My abiding image will be of the oranges on the road, surrounded by glass. The upside-down car, the tense faces of the local police and the paramedics treating the two casualties by the side of the road are secondary. The second car I didn't see, but Mara says it was crushed on the side of road. Already the first ambulance had left heading towards a hospital and had passed us. This was the second confirmation in 20 minutes of the assessment we had made in the first hour of driving in Sicily - that unlike most Italian drivers who may kill themselves driving, Sicilian drivers will kill themselves driving.
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| Sicilian windmill |
On Friday 1 Feb we had dashed to the airport in the late afternoon to catch a plane to Palermo. Palermo is the capital of Sicily, which is a part of Italy. Sicily is the soccer ball that the foot of Italy is kicking. It's a very old culture dating back to 700BC with the foundations of the Greek culture. Its list of invaders/conquerors reads like a Who's Who of Mediterranean power (Greeks, Romans, Carthaginians, Arabs, Muslims, Spanish, Norman-French, Crusaders, Germans and finally Italians - from a Sicilian point of view). It is also the home of the Mafia; interestingly an organisation which was almost wiped out prior to World War II, but which the USA used and thus reinvigorated to help fight the Germans.
We landed late on the Friday and collected the car - now points mean prizes and since it was really low season we found the car we had booked had changed from a two-door small car to a four-door BMW 3 series (and I later found out was charged at €7 or £5 or $10 per day!) We then plugged in the sat-nag and drove towards our hotel. The first 35 miles of the 36-mile journey was great, the sat-nag taking us wherever, only then to find the road blocked by the police due to a fire. Okay - heading off in another direction the sat-nag rerouted us back to the hotel. Great - this made it worth the investment...
The hotel is on the outskirts of Palermo and it overlooks the small-boat harbour and is one of the top hotels on the island. On arrival we found that we had been upgraded and in the room was a bottle of wine and cheese. We looked around the hotel later and found that it was like a grand country house. We were two of about eight guests - due to the low season. The piano player in the bar started playing when we walked in. Built at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries, the hotel has evolved over the decades: the dining room was in a late 19th century design (gilded but plain - lots of mirrors); the bar was in an 18th century vaulted area; the upstairs dining room (which was closed) was in a wonderful art nouveau design. Wonderful paintings and architecture - it is a great, if overlooked, gem.
On the Saturday morning we headed for the Imperial Roman Villa. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site for in this Roman villa each and every room is decorated with floor mosaics. And it has a lot of rooms. It's due to close very soon to upgrade the roof, which meant that some rooms were closed or the floors covered. Thus the price was reduced, but what we saw took our breath away. The mosaics cover every room - including the toilet - and outside around the gardens. Nearly 2000 years old, the mosaics range from mythical scenes to hunting and fishing to just geometric patterns (these make some 1960s patterns look dull!) The images range in size from two feet high to 10 feet high and are still very bright. We spent a great time walking over the site, surprised by almost every room we stood above.
We had a coffee and headed back towards the hotel and detoured to see the cathedral of Monreale. This is an 11th century Norman church that was covered internally with mosaics representing a number of Bible stories, all on a gold background. The central figure of Christ is over 40 feet wide. Sunlight and electric lights make the gold tiles glow in the semi-darkness. It was incredible.
Also incredible was the location. Trust me when I say don't drive here - narrow one-way roads made travel around the area horrible (reversing up a narrow one way street after a mistake is the second image I want to forget). Ironically I made the comment on arrival back to the hotel that I was pleased I hadn't scratched the car, then, when stepping out I noticed that the side of the bumper on the passenger side was badly scratched.
On Sunday we visited the Valley of the Temples - this is another UNESCO World Heritage site, on the coast on the south of the island. It's a large site (over three square miles) with a series of 2500 year old temples, many lined up along a ridge about a mile from the coast. Behind and below the ridge stood the town, which is mostly gone, but is replaced with almond trees, which were in bloom when we were there.
The remains of the temples ranged from a raised pile of earth to one of the best, if not the best-preserved Greco-Romano temple in the world. The temple stands now because, in about 700AD, it was converted into a Christian church. Although roofless, the columns and inner temple all stand. The sandstone colour makes the temple stand proud on the ridge.
We then headed to look at some items further up the hill, but found that the museum and access to the site was shut - it was Sunday afternoon and being the Sunday before Lent was the local children's festival, combined with the almond festival. So we headed down the coast to another site that we found was also closed and so headed to the beach and wandered around the area. This was very relaxing and calming - a bay with perhaps three miles of fine white beach, backed by pine trees.
It was returning from here that we passed the site of the first accident, but neither of us saw the cars or people involved, only the police and the seven mile queue of traffic that had built up. It was as we turned to head north across the island that we were stopped and then let past the second accident. There were about eight cars let through, and what's remarkable is that we all travelled together towards Palermo at the speed limit for the next hour. Cars passed the group, but our driving became exemplary.
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| Segesta |
On Monday we headed for the other contender in Sicily of the best-preserved Greco-Romano temple. This is Segesta, a Greek town built on a hilltop before the Romans arrived and rebuilt it. Then the Normans arrived and built a castle. On the hilltop today are remains from all three eras. The best preserved (and reconstructed) is the Roman theatre. This looks out over the valley and towards the sea. The wonderful backdrop and setting would have taken the crowd's eyes off the players in all but the most spectacular plays.
We then went down to the 2500-year-old temple. This is larger than any standing in the Valley of the Temples and we were free to walk around and in the temple. The roof and any internal fittings have gone, but the size of each column is huge; each is about 18 feet in diameter. Again built in sandstone, it sits nestled in the valley below the fortified hilltop and would have dominated the approach to the town.
We then headed down to Marsala, where the fortified wine comes from. Yes - we had a small tasting and purchased a couple of bottles. One we couldn't resist was named Terra Arse. We then headed back towards the airport, but detoured via the local saltpans. These Roman saltpans are still used today and present a beautiful romantic vision of the whole area, framed with ancient windmills for pumping water. Being low season, it was quiet but sunny and warm - a very relaxing area.
Now we hadn't seen anyone remotely looking like the Mafia yet (not that they advertise their profession), but that hadn't stopped us commenting on the employment of various scary looking individuals we saw/met. But driving back, we pulled into a small local café. As we did so a large, dark Mercedes also pulled in. Out stepped an older, well-dressed man (Mr Big?) with two less well-dressed men.
As we all walked in the well-dressed man asked if we were German. I replied "No, English." At which he suddenly became very friendly in a "we can't communicate but we can smile a lot" way. He asked a couple of simple questions in Italian which we could answer, and then tried a third for which we didn't have the Italian to understand. He then just raised his voice, asked the question and someone else - who had already been in the bar - asked us the question in English. We answered and continued to try and talk. It was all very friendly and fun.
They had a coffee and soon left and we finished our impromptu and incredibly cheap meal and then went to pay before we left. But we both had the feeling as we walked out that the Mr Big was perhaps a 'Mr Very Big'. A likely escape - maybe...
First published in VISA 79 (Jun08)
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