Due to my poor planning we were only in Catania for one night although I'd paid for two. I'd left it so long that there were no early morning tickets left after night two and Eric wanted 2 full days in Paris. I should've sacrificed a Palermo night since we were there for 4 nights. I was very apologetic to Eric as our host who was an engineer has friends in city hall who could've helped us track down Eric's long lost relatives. Amazingly we'd woken refreshed after the seafood dinner. ( I slept 3.5 hours) We'd gotten up very early and walked to the station dragging our suitcases. Rosario told us to leave the key on the floor outside the apartment - weird, since he has a spare key to get in.
We were very happy that Luciano was already outside trying to hustle up some fares to drive tourists around. We'd come round yesterday afternoon to pay him for a tour but it was his siesta time. He was such a lovely man, and is actually the only reason why I'd ever come back to Palermo. We gave him a huge hug and I took a quick selfie. I wished that we had some way to send him a thank you gift for being a guardian angel in my time of need. He was very fatherly towards us and gave us both a message to carry with us. Mine was very positive about being lovely and to try to stay calm and Eric's was have a shave and show respect to your grandmother you are going to her hometown!
Haha told! We had to cut our goodbyes short as I was now a nervous wreck about getting hubby on to a train. When we got to the platform I double checked with staff and passengers that we were on the correct train. Sicily was as beautiful as we'd expected Tuscany to be with gently undulating hills filled with patches of poppies, heather, clovers, lilies of the valley, daffodils and other wild flowers. The journey was beautiful, unfortunately I fell asleep almost immediately, I am a very good sleeper whilst in motion! I know the journey was over 2 hours but to me it seemed like it was a ten minute nap and then before I knew it we were gliding into Catania Stazione Centrale.
Gaetano had given us good directions with regards to the bus but we were slightly confused by directions to the apartment, he stated that it was behind the Mecure Universal, because this was very large when we had circumnavigated it three quarters of the way we saw Gaetano waving to us from the balcony. He came to let us into the building and then took us to the foyer of our apartment . Unfortunately the plumbers were in the bathroom so we couldn't refresh. We had emailed G about Eric's nonna last night. Gaetano said he was intrigued by Eric's family history and wanted to help Eric find some living relatives. He offered to follow this up once we sent him some more info from Australia as he is just a lovely old worldly gentleman who has friends who work in the registry office.
Carrying a map with notations from Gaetano we navigated our way to Bellini Park, it was very restful sitting in the sunshine in the park. On our way to the park we'd discovered a food market , to us this was exciting, it was actually the only huge market we'd been to in our one month trip. The fresh produce was amazing, not that I even eat prawns but they were €3 per kg. Cheese was so cheap it was just a terrible injustice as we were leaving tomorrow. Thus I was frugal with my purchasing only picking up a mandalora tray - a selection of almond flour based cookies that I'd only ever seen in a photograph in the now redundant Feast magazine. The only other thing we bought was a bag of olives. We took our purchases to the park where a man was singing popular songs in Italian, it really helped set the scene.
Everyone was enjoying the temperate climate, the families out and about with their children had brought bikes, scooters and balls with them. Couples had brought picnic mats and wine, elderly people were walking with their canes or were pushing each other in wheelchairs. A group of three 12 year olds near us were acting quite cool, we spotted them later, letting off crackers at a fountain. This was really asking for trouble as within minutes the police were there, the boys felt very brave and let off another one, they were chased by the police and one got away and let his friends take the rap. Eric said that it was something that he would've loved doing at that age.
Feeling peckish we stopped at Pasticceria Savia which had been one of our hosts recommendations. The cashier had to be paid first then once she'd given you a ticket you traded that with the relevant counter staff. I bought pistachio pesto, 2 frozen coffees, a canolo and a dynamite pistachio arancini. Oh my God it was sublime! Unfortunately we had to meet Gaetano at 3.30pm for a key changeover so our amble was cut short. Gaetano was very pleased that we'd enjoyed his recommendation and gave us several for dinner. I cross checked his recommendations on TripAdvisor and we settled on his first pick Canni & Pisci, he kindly rang to make us a reservation unfortunately we had to decline as we could only get in at 10pm. So we settled for his second choice which was Trattoria del Cavaliere, I was a tiny bit anxious as they served horse which I was very uncomfortable about. We activated Google maps and off we went, through the sports shoe markets and past the supermarket. I bade Eric to stop so that I could buy 2litres of Limoncello. He said let's just get it tomorrow . You know that song " What if tomorrow never comes?" Well anyway that's how I felt. I thought, just in case my limoncello tomorrow never comes I'll buy 500ml now and some plane snacks and some small bottles of prosecco so we can have a spritz when we get home tonight .
Landmarks such as McDonald's found , left turn taken and we were soon seated ahead of the 730pm first setting. Now because I'd read mixed reviews, (one of them mentioning that the pasta dishes were small, ) I ordered; piccolo antipasti buffet at €3, I thought little plates, not so, that in itself was enough for our dinner and so delicious. Infact this antipasti tasted the most like what Nina cooks out of all the styles of food we'd eaten in Italy! The pasta was enormous, and we also had salad and marinated veggies as well as swordfish involtini and 2 types of beef involtini one with pistachio nuts and the other either tomatoes and prosciutto, plus a pork scallopine for Eric. When it all came out we were so overwhelmed that I started laughing in shock. They were very kind and let me pack it away - Lotteria style. We were so full yet we had only eaten a third of our meal.
As we started walking up our street retracing our steps I heard screaming and sirens I froze in horror. Loads of people came running in our direction the two at the front had blood all over them. We were almost knocked over by the crowd. I screamed and dragged Eric into a shop, the crowd thundered by. I asked the shopkeeper if he knew what was happening. He shrugged and replied "Probably boys fighting ".
Venturing out of the shop cautiously we noticed a well dressed mother waving her fist as she escorted her 8 years old son who was also bleeding. She was screaming at anyone who would listen. The crowd turned again
and surged back towards McDonalds. We distanced ourselves from the crowd. By then it was a group brawl with more than 100 participants. As Sicily still has a strong mafia prescence I thought it best if we got back to the airbnb as soon as possible. All intentions of a limoncello spritz were abandoned and we lay there talking about the strange evening.
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