Ciao, Sicily!

Working in France is tough. Before college, I had never had a vacation that lasted more than one week, but now, it seems like I get two weeks off for every six weeks of work.* It's a hard life, but someone has to live it, right? The French might be on to something with this whole labor laws thing. I'm certainly enjoying it. For this vacation, I headed down south to Sicily with assistant Nichole for ten days of theoretical sunshine. We definitely brought the chilly rainy Normandy weather for the first few days of the trip, but don't worry! Sunshine came to us by the end!

*I say "it seems like" to make my friends who work 12 hours a day with one week of vacation per year feel better. This is a true fact. 2 weeks off for every 6-7 weeks of work. La vie francaise...

We flew to Catania (approximately 20 hours after I got back to France), an industrial coastal city on the east side of Sicily. It's a pretty gritty city with seemingly little tourism, though it could have just been the fact that it was February. Our first day, we decided to go on a hike/tour of Mt. Etna, the active volcano right nearby. This tour was...an experience. The guide, Ernesto, spoke zero English, despite advertising that he did, but to make up for it, he played a U2 CD on repeat for both directions of the hour-long drive. He took us to sites and into "lava tubes" - aka caves - that no American tour company would sign off on because of liability issues. At one point, he actually dug us into a cave with no markings. In retrospect, Nichole and I realized that we hadn't signed any liability forms and that nobody knew where we were and that we were on a massive and active volcano. Oops! The sights were obviously very cool to see, though. That afternoon and the next day we wandered around Catania, visiting churches and a really beautiful monastery, stumbling upon Communist bars, and restaurants that played Lionel Richie on repeat. All niiiiight long (puns are fun, aren't they?). A fun fact about Catania: it's the birthplace of cannoli. The cannoli I ate there was, simply put, incredible.

From Catania we took a bus down to Syracuse. For me, this city was the highlight of the trip. It was charming, beautiful, old, friendly, accessible, etc. Great for a tourist! There are a ton of Greek and Roman ruins to see in Syracuse, from a whole archaeological park to catacombs to temples. We also ate extremely well in Syracuse, particularly when it came to seafood. One night for dinner I had homemade gnocchi with pistachio and sea urchin, a dish that was decidedly different from anything I had ever eaten before. The next day, we wandered to an outdoor market that started with knock-off sunglasses and ended with singing fishermen. We had huge oysters right off the table and incredibly fresh and tasty mozzarella. All the vendors were so happy to see two Americans anxious to try different food that we got sample after sample after sample. Not too shabby, eh? I should point out that nobody we met in Sicily spoke a word of English or French. It's ok, though, because I got the chance to kick off my career as a professional mime.

Seeing the ruins at the archeological park was my favorite sight, hands down. (I realized that I should divert this post away from food for at least a little bit). The catacombs - second largest after Rome - were also a highlight because they were essentially an underground city. A few years out of high school, I had forgotten a lot of what I used to know about Greek and Roman history, but the tours we went on were informative enough to make out visits interesting and meaningful. The advantage of being there in February was definitely that we were never crowded or being shuttled through sights as quickly as possible to make room for other visitors. Nichole and I spent a lot of time joking about how claustrophobic we were when we found ourselves totally alone in beautiful baroque piazzas. Somehow, it didn't get old, though it most definitely should have.

Because we were having such a good time in Syracuse, we decided at the last minute to rearrange our trip and spend an extra day there. It was a good call, because it allowed us to spend time sitting in the sun people-watching and snacking. The best person to watch may have actually been our roommate at the hostel, an American lady named Jeanette. She was in her 40s from Baltimore and she had opinions to offer on everything. Before we met her, we actually figured out she was American based on her stuff: she had a plastic bag filled with prophylactic medicine.

The last stop on our trip was Palermo, by far the most intense of the three cities we visited. Traffic laws didn't necessarily seem to exist, as vespas were weaving in and out of everything - cars, buildings, humans. We did a lot of walking and then stumbled upon a local restaurant by the port where we got involved in a raffle for a stroller full of fresh fish. Yup. First things first, the meal we had at this place was totally blog-worthy. They grilled fish for us on the sidewalk, then followed it by a pasta dish that tasted exactly like the tomato salad I grew up eating every summer, which is to say that it was chock full of raw fresh garlic. In any event, this dripping stroller rolls up (literally) and when we get up to see if some poor little kid wet himself, we find a basket of fish. Then a group of old men show up so excited that we are curious about what is going on. Through miming, we discover that it's a raffle. The guy even let me pick a number! Great success!

Basically, it was a great trip. The Sicilians we met were very nice and friendly and so happy to meet Americans who like to eat. I would definitely go back there and I highly recommend it to anyone. I'll post photos soon!

Arrivederci!