellent kebab and I shared with Vicki as we sat on the sidewalk watching people come by. 

There's a female couple that may be stalking me. I saw them several times last night and saw them several times today. I think they know that I'm a star.
We have made a lot of special requests to the Hotel Europa and they have not flinched.  They brought us wine glasses in a cirk screw, they don't have kleenexes but they brought Vicki a whole pack of paper towels, we asked for extra chair so we can sit on the balcony and they brought that. Almost every apartment in this town has about but there is no chairs or anything on them. We find that strange.

For my birthday I bought myself a haircut that I really really needed and a shave. This was an excellent experience but I have not been able to duplicate the fantastic one I had for my birthday last year in Lucca.

Vicki went shopping for a birthday present for herself on my birthday? She got not one, but two Italian leather bags. I can't complain she has been dragging around thrift store bags for years and I am glad she could enjoy my holiday.

For dinner we I decided we would have sushi. We had walked by the Toyo bar restaurant during the lunch hour and it was absolutely packed and they were bringing out tons of food. I thought this meant the food was really really good so that's where we decided to go for dinner.

It was not until after we ordered a few dishes and a bottle of wine we found out the reason this place is packed all the time. It is an all you can eat place. For 16 Eurso at lunch and 24 Euros at dinner you can order as much of everything as you want and we saw people ordering tons of food. I thought about taking the bait but fortunately Vicky brought me back to Earth and we ordered a few dishes paid our bill and moved on. This place would go over great in the south, quantity not quality.

The all you can eat compared to regular restaurant setting

After all of that and being in the middle of the action we went looking for a coffee. Saturday night and every prepubescent teenager was roaming the street by the hundreds so we went on a side street searching something quiet. We found the Thila and they offered us a table outside with a coffee and a grandpa. Both were excellent. There's a large crowd of young adults at the door probably 15 to 18 and number who stood around for a long time. We couldn't decide if they had finished dinner and we're just chatting where they were waiting on a large table. The princess was annoyed but I enjoyed watching a couple of them broke out into dancing because the music piped out to the outdoors was excellent. Really nice jazz and rhythm and blues music on the outdoor speakers. Interesting dishes came out to the people sitting at the table next to us one had a pizza and the other one had little squares of something piled high and I couldn't figure out what it was. I went inside to pay the bill, which is very common now as opposed to the past when they brought the machine to your table, and it gave me an opportunity to meet the owner. He explained that their concept is tapas of a different nature and the meal served next to us was actually a pizza with different toppings on each section like tapas and it was cut up. It was a very nice middle-aged gentleman and I just told him that we would be back for more and I'm sure we will. 

Our Kebab shop is hopping tonight
Coffee and Grappa for the end of the day

The weather continues to be beautiful. Mild temperatures deep blue skies. 
Oh yeah and by the way for my birthday dickey bought herself two new lovely leather purses. Sure hope the stock market rallies so there'll be something to put in those purses. 

Flashback 10 years....

Harvesting olives with Manuela in Tuscany. Great times!

Sunday and Monday 

We  spent both days just walking around, setting on the balcony reading and repeating all of that.

Crossing the bridge back into the new part of town

What are there always cats around ruins. These two were enjoying the siesta time. Lots of cats in old town, none seen in the new town.

Vicki wanted "fruti de mare frito mixto" for lunch and she got in a small restaurant in the old town

A lot of buildings in old look abandoned and some are being restored. Many have been braced
with steel to keep them from falling down on my head.

There is a fish market everyday but Sundays' is a little bigger

This guy must have sold all his mussels and went home.

The building on the left is our hotel

Pasta, pasta, pasta!

Lets find something green!

This it a chicken caesar salad and bruchetta

The bruschetta has pesto and a large ball of mozzarella cheese.
It also has anchovies but who knew they would come in a can!

Ok, still on the food trail. Tonight we wanted pasta without any dead seafood. Not as easy to find as you would think. We did a google search and did come up with a spaghetteria. It's halloween and there are some people dressed up including our cook. When we walked in through the empty table outside into the restaurant the chef grabbed us even before we could finish asking if they had what we wanted. "Sure we have it" he says without even knowing. "Come on, come on, set down" he says as he escorted us into the back rome with six tables, two stacked high with stuff including to large screen tv's. The only occupied table had to couples from Naples and we struck up a conversation. They were all having something with dead seafood. I asked if they had ordered pizza and in unison they all said "never outside of Naples!"  They did in fact have what we wanted. Vicki got a spaghetti bolognese and I got carbonara. They were great.

I had know idea this guy was so short when he was standing behind the counter

What the heck!
We stopped at Thilo on the way home for a coffee and a grapa as when had
done several nights. Piogo talked me into on of their deserts.
It is chocolate stuff, mouse stuff , infused ice cream and popcorn.
It was good

We took a Ape, at Vespa pickup truck, tour of the town. It was fun roaring through the narrow streets of the old town. It came with a "meal". The stop on the curb, kick you out at a fast food restaurant and told us just go in and order. That part sucked, the food sucked the service sucked. When I ordered she grabbed three plates of octopus on very stale bread and handed them to me and I handed them to the trash. Vicki went in and ordered and when it came out, it was brought to the table sort of, I said threw it out and let's go somewhere else.

She insisted on staying and eating it. I said "meet at the kebab shop" and left. In the end she threw hers out but did not meet me at the kebab shop.

I keep my earpods on the nightstand next to the bed. They disappeared. I had one in my ear and remembering putting it in. I searched the room. Vicki searched the room. I searched the room again. We went to sleep. I woke up in the morning and searched the room, lifting up the mattress, crawling around on the floor with a flashlight. Vicki got up. Searched the room. No luck.

Later I went over to the nightstand and there they were. It is not like we could have missed them. Our theory is today is All Saints Day and the saint in charge of earpods felt sorry for me and put them back.

For our last supper we went to the place we have been having our after dinner drink, Thalia.

The owner and staff had been very friendly to us during our time here and we had not had a full meal.

Fortunately they were not very busy so they had time to explain the menu to us as it is a little gourmet and thus hard to translate. I chose tempura pork, boa lamb, and a vegetarian cold ramen dish. Vicki got one of their famous dishes. Mine were good and interesting. Vicki likes thin crust pizza and this exceeded her desires for that. I think the crust was as thin as a piece of paper. 

My tappas with an excellent local wine

Vegetable ramen

Does not show, but you can tell a fresh olive oil because it is 
green as this one is in real life.

OK, you people who insist on eating pizza with a knife and fold, this is how you really
do it. In that ladies hand is  half a pizza folded in half going to her mouth.

The cookers!

Piero our host.

Ok, why are Americans offended by this but think this is OK.......

Since 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president, threats of violence against lawmakers recorded by the Capitol Police have surged from roughly 900 cases in 2016 to 9,625 in 2021. 

Wednesday Nov 2 to Lecce

Ok the cruise ship just pulled in. Lets get out of here!

Yesterday the street around the corner was blocked with the police and fire truck. A wrecker was moving cars. I assumed a fire. Today I saw I was wrong. The building is crumbling.

Editing should be in progress but it ain't.

Wednesday Nov 2 to Lecce

We are leaving just in time. A cruise ship is pulling in.

We took the country route to Lecce. The land here is very flat and we found out that makes for a different grape than if is even on a little hill. The first part was mostly grapes with really really old olive trees. Later on it would become just olives and as we got closer to town it turned into row crops and light industrial.

The whole ride was pretty unpopulated even the few small villages we went through. 
Along the coast it was closed up tight. Amazing like it was pretty undeveloped. I guess being way down south does not draw the crowds of other locations.

Be careful. Limited drowning hours

Been awhile since they tested the water.

On top of this hill was a little chapel

A big problem of staying in old town is finding a place to park. We looked out and found pay parking less than a block from the apartment in a no drive area of old town.

Why a picture of the license?

The rules. The key here is the finger on the smartphone and the number 0151

Often the meter wants a license number to get a little ticket for parking.
I got one of those and put in the car but when I got to the apartment I downloaded
the paybyphone app. With it I was able to pay for parking for 24 hours. No running
to pay with the meter.

Okay, you have been traveling with me long enough to know the story, So make your best story to go with these pictures and the winner we win a free lunch at the restaurant of my choosing.

Saturday Nov 5

We left Lecce in on and off rain, sometimes heavy. We headed for Benevento east of Naples for an overnight on the way to Rome airport.

We could have made it much quicker but chose to stay off the autostrada and see the country. Even with the rain it was a fun trip. In Benevento I had chosen a hotel but had not shared that with her. She chose a BnB up the hill on a tiny alley. When no one came to the door I did a 15 point turn around to head back down the hill. We stopped at another BnB but they had no rooms. Since we were literally at the back door of the hotel I had chosen we drove around the corner and checked in after negotiating a rate the hotel and I were comfortable with.

It's a great hotel. The room was very large with a king size bed. The bathroom was the size of most hotel rooms.

Vicki had not eaten all day so we wandered out into what was now heavy rain and dark. A restaurant that said it was open was 150 meters away. Slogging there through the rain found it closed so we retreated to the hotel. Most restaurants opened at 7 and we grabbed the umbrellas and headed out again. We found a great little restaurant and had a great dinner. The grappa however was not the best. Returning to the hotel was just light rain and a short walk.

 

Today was an autostrada ride straight to the airport gas station. The first one was closed so we went around our elbow, over the bridge, under the bridge to the other one that was also closed. Almost all gas stations in Europe you can pump with a credit card, but the credit machine is separate from the pump and is not always straightforward. Fortunately, there was an enterprising immigrant there to help me through the machine. My first cc would not work. However, my ATM card that required a pin did. FYI all European cc require a pin number to work. The older gentleman pumped the gas and I was glad to reward him for his help. Now, off to return the rental car. Signage is not the greatest but we made our way to garage B. The signs said Leasys return on level 3. It was not there. We did the trip to the top again. Nothing. Ok, returned to level 3 and stopped, walked into an office with a different name and asked where Leasys was. "This is it. We changed our name three days ago. Did you see the sign”. I looked at the gate and the sign were small, printed on computer paper and weathered, telling about the name change but not in the normal line of sight. 

In our old age we have taken to staying at the airport hotel if we have an early departure. Tomorrow's check-in is 5am, so we are staying at the Hilton on the airport with a covered walkway from the terminal with moving sidewalks. The price was cheap considering it's an airport hotel, $156. 

It was a refreshing walk to the terminal this morning with the temperature of 41. Check-in and security went quickly. We have access to the star alliance lounge but all we got out that was a very, very long walk and a free cup of coffee. We needed a walk. 

We arrived in Frankfurt on time. We summoned up all calming thoughts awaiting the nightmare from last time. Because Vicki is carrying her new patron saint, S. Lucia, things went quickly. We got Lucia in Caltavuturo in Sicily from guys stopping traffic for donations. Glad I threw in some money.

Now I want my money back. Headed for the assigned gate C14 and just like last time the plane was not going to Tampa but Vancouver. Back to the lounge as there are no monitors on this concourse. Just like last time the flight has been moved to the cattle gates. A large gaggle of passengers. Cut to the end. The flight boarded one hour late.

The flight home was good, with a very attentive staff.

Our neighbor Linda was there with her great smile to pick us up. At the house the cats even acted like they were glad we were home. We sure were.