Train, Vini, and Getting Lost...Mom's First Day in Sicily!

Hello All!

I've decided to take over this blog and give Erin a break.  A big shout out to all my family, friends and coworkers following Erin's adventures!  I'm in Italy, actually found Erin and having a wonderful time!

My last text from Erin before leaving for Europe!

My Italian adventure began at 2:00 PM (US) when I arrived at the airport.  26 hours later, I drove up Erin's street and found her waiting for me on the street, literally.  She was sitting Indian style on the street on her computer waiting.  My trip was quite the adventure especially being alone and not speaking any Italian.  My flight left from Minneapolis and landed in Paris and then made the connection to Naples.  So far everything went great...long but on-time and good.  But now I have to take the train to Sicily and I know there is this bus you can take from the airport to the train station.  The challenge is to find it and after a dozen people or so later and much walking in circles looking around where people were pointing, I finally make the bus, standing room only but I am on the bus.  And thanks to a English speaking German who told me that this stop is the train station and pointed a block down the street and said that is it.  So I am in the ticket office and get told to pull a number and wait for the number to be called.  I'm basically #17 and they were on 4.  I'm looking at the time and I know there is a train at 1:55 and it is basically 1:45 now (the bus taking much longer than I anticipated). After standing and watching for a few minutes, I realized that it would take much longer than I had. So when I see this helper guy and I asked him if I was even in the right place as I was trying to take the high speed train to Sicily and he finished by saying "which is due to leave at 1:55 which is 5 minutes".  He says "Come" and rushed me to a machine and starts punching buttons, I pull out my credit card and do my part of it by swiping it when he points and now I have a ticket but now I have less than five minutes.  He says "wait here" and he rushes off.  He reappears in a minute saying in broken English. " You lucky, train not at platform".   What???  It finally hits... The train is late and has not yet arrived.  He points and say to stand and watch this large monitor for my platform.  Within a few minutes, the train is there and I am on it and seated.  Later, I was to learn I was not in the correct seat but everyone was very kind about that!  After a taxi ride from the Catania train station to the car rental place at the Catonia airport, I now have a Smart car with instructions to lock the door as soon as I get in (ummm... Now if that doesn't frighten a person!) and armed with a GPS, I am ready to go.   It is now dark and after 10:00 PM but actually glad as the streets are relatively empty.  I find my way up the mountain to the place Erin is staying and much relieved to park the car and find a bed waiting after all I have now been up for 32 hous with just short naps on the plane.  But of course, Erin and I talk for a couple of hours before going to bed!

My Smart car

Mimi, the tiny kitten at the resort that Erin is in love with

Our first picture together in Sicily!

The next day Erin shows me around the place, we do a little internet, then we decide to head south, Syracuse to see the sights.  Half way to Catania, Erin realizes that her phone is out of money so we stop to fill it but now she has to reboot.  The password is back at her place.  So back to her place.  Get back in the car, start to drive, and Boris, the professor that is working with Erin, calls.  Erin had told him that we want to do wine tasting and he was arranging it for that day.  So we re-programmed the GPS and off we went!  We stopped at a little town for lunch and to look around: beautiful church and good food and off we went.  We saw the old lava flows, awesome countryside and then we arrived at the Vini Gambino and the place was absolutely gorgeous!   And they treated us with such hospitality and the wine was awesome.  In fact, Erin and I popped the cork on one of the bottles tonight.  My many thanks to Boris for that wonderful treat!  Then with just a couple of hours of daylight left, we headed for Taormina.  What a beautiful drive but also a great adventure!  Driving with the Italians on their tiny little roads in their cities is very adventurous.  Whenever we make it out alive and without a dent, we feel victorious!  But their cities are full of history and culture!    At one point in our journey, we suddenly take a turn and there is the ocean and a beach.  The beach had huge bolders so we pull over (not as easy to do in Italian cities as it sounds!).  The bolder is a conglomerate and Erin is silly happy over it!  We make it to Taormina and make three attempts to find our destination and on the 3rd attempt we realize the street has been blocked off.  But that is fine as it is now getting dark and I am tiring.  But what a glorious day it had been. 

Erin and I at Vini Gambini

Erin and her giant conglomerate!

On the way home, we passed a McDonalds and we pulled in. It was busy and they are really expensive.  They were very busy. And last night in another city in eastern Sicily, I had never seen a McDonalds so busy!  It had a large parking lot and it was full every time we passed it.  And it was a Sunday night after 7:00 PM.   The Italians must love their McDonalds! 

That ends my first full day of vacation!  Next, Erin and I spend two full days exploring western Sicily.  I will blog about that next.  Good night all...