Living on an Island

Catania - Piazza del duomo

There is nothing that could have prepared for me for the chaos of Italy. Whatever was I thinking when I decided to come here for a month. My previous European destinations have all been in well run European countries like Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Scandinavia and I know a bit of French and German and was able to get by because most people know English anyways and could always bail you out. I was contemplating this on the flight over when the plane was filled with boisterous Italian school kids returning from holidays – quite the norm in Europe. From the moment the plane landed it was on. People jumped out of their seats before the “unbuckle your seat beat” sign was off and it was a mad scramble to grab luggage and get off the plane as if it was some kind of race. I was worried someone was going to accuse me of having tripped them so they could get ahead as Italians have a reputation for falling over to get an advantage.  The race continued to the luggage carousel when people pushed for pole positions and school kids went crazy riding the carousel for fun. There are no signs saying you can’t. For anyone that studied Italian in school you’ll be pleased to know that Dario was the main perpetrator of the carousel riding. It’s always Dario you see. Anyone naming their kid Dario is asking for a trouble maker.

Catania - Teatro Roman Greco

You can imagine the irony then when I got into the taxi and inquired as to whether the driver spoke English when he answered ‘Tedesco’. I took some Italian classes before coming to Italy and know that ‘Tedesco’ means German. What are the odds? So we figure things out by resorting to my obviously lame Italian and a backup plan of having the address ready in writing and I make it to the hotel, which was truly wonderful and worth the 4.5 star rating from trip advisor. Catania was my first destination here and I have to say it’s a complete dump. The streets are small and crowded, buildings are run down, it smells in places and there really isn’t that much worth seeing. And as it’s not on a grid system one gets lost very easily! Amazingly there are more signs around the place to my hotel than any other attraction or street which bailed me out a few times. It was almost as if it was a sign of Gods providence but I try to avoid thinking like that for fear of becoming one of those annoying people who think finding a good car parking space is a sign of Gods providence.

Syracusa - Ortegia Island

One should never come to Sicily unless they know some Italian or are ready to wing it with actions and a phrase book. Outside of the hotels people generally do not speak English, and if they do it will only be marginally better than your Italian. I decided to learn Italian prior to coming back to Europe as a result of the Luxembourg Italian restaurant debacle on my last trip whereby I had learnt all the French I needed to know to get by and the first time I went out to dinner they handed me a menu entirely in Italian. Having food intolerance issues one needs to know as much language as possible so I’m sitting there wondering what the Italian word is for onion but now I’m all set. Unfortunately one doesn’t learn much studying a language in Australia because Australians are so bad at foreign languages and as nobody bothers to teach English grammar in school most of the lessons are spent listening to the teacher explain subject, object, verb and what pronouns, prepositions, adverbs are etc … because they can’t teach anything until the class knows this stuff. Most people really struggle and then once you introduce grammatical concepts not in English their brains explode.

Syracusa

My first ventures out in this country did not go very well. I had issues crossing the road without being killed. There are pedestrian crossings here but nobody stops. I’m not sure what side of the road the cars should be on because it doesn’t look like there are any consistent patterns. The streets are all at angles, poorly signed and it’s very easy to get lost. Its also difficult walking because there is either no sidewalk or what is there is quite small but you don’t want to walk on the road for fear of being hit by a car. Not to mention the number of Italians having conversations in the middle of the footpath you need to walk past. Italians love to talk. I went out and got my first coffee but I realized I was missing a few words of vocab that would have come in handy. The coffee was good but not life changing as I expected Italian coffee to be. I went to the train station to organize my ticket for the next day and got referred to the information desk but the woman was hardly informative and reached the limit of her English vocab with me. She told me you don’t get tickets in advance you just get on the bus. “Which bus”, I ask and “From where does it leave? and she answers, “Oh you just keep looking until you find the right bus.” I can see now why Hitler had such issues with Mussolini during World War II and how he ran his army. The country is a disorganized rabble and sorely in need of a few clipboards!

Syracusa - Sunset over the Ionian Sea

So I did the only thing I could think of in this situation. I went back to the hotel to regroup and have a team meeting with myself. I went through my guidebooks and iPhone and started looking up the missing vocab and made lists of the words and phrases I didn’t anticipate knowing before coming here that I should now learn. I set myself tasks and challenges to immerse myself in Italy every time I went out. I looked at street signs and tried to see how much I could read, I went to the supermarket for supplies and read as much of the labels as I could, I bought tickets for things and I went for more coffee to could get more confidence doing basic things. And of course I did what I always do in foreign countries I scan the TV stations looking for quiz shows. Only the Italians could create a quiz show that contains dancing girls, models, shoes, special effects and the most amazing array of trivia I’ve ever seen presented on a TV quiz show – multiple choice questions, true/false, wordplays, elimination play-offs and lateral thinking challenges. Obviously I watch it to get ideas and improve my Italian.

The mountain town of Ragusa - set amongst the hills.

Catania received the ultimate black mark in my book when I decided against buying a tacky souvenir to remember it by. As a collector of tacky souvenirs this blight should not go by unnoticed and I was very glad to only spend a day here. I then moved on to Syracusa in the south of the island. This was a complete turnaround from the hustle and bustle of Catania. It was much more peaceful here, the streets are laid out on a grid system and everything is walkable. The girl at the hotel gave me a map upon checking in and circled every location of interest whilst conversing in a combination of Italian and English. I’m not sure what you call that hybrid language. The main part of the city Ortegia is set on an island and is a beautiful, worthy UNESCO world heritage listed area. It’s full of little alleyways, piazzas, duomos, churches, cafes, restaurants and the like. It’s also flush up against the beautiful Ionian sea. And whilst it is great to wander the streets and take in a different style of life traveling alone one does soon get bored with this sort of thing. My favorite attraction was probably the Archimedes museum which is only for Math nerds because they explain things like how he derived all of his formulas for parabolas and various other shapes which is quite interesting.

Ragusa panaroma.

Ragusa was probably the destination I feared most before coming on this trip as it was quite remote and difficult to get to. Ragusa is a city nestled right up in the hills of Sicily. It was destroyed by a massive Earthquake in 1693 and so they built a new city next to the old city and so now it’s a tale of 2 cities so to speak. It’s very hilly, windy and has stairs everywhere. One gets very tired if walking for too long. It also has 18 UNESCO World Heritage listed buildings. Italy itself only has 59 so in a few hours once can see more World Heritage sites then most people see in their lifetime! The problem is that to get here you take this incredibly slow train that winds its way through the mountains going through tunnels, hills and stopping at all kinds of places. Italian trains aren’t like German trains either. There is no timetable when you get on, announcements and the stations themselves have this 1 crappy, tiny sign that you really need to watch out for when entering because if you miss your stop that its. There isn’t another train that day to take you back – its single track!

Ragusa.

The reasons why I feared Ragusa all came to pass. You end up at the base of town and need to make your way to the old part of town which is some way away. A British couple took the only taxi at the train station and it was left for me to follow my Google Map printout on how to get to the hotel. Eventually I ended up on a highway without a footpath and I realized I would probably get hit by a car if I walked on the road so turned back looking for a taxi. Not being able to find one I decided to navigate my way there using my google map printout but I soon got very lost as I didn’t know which way was north or south because it was all so hilly and I had no bearings. Carrying 20 kilos eventually I stopped and had another of these team meetings with myself (its going to be difficult allowing Allan into these meetings when he rocks up!) and asked myself the all important question, “What would they do in the Amazing Race?” Then I knew what to do. I walked into the lobby of a hotel because I knew the hotel manager would probably speak some English, which he did and I explained the situation. He gave me a better map of the city, circled the hotel which was 2km away and I inquired about a taxi. He suggested I head to the bus station 5 minutes up the road which I did. I then found a taxi and we had a very interesting conversation using my broken Italian and he corrected my pronunciation of certain words and told me all the things I should see when there. After seeing the route the taxi took there was no way I would ever have found my own way in the windy, hilly streets in the heat.

One of many churches in Ragusa.

Ragusa itself was beautiful, quiet and peaceful and full of retired American tourists traveling in groups. There must be a collective noun to describe groups of American tourists traveling together. It was a bit cooler which was appreciated as I have been struggling in the heat. When first traveling with Allan many years ago one of the early comments he made was that hot weather was bad for the type of traveling I like to do – explore cities on foot. This point was noted but it got warmer in this part of the world more quickly then I expected. It was 20 degrees when I first got to Malta but now it is 27 degrees every day and I have to take Siestas every day like the locals because if you’re outside from 12 – 4 you suffer! Leaving Ragusa was just as difficult as it was to get there and I relied upon all the internet research I did prior to getting here because there was no chance of receiving any useful information from a local. If coming to Italy I couldn’t encourage this enough – it’s very difficult to work things out on the go. After catching a connecting bus back to Catania which dropped me at the bus station next to the bus station (which isn’t confusing at all!), I then took a slow bus to Taormina and arrived well over 6 hours after I left.

The sun is intense here.

Taormina however is easily the highlight of Sicily. It has picture perfect views of the coastline going north and south as well as looking over the Ionian sea to Italy. It’s a town set in the cliffs 700 metres above the beach and as such it’s a bit cooler and has the added bonus of a sea breeze. It’s very touristy, which I like as it gives it a vibrancy and holiday feel that these other places didn’t have. Its biggest bonus is that people speak more English here which was a pleasant surprise. Although on my first night out to dinner the waiter thought I was French and said Bonsoir and it just didn’t compute as to why he wasn’t saying Buonasera. He then asked if I was German and I said No and he then guessed English. I’ve spent my whole life trying to be someone else and when I had the chance I let it slip by! Taormina’s highlights were easily the views and an old greek amphitheatre set high in the hills.

Teatro Roman - Greco

Sicily is quite different from anywhere else I’ve been. It’s really nice but really ugly at the same time. It has some stunning locations and sites but at the same time their cities are filled with old soviet era styled apartment buildings which wouldn’t be great to live in, can smell, the traffic is crazy and many parts of their cities are just eyesores. It’s also a different pace of life. Everything opens early in the morning but shuts down in the heat of the middle of the day. Locals then go of for siesta which isn’t standardized so could be anywhere from 1 – 3:30 or 12 – 4:30 but what this then creates is a 2^nd stage to the day. Towards the end of the afternoon as things open up again so begins the evening passsegiata and people go out to the piazza’s and bars for coffee or drinks and socialize. It’s a dimension to society we don’t have in Australia and something many Europeans complain about when they rock up here. They can only go to the supermarket or mall after work which isn’t the same. The shops stay open later until 7:30 or 8:00pm because they know they will get clientele. Restaurants also don’t open until later because of this. Its weird seeing restaurants empty at 7:30pm, indeed many of them are only just opening. I would have to say though that the people are really nice. As I obviously don’t look Italian every time I try my dodgy Italian out they realize I’m giving it a go and they always speak slowly and clearly and use hand actions to stress their points. One of the things I love about romance languages is that you can learn so much from intonations and non verbal signs of communication and you can always pick things up by listening to the locals when performing the same transactions as you.

View from Taormina

All in all though I’d have to say this place isn’t for me and isn’t a great place to go as a single traveler. You don’t see too many other lone travelers around the place and the trains and buses are mostly empty. It really doesn’t gear itself up too well for the tourist – don’t expect much useful information from people at help desks. It’s also too warm for my liking and this means I can’t eat during the day which in a way worked because I needed to settle my system down after a big first week. I’ve made a note that days 6 and 7 of my holiday are always the worst. However I did verify the theory that Italy is the place to go in Europe for gluten free. As I was looking for some food to settle my system down I stumbled upon this gluten free shop selling a huge range of gluten free products the likes of which we don’t get in Australia. It looks like the Italians are exporting their crap products and keeping the good ones! They had all sorts of things like pretzels, rice bars and various other things and I stocked up.

Townshop of Taormina in foreground, Mt Etna in background.

Despite this the coffee really was excellent and the reason why Italian coffee is highly rated is that it is good everywhere. It is so consistently good that when I asked a girl at the hotel where the best coffee was she didn’t understand the question because it was good everywhere – there is no best. The hotels were all great, breakfasts offered a wonderful variety of foods, they made fresh cappuccinos from a real coffee machine and the staff did everything they could to make my stay pleasant and at the end of the week I would have to say that you learn much more immersing yourself in a language then you could ever learn from a course in Australia because you are forced to give it a go. I’m now very much looking forward to the north of Italy which I will be tackling with Allan. The next 3 weeks should be my favorite as I’ve recovered from jetlag and am in the travel zone. I now get to take lots of voyages on European trains. You never know who will meet!