La Belle Vie♥: Bella Italia Part 1

Wow, so what an eventful trip already...for those of you who don't know I trekked it down to Italy this week for my last week of vacation before the school semester starts. Lipari, one of the Aeolian islands off the coast of Sicily was formed over 17,000 years ago during the last volcanic age. It is one of the six islands formed during said age, and also happens to be where my cousin Natalina lives with her family. So one train ride from tours to Paris, (where the entire Roissy airport was evacuated because someone left their freaking suitcase on the airport shuttle), an airplane ride down to Palermo, Sicily (where the entire plane applauded after we landed....think new york taxi cab driver, only in the air with more passengers), bus down to the city center of Palermo (since our flight was late due to airport evacuation) where I spoke not a freaking word of Italian (luckily there was an Italian woman on the bus who spoke French) up to the Hostel that Natalina had booked for me (where also luckily the owner spoke some french as well). Onto the Ferry boat the next morning and then four hours later arriving at Lipari....WOW.

The journey was pretty taxing but absolutely worth every minute. I have met SO many fun people already and I'm only three days into my journey. On the plane I sat next to two teenage french boys and chatted with them the whole journey, I am always so happy when the french people mistake me for an english (as in from england) french speaker, this is actually a compliment, it means my accent isn't absolutely atrocious. The bus ride from the Palermo airport was scary, Natalina had to call me and spell out every letter of the stop i needed to get off at, the street name and number of my hostel so I'd have something to point at....I furiously was searching my italian aria repertoire for words that could help me on my journey, I failed miserably. After a couple of grunts and points a lovely woman on the bus began speaking to me in French (thank god) and I was so relieved when she told me where to get off and exactly where my hostel was located. I spent the night in Palermo and made my way to a pizza place on the corner for a gelato and a slice.

I woke up the next morning at 5.30 to make my way to the port to buy my ticket for the ferry, since the ticket office opened at 6am, however this was most unhelpful since the gate to the port didn't open until 6.30 am! Oh Italy, how I love you. I ran into a wonderful German couple that was traveling to Stromboli (another island close to Lipari) and I spent the rest of the morning with them chatting and wound up with an invitation to come and stay in Berlin for the Krist Kindle Mart (Christ Child Market-german tradition leading up to the Christmas holiday)....Excellent! I love making new friends on this trip, it makes traveling alone a little less scary and a lot more fun. Four hours later (and very seasick) I arrived at Lipari where Natalina and Maya (her daughter) picked me up and we headed up into the hills of the Island to make some fresh lunch (after stopping at the local fruit and vegetable seller) and have a shower (apparently this is tradition in Italia, cleanliness is next to godliness....or so Nattie says the Italians think). Nattie lives and works with Pepe (short for Giuseppe) at their local boat and scuba shop, Pepe speaks hardly any english so it's been so fun having a multi lingual house. Maya being only two, understands english, but responds in Italian... so fun and cute.

Nattie and I took off down for a tour of the Island on her scooter (my first time on any type of two wheeled device), needless to say two curvaceous women on a scooter in dresses got lots of looks and whistles, great for my self confidence. We settled down on the beach for a swim (beaches here are made of rock too) and then went to go have a Gelato before picking up some local wine and heading back to the house. I ended up with two gelatos (determined to try every flavor before I leave, my favorite so far is Limone).

This morning the weather was total shit, but the wind looked like it was blowing in my favor, so I decided to head down the mountain path to the ancient roman baths to have a peak around. THe clouds were blowing away and it looked like I was in the clear. 45 minutes later it got very dark very quickly, I looked up in the sky and almost crapped myself since I was halfway down the mountain, the wind had instantaneously shifted, black clouds were rolling in, and I was on the edge of a volcanic cliff in a torrential hurricane like downpour. I huddled myself under a nearby olive tree and tried to wait it out, but 15 freaked out minutes later, unable to even hear myself think from the wind and thunderous claps of lightning I decided to haul ass back up, and I do mean UP, the mountain. I panted and heaved, sweated and wrapped my pagmina around my day pack, fearful of the rain ruining my camera, ipod and phone (which I was to call Nattie with incase of just such an emergency). I slipped and fell, rocks were literally falling off the edges of the very tall cliffs surrounding my previously descended path and I tried to fight back visions of myself laying on the path with a broken leg as I slipped up the mud (since the entire path had turned into a mud waterfall). I made it back up to where the road leaves to Natties house and oh my god, she was there in her car waiting for me, hoping I had the good sense to haul it back up the mountain.

So now, at least I have a good story to tell ten years from now while I sit around a circle with a beer talking about the stupidest thing I ever did....hike down a volcanic cliff in hurricane forecast....brilliant Sarah, just brilliant.

I'm here for another five days and there will be more updates to follow, but I just had to post this one because it's been such an adventure already. Pictures below.

I love you, I miss you,

Sarah

The greatest Kitchen EVER (note hand made brick pizza oven in the back behind Nattie)