We’re headed to Italy!! More specifically, we’re going to Salina, one of the Aeolian island’s off the coast of Sicily. It’s been 5 years since I was last at Salina so I expect that things won’t be exactly the same as it was before.
Getting to Salina has always been a full day affair and sure enough, this trip was no exception. I guess since this is an Italian holiday, we should have been prepared for an Italian schedule. 😛 We took a flight from Stuttgart airport due to depart at 11:40am but was delayed by 30 minutes while we waited for the airline to get permission to fly through Swiss airspace. We flew with Airberlin and the plane was packed like a can of Sardines. Like always, the hubby got a window seat and since the plane had 3 seats on each side, I got the centre seat which I don’t like cause I want easy access to the toilets. At least the lady beside me was nice. I had the “privilege” of sitting in front of a really tall guy who couldn’t sit still and kept poking my back with his knee through the seat. I was thankful the flight was only a mere 2 hours through blue skies and little turbulence.
Despite our initial delay, we arrived at Catania Airport (Sicily) only 10 minutes later than scheduled. It took a few minutes before they opened the plane doors because there weren’t any buses available to take passengers from the plane to the terminal. I got a good laugh when we finally got out and the bus drove everyone to the terminal only 100m away! We could have saved the time and walked that ridiculous distance! But I guess there must be some regulation about that. It felt weird walking through both, the German airport and the Italian airport without having to present my passport…which makes sense because we’re still within the EU (the “Schengen area”) but it still feels weird. Thank goodness the airport was air-conditioned because the wait for our luggage was long!! Really long!! A couple of people even started peeping through to the back and a guy started hitting the frame around the opening where the luggage comes out from. Not like any of such behaviour would speed things up…
When we left Germany, Stuttgart was 37 deg C. Catania was a little better at 28 deg C. To get from the airport to the ferry port at Milazzo, we needed to take a bus/coach (€15 one way with Giuntabus) and sure enough we had missed it. Nevertheless, we bought our bus tickets in a small booth just outside the airport and the Sicilian man who sold us the tickets handed us the wrong change (€5 short). I don’t know whether he did it on purpose but I’ve heard that tourists should be weary of the Sicilians because some have a tendency to “increase their hourly pay” especially from the English speaking tourists. Good thing hubby was handling the transaction and pointed out the lack of change to the man. Without much fuss but with a slight frown, we got the rest of our money back. We had an hour to wait so we decided to grab something to eat. The plane had only provided drinks and a small snack of salty/sweet biscuits and before the flight, we only had a small sandwich for breakfast. Being in the land of superb coffee, we obviously started our trip with an espresso (€1.10) at the Coffee & Wine Bar Sicilia’s d.o.c in the airport. We also bought ourselves 2 Aranchini (al Ragu) for lunch although it didn’t last us very long before we had to find something else.
The bus took 2 hours to get to Milazzo and was supposed to have a coordinated schedule with the ferries departing from port. However, an Italian woman with her children took forever to get on, chatting with family/friends while the entire bus waited for her, and then wanting to get off at an undesignated bus stop, causing a delay in the bus schedule. Eventually, we got to port only to watch the ferry motor its way out of the harbour. The next one was in an hour. So we sat at the Tropical Bar across the road and bought a slice of pizza each. The pizza was surprisingly terrible cause the dough was thick and sweet but unfortunately, this cafe didn’t have much else and we were pretty hungry. The port had changed considerably from the last time I was there. In the past, we bought our ferry tickets from a small booth beside Tropical Bar. Today, I noticed that the ferry company had its own free-standing hut that was connected to the pier. In the past, passengers waiting to get onto the ferry could wait on the pier itself however, this time, we had benches behind a metal gate for waiting. Signs had English translations which were new too and booklets detailing the islands were provided as well! Tourism has definitely taken over!
The ferry was essentially a speed boat (hydrofoil) only for carrying passengers. By the time we got onboard, it was 7pm and the sun had started to set. In the orange light, we arrived at Volcano which is the closest island to Sicily out of the 7 Aeolian islands. Then shortly later, came Lipari followed by Salina, our destination port! The boat ride through the Mediterranean sea was the smoothest I had ever been on! The sea was the calmest I had ever seen it! Not a ripple was in sight! Its amazing how different it is from September!
Belosophy 