Day 1 - New York to Milan to Palermo

This was already going to be a super long day and it started poorly. The 2.5 hour drive to JFK turned into 3.5, but fortunately we left extra early so no complications. I just have to keep reminding myself that the tickets were half-price to balance out the hassle of leaving from JFK on a discount airline - bad traffic, expensive parking (more that 2x Newark), no TSA-Pre, etc. At least the flight is on time!

The flight on AirItaly to Milan was actually quite pleasant. We had a new Airbus 330 with plenty of legroom and the food was decent. Lasagna for dinner and an omelette for breakfast. The plane was mostly Italians and they all applauded for a very routine landing. On the second AirItaly flight, again loud applause from the Italians when we landed in Palermo. Must be a cultural thing.

Speaking of cultural things, things at the airport in Palermo are pretty much chaos. The baggage monitor tells us our baggage in on carousel number six until someone comes out and tells us Americans are on number 1 (because you have to clear customs). Go to pick up our rental car. Long line because the one agent is taking 20 minutes per person and looking like he is totally perplexed by what he is seeing on the monitor each time. He checks me in within 5 minutes. Maybe it was because I did it in Italian or maybe because my reservation is more complete. I don't know. We have a red Fiat 500. The quintessential Italian car since the 50s. Think VW beetle in the US. About the same size.

Falcone Monument near Palermo

We drive to the hotel and the streets in Palermo are like chaos too, but it just reminds me of driving in New York so it isn't a concern. Motorcycles passing from every directions, three lanes turning right into one, people stepping out if front of you everywhere. Been there, done that. Although I'm pretty sure I broke a couple of laws along the way.

No photos today, but I borrowed a shot of the Judge Giovanni Falcone monument which we drove by. Falcone was a main anti-mafia judge investigating the mafia until the mafia killed him by blowing up the main road to the airport in 1992. It was the equivalent of blowing up I-95 in Philadelphia. The monument is alongside the rebuilt road today and the airport in Palermo is named after him. The mafia still exists but I think they are much scaled back since the 90s.

Pizza Margherita and bruschetta for dinner.

The Day Before Departure

Sicily Map (showing major train lines)

I just wanted to write a couple of words about this trip before we leave. I'm not sure how long the trip to Sicily has been in the planning stage but probably something like 8 or 9 months. We bought the tickets on Easter Sunday (April 1) on a great one-day offer from AirItaly which pinned down the dates and length of the trip (16 days).

For the most part the tour is going to be driving and from the map you can see that Sicily is a relatively small island in the shape of a triangle, that is maybe 200 miles from corner to corner, so not all that big. Originally I had planned to drive counter-clockwise but some of the events and availability of certain places to stay dictated driving clockwise. Not a big deal compared to the medical problems that almost derailed the trip, but we are beyond that now.

So why Sicily? The main reason is we haven't been there and Sicily is supposed to be quite a bit different from the rest of Italy. I have a lot of friends who have been and talk about their visit fondly. Sicily also has a long history of being settled by foreign invaders - Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Spanish and French just to name a few – so it has a variety of different kinds of sights. And of course food is always high on our list. We expect to have a lot of great seafood, pasta and fantastic Sicilian deserts (like cannoli, cassata, etc.).