Day 7Mazara dell Vallo, Sicily

At 8:30 we were off for another adventure.  It took about 45 minutes to drive to Museo del Sale.  We have been so lucky with perfect weather.  Today we were lucky because this was the last day of the season and we were able to enjoy the salt production before they shut down for the season.  

We now understood why Nunzia wanted to know our shoe size.  When we arrived their were rubber boots with our names on them.

 We all enjoyed the demonstration and how the salt is produced.   

Bill's leg was swollen and still oozing but he didn't let that stop him from joining in on the fun.  The employees are sitting there watching us and laughing.

Aren't the boots glamourous?

Our next adventure was a boat ride out to Mothya Island as viewed from the salt place.

Mothya Island has only a night watchman living there.  The island had a Phoenician settlement 2,700 years ago.  You could see the ruins of the settlement.

We visited another museum.

This was our picnic lunch that we had.  Bill didn't feel like doing the hike around the island so we just enjoyed the island until the rest returned.  

When we returned to the bus, Nunzia had Marsala wine for everyone to sample.

Nunzia walked our small group down to a local restaurant for dinner.  Bill had a platter of mussels.  The appetizers were swordfish.  It was wonderful.  

This is a snapshot of what we did for the day.  We returned back to the hotel around 8:30 and had free time for the rest of the evening.  Shower and a bed were our much appreciated "free" time.  

Turtle Safely........

Mazara del Vallo--Day 6

I wrote day 6 and somehow lost the whole blog.  Today is day 10, so I have a lot to catch up on.  There's so much going on, it's hard to remember everything we did.

At 9 am, we walked along the sea to meet our local guide who lead us o the historic Kasbah quarter.   There are approximately 3000 Tunisian's who live here.  Tunisia is approximately 90 miles away.

These men were having a beer and talking about women.  They are all so friendly and it was 10 am.

We walked over to the fish market to "talk" to the locals.

There were all different kinds of fish from tuna to shark.

This arch was built to protect the Kasbah from invaders.  It's height would prevent someone on horseback from riding through.

The streets are narrow and the buildings two stories so that it shades the street.

After two hours of walking around Kasbah, we visited the Museum of the Dancing Stayr.  

This bronze statue was found in a fishing net were estimated to be over 2,000 years old.

We walked a little further and met Antonio.  He said he had three surprises for us.  

The first surprise was  Sicily's smallest opera house, which was recently opened.  

Then Antonio sang for us for our second surprise.  The third surprise was the man on the left.  He was the one who found the Dancing Satyr.  We were given a post card that he autographed for each of us.

We were then divided into two different groups and driven to a family who hosted us for lunch.  The meal and wine were delicious.  

Vita walked us around to see her 6 cats.  As we were leaving, Bill dodged one cat and ended up stepping on another.  The cat clawed him.

It didn't leave a scratch but some big puncture wounds.

After we returned we had about two hours to explore on our own, but we stayed in the hotel and elevated Bill's leg as it was still bleeding.  

Our dinner was going to be pizza that we made ourselves.  

We had a very lively discussion of how to make pizza.  Everyone was making their own pizza when Vita came into the shop.  She had arranged for the doctor to see Bill.  It is now 7:30 pm.  

She drove us to the office and we had to wait about 25 minutes.  It was still bleeding.

The doctor did not speak English but Vita translated.  The doctor gave Bill a prescription and cleaned out the wounds.   When we came out it was 8 pm.  Vita saw the owner of the pharmacy walking down the street and asked him to open the shop but he was in a hurry so we had to wait until the next day.

 Our pizza's were in our room when we returned.  Nunzia was waiting for us and concerned about Bill.  She took the prescription and said she'd get it filled.  

Even though we had the added adventure of seeing Sicily's doctors at work, we had a wonderful day.  

Turtle Safely........ 

 

Sicily--travel to Monreale

 We left Cefalu at 8:30.  Our luggage was placed outside our room, 30 minutes before departure.  It is a 3 hour drive to Mazara del Vallo, but we made a few stops enroute.

Our first stop was in Monreale a small town near Palermo to visit the Duomo.  There were 100 steps up a hill before you arrive at the cathedral.  This is another UNESCO site.  There were many tourists! 

It's difficult to see the mosaic from this photo but it was beautiful.

This is a view of the ceiling.

I was hoping the gold would show up better in the photos.  

There was a wedding beginning and Gabriella wasn't allowed to talk so she had to move away but kept talking and we could hear her through our whispers.  Bill doesn't use the whispers as she clips on Bill's microphone that bluetooths through his hearing aids.  There is someone else in our group that also uses a hearing aid microphone.  

It was very nice to view the cathedral and also see it being used for a wedding.  It seems it's not unusual to have weddings that aren't on the weekend as many were postponed due to the pandemic.

We headed for Segesto around noon.  We were thankful for the hour and half ride after walking up all those steps.  

Nunzia stopped us by a shop where a local artisan was making mosaic items out of glass that he gets from Murano.  The last time we were in Italy we visited Murano glass and saw them hand blow glass.  We bought a vase which has our name on it.

Around 1:30 we stopped at an agriturismo for lunch.  The owner drove down the 2.8 miles in a mini van to pick us up as the bus was too large for the road.  The vineyards and olive groves are on his 95 acre farm.  We had a wonderful lunch and everyone hiked down the road.  We saw a temple which reminded us of our Greece tour.  We didn't make it all the way but everyone else did.  The van took us down to meet the bus.  Sorry I didn't get any photos as I left the camera on the bus.

We had a little more than an hour ride to our hotel in Mazara del Vallo on the western coast.  I must say this hotel has nicer rooms and our balcony overlooks the sea.  We all wanted to stay in the courtyard for our welcome drink.  After our drinks and appetizers we moved inside for our dinner.  

It was another wonderful day.

Turtle Safely.......

   

Sicilian Mafia and Palermo

 I am really trying to catch up as there is so much going on, I'm afraid I'll forget something.  

Around 8:30 on Monday we boarded the  30 passenger bus for an hour ride to Palermo.  Unfortunately, there was a very bad 4 car pile up which made us wait for 30 minutes for rescue.   Gabriella, the local guide, was joining us for the day. 

Here's why Bill wanted to go to Sicily.  On the left is Gino Felicetti who lived in Corleone.  His father was a crime boss.  A few doors down, Angelo Provenzano live.  Angelo's father, Bernardo Provenzano, was the head of the Cosa Nostra.  He took over when Salvatore Toto Riina was arrested in 1993.

They both told personal stories of their lives as the children of the Cosa Nostra.  Angelo's father was on the run for 43 years after he was responsible for the death of two magistrates.  He never went to school or had any friends.  He never knew what his father did as a child.

It was a wonderful and controversial topic and we were allowed some time to ask questions.  I don't want to get into too much details in case someone decides to take this trip.  Let me say, it was the highlight so far.

Gabriella then lead us down to the city gates.  I can't remember for sure but I think it was the 11 century.

 Here's a float for a festival

  

   The photo doesn't show all the detail and colors well.  

I'll just add a couple of photos of some of the architecture.

Of course, here's another cathedral, but you couldn't pass it up.

Nunzia is always afraid we might get hungry.  This was some kind of almond pastry she bought for everyone.

Here's a typical scene, the bride and groom walk down the street.

Nunzia wanted us to experience the local Arabic market.

Nunzia gave us olives, minced meat rice balls, and cheese rice balls to try.  Bill wasn't impressed but I really liked them.  This experience wouldn't have been possible with a big group.

We live in Arizona and I've never tasted prickly pear before.  The vendor showed us how to cut it, and Nunzia gave us each one to try.

After the market, we had some free time to get lunch, if we were hungry.  Nunzia took some of us who  wanted to see the opera house.  I think she just wanted Bill to see the steps where a scene from the Godfather was filmed.

The dome can be opened for air flow.

Do you remember the scene from the Godfather that was filmed here?

After the opera house tour we returned to the bus for our ride back to Cefalu.

You would think that we'd done enough for the day but we still had a dinner in old town.  The walk to old town was very pleasant and the waves were really coming strong.  

Here's a sample of what we had for dinner.  It was a beautiful night spent with a great group of people.  

Now I'm only behind by two days.  

Turtle Safely.......

Cefalu Sicily continues

 I didn't finish up the last blog as we were going to Castelbuono for the evening.  I didn't anticipate that it would be almost 11 pm when we returned.  I also didn't anticipate how good and much wine we would consume.  Yesterday we spent the day in Palermo and then had a nice dinner and it was too late when we returned to work on the blog.  Now we are headed to our welcome dinner at 7 pm after another full day.

I'll try and add Castelbuono now.  As the bus was driving to Castelbuono, Nunzia was talking about the Sicilian people and she pointed out a cemetery.  She asked if we wanted to stop and so the driver stopped the bus and we walked back to the cemetery.  These are the things I love about this company.  They are spontaneous and flexible.  

Castelbuono is a 14th century town.  

Nunzia is showing us a traditional Christmas cake.

We had three samples as they used different toppings.  I liked the pistachio best.  Then we sampled a form of limoncello only this was prickly pear flavored.  

Here's a photo of Nunzia explaining Manna, a sap that comes from a bark.  Of course, she gave us a sample to try.

There were only 6 that went to Castelbuono as one couple went to visit some relatives.  Here we are in the castle.  When you go into a government building you have to show your passport and vaccine card and also wear a mask.

Here's a view of this small, I think population of 9,000, town.

Here's a typical Sunday evening.  The men are at a "men's club".  Nunzia asked them where the wife's were and they replied at home.

Here's the town square where everyone was visiting and kids were playing.  That's the Madonie Mountains in the background.  It was getting dark so not the best photo.

We then went to a restaurant that I think was called a certified slow food.  The owner was delightful but the food was probably the best I've tasted.  The appetizers were enough for the whole group but everyone got their own platter.  The wine was very nice and we all had way to much.  We were on a balcony and the full moon came up to add to the atmosphere.  The musicians played for us, and everyone had a chance to play the tambourine.  It was very late when we returned to the hotel.  We'd been on the go since breakfast.

I'm so far behind and there's so much information we are receiving.  

Turtle Safely.......