Sicilia

I could live in Sicily. It is a little slice of heaven. I went for a long weekend to Trapani and Palermo with 5 other girls who were also California exchange students.
I knew it was going to be a good weekend when the first thing I saw when we got off the plane was a shepherd with his sheep and sheepdog. I didn't even know shepherds existed anymore! Then we took the bus to our Bed and Breakfast, which was less than a two minute walk from the Sea. Trapani is a peninsula on west side of Sicily and it is so thin that you can walk from one side to the other in only a few minutes. We spent the first day just walking around and enjoying the beautiful scenery. And I touched the Mediterranean Sea!! The weather was too cold to go swimming, but it was still 30 degrees warmer than the weather in Bologna.
The next day we took a ferry boat to an island about 20 minutes away from Trapani called Favignana. It's a pretty small island and you get the impression that the whole island knows each other. (According to wikipedia, 14 square miles with less than 5,000 people. Actually the history of the island is fascinating-if you want to read about it, you've got security clearance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favignana ) After a delicious Italian lunch, we decided to climb the only mountain on the island because at the top there looked like there was an abandoned castle!
After about a two hour hike, we made it to the top. We were the only ones up there and the wind was blowing hard. We poked our heads inside and it was dark and lots of debris on the ground (shout out to Thomas-- 'throw debris'). And all of a sudden, what moments ago had seemed like a great adventure seemed very scary. A village dog had come up the mountain with us (despite the number of times I tried to make him leave us alone) and when he entered the fort, he howled and turned to leave. That didn't make us feel any more confident. Actually, most of the girls turned around to leave (they said that dogs can sense supernatural forces-- I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks). I wanted to follow them, but I knew I couldn't leave without exploring the fort. All I could think of was: What would be scarier- a dead body or a live body? And this was the kind of place where there could have been both! It was only 3 in the afternoon, but clouds had covered the sun so it seemed all the darker and scarier. But I had to see it. I went in. It's an old building and the floor-plan isn't exactly systematic, which made it more confusing and scary. But after I had safely survived two rooms, the other girls (and the dog) decided to follow.
What we saw was amazing! In some of the first rooms there were old beds (did this used to be where they sent the infectiously diseased Sicilians? Were we going to catch it?). But as we kept going, we saw lots of old (it looked like around the time of WW2) military radio equipment. And so many rooms were filled with this kind of stuff. (Wikipedia says that this is still an active military fort and is closed to the public. False. But on another website I read that this was the site of a fort that was built in 800s and rebuilt in the 1400s. Again, I think this history is fascinating- even more than that of the island. This page was originally in Italian, which is why the English isn't always perfect.  http://www.egadivacanze.it/favignana/castelli/il-castello-di-santa-caterina.html).
Then we made it to the top of the fort and looked around. The clouds had moved away from the sun and everything was BEAUTIFUL! You could see the whole island, the other islands around it, the shore of Trapani, and the beautiful, many-toned blue water that went on forever. It was very windy, but still warm, the sun reflected off the clouds and the water, and everything seemed just perfect! We would have liked to have stayed longer, but we didn't want to hike in the dark, so we had to go home.
The next morning it started pouring rain and we had to move our bags from one Bed & Breakfast to another (somehow that was cheaper), and it was going to be at least a 30 min walk. Trapani doesn't have the convenient porticos that Bologna has and we didn't bring our umbrellas. We were going to have to get very wet, and do it quickly because our bus was going to be leaving soon. As we were bundling up to go out, the owner walked in and with the most gracious Italian hospitality, offered to drive us in her car. Never have I been so grateful for a ride- it kept us dry and we made it on time to catch our bus to Palermo!
Palermo is about a 2 hour bus ride from Trapani, but the bus trip was almost as great as the city. The green country side, with little towns here and there, always with at least one church steeple and usually more, rolling hills covered in grape vines, and every once in a while, glimpses of the sea. Then there was the city itself. Some one had a friend of a friend who was our age and lived in Palermo and she showed us around the city all afternoon. Palermo is a big city and more open than Bologna, and like all the cities in Italy, Palermo is very old and full of history. We got there around lunch time and ate a typical Sicilian meal-- and Sicily is known for their delicious (usually deep fried) food! We ate Arancine, Caponata (among the three eggplant dishes that we ordered), and my favorite, Panelle! And then we got to the beach just as the sun was starting to set!
The weekend was perfect- well, almost. (Of course, it couldn't be too perfect- I wouldn't have a funny story for my blog.) With our RyanAir approved carry-ons (for anyone who has flown RyanAir, you know what I mean) we had to sprint to catch our 8am bus. Although I'm sure we looked hilarious, this wasn't actually the problem. The problem came when we arrived at the airport. As you can imagine, the Trapani airport is about the size of someone's house and the lines are non-existent. So I want straight up to the check-in desk and handed the lady my ticket and passport. She looked at them both a few times and I thought it was strange that the Trapani airport would be so careful about checking, especially considering on the way to Trapani the check-in lady barely glanced at either my ticket or my passport. But then I realized why: the lady told me the name on my passport wasn't the same as the name on my ticket. For those of you who don't know, my real name is Mary (which is obviously on my passport) but on my ticket was Molly (because a friend had booked the flight for me). Oh. No. If this had happend in LAX, I think I would have just sat down in despair. But I've come to appreciate small airports. The line for the help desk was, again, non-existent, and so I was immediately helped. I explained (in my best Italian) that they were both my names and that one was just a nickname and my flight was leaving soon and would it be cheaper to fix this ticket or to buy a new one? I didn't even want to think about how much they were going to make me pay and I knew I had to pay it because I had to get home. The lady told me to calm down and made a phone call. I couldn't hear what she said, but after she hung up, she made a note on my ticket and told me I could go ahead with my original ticket at no extra cost! Security might not be the tightest, but I've never been so grateful!
*I started this the weekend I got back from Sicily (11/29-12/1) but I seem to have taken a little blog vacation-- just some Italian oral finals and things like that. But I apologize to anyone who has been constantly refreshing the page for the last 15 days waiting for my post. :)