We finally arrived on the shores of Sicily at the Messina docks at about 11pm.
It seems that more than half of the passengers were truck drivers and we were the only pedestrians who didn't have a car or someone to pick them up. In the pitch black we trundled along hauling our suitcases jumping off the road whenever a huge semitrailer went past. A reflector light on the back of our bags would have been good : Ewan used the torch on his phone to let the drivers know we were there.
We found the hotel, collected the key from under the doormat and discovered that we had booked a very cheap room that was a suite of rooms: two bedrooms, a kitchen, our own terrace: very nice.
Today we have had quite a few unexpected experiences, both good and bad:
Our first task was to rent a car. After doing the rounds of the car hire firms, we finally hired a very cool Fiat 500 with sunroof (after we had a good look to make sure it wasn't so small we wouldn't be able to fit our bags in!). Smaller is definitely better when it comes to cars here-the narrow roads and the parking are a challenge.
The second task was to find a laundromat: very boring I know, but essential when you are travelling.
Once we'd handed over the bag of dirty clothes to a very chatty young laundry assistant we set off to complete the third and most challenging task: to find a doctor. Ewan's achilles heel was inflamed and his ankle very swollen so we thought that as we didn't have our usual (almost) doctor to hand (aka Lauren) we would have our first contact with the Italian health services at the local hospital.
Ewan managed to stay on the right side of the road to get there and to park legally without any problem. He limped into the Emergency Department to find it almost completely deserted in terms of patients but with lots of staff, none of whom was working at breakneck speed. And so the comedy began: although I'm not sure whether Ewan would couch it in those terms. Charades was essential as none of the staff spoke any English: lots of pointing and me trying to use the Italian-English dictionary to no avail ( it seemed to very strong on renting hotel rooms rather than health issues!). To cut a lo-o-o-ong story very short he saw about 4 doctors, received an injection in the backside (of what we don't know), had his leg bandaged in a way that makes no sense for the injury (and included bandages that had blue strings attached ??!!) and finally was left sitting in a wheelchair waiting to be given crutches which never arrived. The orthopedic specialist appeared to have arrived straight from a sitcom : distinguished long grey hair, jeans, sneakers and sunglasses which he never took off. He gave Ewan a list of instructions, of which the only word we can understand is "ice" and the rest of which even Google translate can't translate. And he was told he needed an "Echogram Musculatore" which they couldn't provide.
In the middle of this debacle I had to rush off to retrieve the clothes from the Lavanderia before it closed. I had 20 minutes to get there so I decided to see if I could drive the car. Well, it has been a long time since I drove a manual car, and I simply couldn't get it into reverse ( it apparently has a silver ring on the gear stick that you have to pull up to get the gears to engage! Who knew?....not me) So my only alternative was to walk/jog and do a 20 minute trip in10 minutes! Got there in time but then had to turn around and walk back up the hill carrying a huge bag of clean clothes. I arrived back at the car in time to see Ewan hobbling down the street on his newly-bandaged leg minus any crutches. We piled into the car and escaped before any irate medical practitioner came running after us!
After that excitement, we decided to take a spin in our newly-acquired and very cool car down the coast to Taormina. I'm not sure what I was expecting of the Sicilian coastline but Taormina was a mountainous coastal town with some lovely coves ( although grey sand/mud!) and beautiful blue Mediterranean waters. Being so steep so close to the coast meant that we went around in circles trying to get to the centre of town, and then there was absolutely nowhere to park, so we went to the top of the mountain and turned around and came down again. We returned to Messina in another hour along the coastal road. Really stunning scenery. And we could see Reggio Calabria on the tip of the Italian mainland.
We stopped for lunch and sampled some of the traditional Sicilian pastries : the ricotta cannoli was great - crisp cannoli shell filled with a mixture of ricotta, fruit and pistachios. A Weight watchers delight I'm sure!
On the way home my navigation skills and the blue dot on the Google map had some misunderstanding and we ended up in a suburb of Messina with lanes so narrow that if another car came one of you had to pull off the road completely. Took some time to recover and escape, but we eventually made it home in one piece!
After some reviving drinks on our terrace we headed for Amici Meie - a delightful little restaurant very close to the hotel (so Ewan wouldn't have to hobble too far).
Another interesting and challenging day had by all!
your hopeless driver
Dianne
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