The Amazing not a Race: From bad to worse

I try to keep an open mind while traveling, hoping that a small setback won't spoil the day. I remember the phrase, " bad beginnings, good endings" when something goes wrong early on, and sometimes that even works.

We flew from Athens to Rome for a quick overnight by the airport before our flight the next morning to Catania, Sicily. The B&B was quite nice, if you don't mind airplanes flying overhead every 15 minutes. Mercifully they stopped later in the evening, so we were able to sleep.

Jim didn't want to be late for breakfast, although judging from the breakfast area that was open to us, I didn't forsee that there would be any need for promptness. I was right, since " breakfast" consisted of tea or coffee and pre-packaged toast and/or croissant. True, the Italians aren't wont to linger over a big breakfast like the Turkish. They have more of a grab and go morning culture, but this seemed to be a new low in breakfasts.

We were taken to the airport, 5 minutes away by our host, at a cost of $19, and dropped off at the wrong terminal, which meant schlepping our bags 6 minutes away. No big deal, but it seems that if you're driving people to the airport, it would be good to know the gates.

We were flying on Vueling Air, a cheaper offshoot from Iberia. If you've ever flown on Ryanair, or Spirit Air in the US, you will know the type that charge extra for everything. We didn't recon on them charging Jim to check his small travel guitar, though, as we have flown on possibly 15 flights in the last two months, and the only thing that was suggested by some Asian airlines was that he loosen the strings so they would not break. Ah, these low cost airlines!

When I observed him using hand gestures, and looking pissed off, I knew it had to be bad. It was $45 bad. But you're stuck paying the fee.

Our flight was full, so obviously we weren't the only ones with the clever idea to go to Sicily for Easter!

Maybe lots of the Italians were going home to have dinner with family. We sure missed our family...

We had a car reserved and paid for, but as in Athens, the car rental places are sort of close, but you still have to drag your bags several blocks away to get to them.

I stayed with the bags while Jim waited in a long line. He came bac in a while saying that they wouldn't rent to him without an Internationl drivers license. He hasn't gotten one of those for years! So, there we were, two hours from our destination, with no car in a dwindling market. The first place we checked offered us a car for $550 for 10 days. Uh, no thanks.

I went to Budget next, accidentally jumping the que. They had cars but also expensive, though less so.

So we took their car, hoping that we can get some kind of credit or refund from Autoeurope. Again, we were pretty stuck.

We got on our way, and realized that though we had purchased some kind of phone plan in Greece, it didn't work in Italy, nor did we have wifi for getting directions.

So we tried to follow signs for Ragusa, our next destination. There we were able to go into a phone store and fill out the necessary forms to buy a SIM card and internet service. By "we" I mean Jim. He does all the heavy lifting, so to speak, and the driving. I would be a wreck driving in Italy!

We got lost about 5 times, but after a couple more calls, and a caravan with our host, we eventually made it to Malavita house! Thanks to our niece Pia for telling us to come here.

It is a beautiful home nestled in the quiet countryside near Santa Croce Camerina, on the southern tip of Sicily. It could not be more different than our last B&B with planes flying overhead! All that flies overhead here are the birds.