Things are looking up in Sicily

Well, for the first time I accidentally deleted a half finished blog post. Discouraging, yes, but I am sitting in the sunshine on Easter morning in a small town in Sicily amid throngs of Italians. We are all waiting by the church for the same thing- the procession of the statue of Christ through the streets, proving, once again that he is arisen.

If you want to feel a part of something larger than yourself, ( when you are missing being with your own family) join in on a festival crowd. While waiting, many are in the cafe where I went to get good wifi, so I could send a blog post and assure those of you who keep track of us that we are , indeed, still alive. 

Most are downing a quick cafe, but I chose a lemon granita

It was delicious and refreshing !

On Friday we went to see another procession in Ispica, another town close to our home for the week, thanks to the suggestion of our host. We arrived at about 12, after one procession, but in time to hear the band play a dirge as the statue of Christ being led to the cross appeared. As Jim said" this music sounds like it should be in The Godfather. you just know somebody is going to die."

This is the poster for the various processions. It's a big deal in this town, and thousands turn out to see it.

I loved seeing the seniors dressed in Sunday best

And the stylish teens

There were hundreds of people of all ages sporting the blue capes of the local group that were bearers of the statue. " Catholic gangs" quipped Jim.

One of the most beautiful churches I have seen, painted in soft shades of sea blue.

All the ceilings are beautifully painted.

Finally we see the statue appear

There is a great cry from the bearers( in Italian, so we're not sure of the meaning) as they thrust their hands up periodically, and huge rocket fireworks are going off , rather alarmingly. 

Then the band plays another dirge, people clap, and it is over. 

We wandered out in front of the church to find the place where people dedicate a wak figure to the church, in thanks. 

These figures, along with huge candles are hung all throughout the church. They were my favorite photos of the day. I tried to get jim to buy a leg for me but he was a little reluctant, given that we would have to leave it in the church. I said my knee could use a blessing...

There was more to come, but not until 5 pm when the Roman Calvary arrived!

We went to a nearby town for lunch and a haircut.

This was a three shampoo haircut and Jim got treated well while he practiced his Italian.

We pulled into town just as the band was playing again, and moments later the Calvary came riding in.

Complete with a chariot.

Jim happened to notice on a poster that there was a solemn procession after that, so we waited in the church for a while until the statue was carried through the streets for the last time. Thousands of people had gathered, and it was really very special, and worth waiting for. The lights came on as we sped out of town. 

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. 

This is the home of our lovely host, Bettina.

The view from the window.

Local fruits

Our first purchase of the traditional Easter, or Pascua bread.

The road home.

These freesia grow in abundance in Bettina's garden. Happy Easter!

Napflion revisited

Well, I know I wrote about the fact that it is better to create new memories, but we couldn't help but revisit a place that featured large in the Mooney family travel annals, Napflion, Greece. We had really intended to continue on to another magical place from a previous visit, Monemvassia, but discretion is the better part of valor( isn't that a great expression? ) and we decided to forego the 6 hour drive there and back. But back to Napflion... On our first trip to Greece, we set off on the road from Athens for what should have been a 2 hour drive. However, much to our chagrin, EVERYONE else was also trying to leave Athens, as this was Greek Orthodox Easter weekend! Who knew? Not us. 

So we slogged along in the traffic,  finally reaching the lovely little town of Napflion in the late afternoon. 

We easily found our hotel quite close to the seafront. It was older and rather charming, with floor to ceiling windows and a balcony.

We took the kids to the nearby square to find some dinner and I know that we ordered a pizza, because I clearly remember that I looked around and noticed that we were the only ones eating it with our hands. Everyone else was cutting it with knife and fork. Funny what we remember...jim was so tired that he went back to the hotel. Suddenly a lot of really big firecrackers were being set off- right next to us! Ah, so this is how the Greeks celebrate Easter. Then a small procession formed, carrying a religious relic or statue of Jesus( my memory is a little fuzzy here) aloft. We went back to the room eventually and fell fast asleep, tired from jet lag . 

At midnight I was awakened by beautiful, harmonic singing. It was some of the sweetest music I had ever heard, and it was right under our balcony! I flung open the windows and stepped out onto the balcony to see what looked like half the town in the procession! I woke up Jim to listen, too. They had processed to every church in town, finally ending up right across from our hotel at the small church, where bells rang to celebrate the beginning of Easter. This memory still brings tears to my eyes as I can easily conjur up that magical feeling from that unexpected serendipity. 

The next day was Easter and I was told that most families just celebrated at home with a grilled leg of lamb. I saw them in the butcher shops, but it seemed a little impractical to try to cook one by the side of the road. I secretly wished for people, or a place to share an Easter feast. But we had a plan to set off in search of some ancient ruins. We got a bit lost however, and saw a house by the side of the road with a bunch of people outside so I had jim pull over to ask directions. They immediately insisted that we stay for grilled lamb and ( lots) of ouzo offered from a liter pop bottle. We even had egg fights with hard boiled red eggs, just like my family tradition. This was probably our most memorable Easter, and just one more travel serendipity. 

So you can imagine why we might want to return to Napflion.

Still the same view from the harbor, but just about everything else had changed. Where there were once small cafe tables where everyone drank Nescafé, there was now a huge parking lot. Further on there were still lovely places to sit and have a coffee, but they are now all upscale restaurants with glass fronts and comfortable furniture. No one was drinking Nescafé, rather ,fancy coffee drinks. And the food was tourist fare. Club sandwiches and hamburgers. I'm sorry to say we were foolish enough to order a hamburger here, and I am still trying to forget that lunch.

As previously shown, this was our lovely pansion, Dafne. Perfect in all ways, including breakfast.

This also came with Greek yogurt and fresh squeezed orange juice. I'm becoming addicted to that delicious eggy, sesame bread. And you seem to catch a whiff of this sweet cake baking all around town. 

Since the day was sunny and warm we decided to stay close to town rather than spending six hours in the car driving to Monemvassia. We're finally getting a little wiser in our old age. 

And really, that was another experience that was so special that it would be impossible to recreate- not that we were trying to, but we both thought it would be fun to go there again. On our first visit, we really didn't know what to expect, but had read that it was a unique place at the edge of the sea, across a causeway. We happened to be there on May 1 which was a special day in Greece. Similar to our May Day, it was a tradition to pick wildflowers ,which were woven into wreaths and placed on doors around town. Very charming. 

We wandered around amid fields of daisies and wild red poppies which I had never seen before. 

Then we had lunch overlooking the Adriatic in a gorgeous setting. In my inimitable fashion, I imagined staying overnight at the one hotel on the small island. Next thing I knew, Jim was checking to see if they had a room available, and viola, we ended up staying there! I would show you a photo of the place, but would not want you to have to see me with tightly permed hair. Not a good look...I have always associated poppies with that day. Sigh.

But back to the present...

Jim had seen a small beach near town while looking at the map, so we decided to try to find it. At first we thought about trying to walk there, then decided to drive. Glad we did, because where we ended up was quite far from town. But what a drive it was! I soon got over my disappointment about not going to Monemvassia when I saw the view spread before us.

I called this " mini Monemvassia". There was a bench conveniently placed overlooking the water, where I did a little sketch.

And this " the house of seven cats". They were all happily lounging in the sun, as cats are wont to do. 

How cute is that? 

I strolled across the parking area to read a small sign next to a little path. Something was 300 meters away, and we decided to find out what it was.

The path was so spectacular that we really didn't care if we found anything at the end! 

Various kinds of euphorbia lined the trail- some just like what grows in my backyard.

And lots of wildflowers- but no red poppies.

Then we came upon this! 

I  gently pushed the blue gate open and went down the path.

And there was the tiniest church I had ever seen, which you entered through this tiny door

We had to bend low to enter...

I believe it is customary to kiss the paintings, but I did not.

There were three tiny rooms, and chairs piled up, so people do attend services there. 

View from the sea

Heaven being at the waters' edge.

Then we traipsed back along the path feeling like we had found a real treasure.

After a few more beach vistas, we drove back through town in the other direction through several small towns , finally stopping at this place for a quintessential Greek lunch in the sunshine

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I found this along the little pathway..

I was planning to bring it home as a Greek souvenier, but it smelled a bit too much like, well, skunk. 

So I took a photo souvenier and left it behind. 

Back " home" to sit on our terrace in the sunshine. 

All in all a very good day.

As I write this, I am sitting in the sunshine still, though in a very different place. Big jets fly overhead every few minutes , since we are staying very near the Rome airport. Sometimes I can't remember where I am or where we're going...