This is a vacation that I will always want to remember, so I kept a daily journal. You can either start reading from the beginning or you can jump ahead to a specific day.
Please read my final thoughts at the end. I wrote that my last night in the hotel. My kids think it is corny, but it sums up why I took this trip and what it meant to me!
Tuesday, November 20, 2001 - After not sleeping most of the night, we got up about 2 a.m.. The Flightline van picked us up promptly at 3 a.m. to take us to the Frankfurt Airport. Come to find out, I could have saved Jason's plane fare, I paid for a seat for him so he could sit in a car seat, but they made me hold him on my lap for takeoff anyway. All for the better anyway because Ryan and Gabriela were having a major argument over who got the window seat, so with Jason on my lap, they both got their window seat! The plane ride was pretty smooth and wasn't very crowded. I even got lucky and Jason fell asleep for most of it! The kids were pretty excited to see snow covered mountains sticking up through the clouds.
We landed in Milano and we had a 2 hour layover. The plane ride to Palermo was much more crowded. Luckily, nobody was sitting directly in front of me and Jason because he must have opened and closed the tray about 600 times and kept kicking the seat in front of us! The landing was pretty rough, but we were pretty excited (Gabriela was asleep by now). We could see water to the right and see the brown mountains out the left window. When we landed, Gabriela was so excited to finally be in Sicily!
We got our luggage and the next stop was the car rental. I had been doing really well trying out my Italian on everyone, but once I couldn't get through the word "prenotazione" (reservation) at the car rental desk, I gladly caved in when the man spoke English to me! We found the shuttle to take us to the car lot and through the interpreting of another customer, the driver told us that only one person could be taken to the car lot. I just kept standing there because I thought he meant the shuttle was full. He retold me that I could come back for the others. I told him those were my kids and I couldn't leave them there, so the driver gave a big sigh and loaded up my luggage. I guess I must have looked pitiful enough to let all of us go!
We found our green Fiat Punto and loaded it up. My plan was to get on the autostrada and avoid any traffic! Well, the autostrada goes right into Palermo, luckily traffic wasn't too bad and we actually found our way without even one wrong turn! My first impression of Sicily was how different it was from any other landscape I've ever seen. It was very brown and either rocky or scruffy looking. There were prickly-pear cactus growing along the roads.
We decided to stay at the Hotel Villeroy, which is in Bolognetta, just north of Cefalà Diana. They quoted me a price of 120,000 Lira per night. My cousins had stayed there before, so I felt ok with the place. They told me they had a problem and the electricity wouldn't be back for a couple hours . . . we were exhausted, that was fine with me! Ryan and Gabriela slept and Jason at least let me rest a bit. It was starting to get dark and we still had an hour until the electricity would come back on, so we got on S.S. 121 and drove towards Cefalà Diana. We wanted to stop at my cousin's restaurant, but Gabriela had a shoe lost somewhere in the dark hotel room and we didn't want to look goofy with one shoe on and one off! We drove through Cefalà Diana. My first experience with roads so narrow and steep! I kept telling Ryan to lean forward, it seemed as if the car would roll over backwards! We drove around a little more until dark, then went back to the hotel. I got brave and called one of my cousins. I thought I was doing so well telling him that I was his cousin Gina. He then informed me that I had to dial a prefix to get out of the hotel. . . I had been talking to the front desk! How embarrassing! Anyway, I did manage to try calling again. I then called the other cousin and he came over soon after that. I'm surprised that Jason and Gabriela didn't scare him away, they were overtired and extremely wound up!
We talked (or tried to talk) for quite a while, then the other cousin and his son showed up. We were going to go to leave for a restaurant in Palermo when Gabriela tripped in the parking lot and split her top lip on a rock. We ended up going to Palermo, but to the emergency room instead of eating! At this point I was ready to end my dream vacation! If I wouldn't have been so exhausted and it wouldn't have been so much work, I would have changed my plane reservations to leave the next day! I was planning on burning all my Italian books when I got back home. I sat there thinking "thank-you" to my grandparents for immigrating to the U.S.
My cousin and his wife were great though. For not even knowing me, they really helped me out in a time of need! After her stitches, we went back to their house and ate pizza. The other cousin took us back to the hotel. It must have been well after midnight by then, and we were out like a light!
The day doesn't end there though . . . there was one more embarrassing thing to happen. I had brought a motion detector along (which I wasn't planning on using), but anyway, while the kids were getting into everything, they apparently had tossed it under the bed. When I turned on the light at 4 a.m. to go to the bathroom, it set the alarm off. The first thing I thought was a fire alarm and to get the kids out. As I got closer to the bed, I noticed the sound seemed to be coming from under the bed. I turned that thing off fast when I found it! Never a dull moment in our household!
Wednesday, November 21st - We slept in until about 8 (for me that is sleeping in). By now, I decided to go on with the trip and put the bad experience of the night before behind us. We drove to Agrigento, which is at the very bottom of Sicily. We saw the ruins down there. Ryan liked those. We also went past the coast, stopped for paninni (sandwiches) for lunch, and found a farmacia to buy some bandaids for Gabriela's face. The driving in Sicily was pretty easy, the roads are really well marked and easy to travel on. I have never seen such a brown place before. We ran across some greener areas and some hillsides looked plowed under like they might have had crops there earlier in the year, but for the most part, it is just brown! We stopped on the way back at a ristorante and had some Rigatoni. We were going to order all the courses on the menu like you are supposed to, but the waiter didn't seem to have much patience and left after we ordered the Rigatoni! It was kind of overpriced anyway, so no big deal!
We still had some daylight left, so we stopped off at Cefalà Diana again. We drove up to the castle. Jason was sleeping so I just let Ryan walk up the castle by himself. I decided to get out Gabriela and the camera when two young boys came up on a motorscooter. They kept driving around us, then stopped and just watched us. I put Gabriela in the car and told Ryan to come on. I'm sure they were ok, but didn't want to take any chances! We hadn't had the best luck on our trip so far! We also saw an old guy riding on a mule just outside the village, it just looked so Sicilian!
We ate at the hotel restaurant, tortellini and fish. It was really pretty good, but none of us really had a big appetite. We aren't used to eating so late at night, the restaurant didn't open up until 7 p.m. The rest of the evening was spent chasing Jason around our hotel room and watching Ryan flip through Italian TV channels. I would have thought I was in a room with my dad the way he controlled the remote control! Finally about 10 p.m. Jason let us go to sleep!
Thursday, November 22nd - My cousin met us at the hotel at 10 a.m. and we drove to Palermo. I never would have attempted the city if he hadn't been our tour guide! The driving was crazy in the city! We saw a museum, I think it was the Museo Etnografico Pitre'. We were going to go up Monte Pellegrino which he said had a wonderful view of Palermo, but some lady said something about the road being closed because of falling rocks or something, so we didn't go up, once again, my translation of what was said, isn't real good, but they were talking about rocks! We parked the car and walked quite a bit then around Palermo. Jason fell asleep in my backpack. We saw the Cathedral and went to a couple other churches, but by the time we got there, they were closed. We walked through the open market and ate panelle, I think it was called. It was square and fried and made from cecci. They were pretty good though. I found some souvenir shops, but could only shop for a couple minutes because one of the kids had to use the bathroom. I quickly bought some junk that I later regretted! We finally found a bar that had a bathroom. Ryan kept complaining how hungry he was and got mad every time we passed a gelateria. I told him that we were going someplace to eat, to let Giovanni pick the place, he knew where to go. Finally we got back to the car and drove to a place to eat Someplace that had San Francesco in the name, I don't remember exactly. Giovanni ordered those square fried things, the panelle, this time they were in a sandwich, they were delicious, but kind of hit your stomach like a rock after eating them twice in one day! We tried our best to finish them, but couldn't. He ordered something else. He kept pointing to his stomach and I figured he had a stomach problem and didn't want to eat too much greasy food, later on I figured out that I think he was eating a specialty of Sicily . . . . sauteed beef spleen sandwiches!! UGH! I'm glad he didn't order those for us. Next stop was a gelateria. I can always make room for Italian ice cream, although, I was so stuffed, I almost didn't finish it! We got back to the hotel about 3 p.m. I'm surprised after how wild Gabriela and Jason were in the car that he still invited us to his sister's house in Cefalà Diana later that night. It was her son's birthday party. That was my first time in a Sicilian house. They look pretty old on the outside and I was quite surprised to see how nice they were on the inside. Although I didn't talk much, I did have fun soaking up the atmosphere trying to figure out what they were saying. Gabriela played and Ryan watched more TV. Ryan got the surprise of his life when his 2 girl cousins gave him the Italian kiss on the cheek to say hello! They had pizza and arancini (rice balls). Again, I didn't have much appetite . . . what a waste to be in Sicily and not be hungry! The birthday cake was really good, I can remember my aunt making that kind of cake when I was a kid.
Friday, November 23rd - We decided to go to the castle today in Cefalà Diana. On the way, Gabriela got a stomach ache, so we figured we better go back. Lucky for us, they were just finishing up cleaning the hotel room. Jason had fallen asleep in the car and actually was still asleep as I carried him to the hotel room. Of course, after laying down a few minutes, Gabriela felt better. By now I was exhausted and decided to take a nap. Ryan and Gabriela's talking kept me awake though! After Jason woke up, we drove to Cefalà Diana. We stopped first at a "mini mall" which is on the main road by where you turn to go to Cefalà Diana. We bought some snacks at the grocery store there and looked at the card store, where Gabriela bought her prized possession . . . her "Barbie Diarreah" (diary).
We found the cemetery in town, but it was locked. No we're not weird, I just wanted to see if I could find my great grandfather Sebastiano Forestieri who died there about 1920. It was locked though. We drove up to the castle. There was a sheep herder herding his sheep right up the castle steps. We went up to there and took some pictures.
After my dad died, we took a lock of his hair to let loose in the wind in Sicily. I had thought the castle would be a good place to do it because it is on top of the village, but the wind was blowing up away from the village. We figured oh well, this was the only place to do it. As the kids let the hair go, the weirdest thing happened. The hair went AGAINST the wind and headed directly down to the village. It just took off! I was pretty teary eyed. My dad never got to see where his parents were born, but now a part of him gets to rest in their homeland.
There is really some beautiful countryside. You can even see the Sea from atop the mountain and farther east in the distance, you can see mountains that have snow on them. Anyway, we drove around the village a little more. School was just getting out and a little 10 year old flipped me off as I drove past. I stopped at the Piazza (square) and took pictures of the church and the emigrant statue. There was a tabacchi bar I would have liked to go in to see if there was any postcards, but there were a bunch of old men standing outside. I didn't feel very welcome at this time. I seemed to have a sign blinking on my head that I was an outsider!!
Our next mistake was trying to eat dinner at the restaurant "Le Pigne." My cousin used to own it, but I don't think they do anymore because I didn't hear them talking about it. I decided to order two of the fixed price menu, one for me and one for Ryan, because it included all the courses and I figured this was easier than picking out things. While I was reading the menu, Ryan was asking me a zillion questions, Gabriela was singing, and Jason was reaching for everything and bouncing all over the place in his chair. Somewhere in the description of the meal, I think it must have said "for two" because, oh my gosh, they brought more food than 4 people could have eaten. Once again, I had no appetite and tried my hardest to eat. The food was delicious, but I just wasn't hungry. Ryan didn't have his bottomless-pit appetite either. Gabriela kept tasting things and making faces (of course when the waiter was looking), and Jason kept taking bites out of his mouth and tossing it saying his new word "Ca-Ca." Gabriela was overtired, therefore extremely annoying! Jason was his normal over active self. The waiter just kept bringing more food! We were there probably an hour, the longest hour of my life. It looked so good and even tasted good, but we just couldn't eat! I felt so bad that we didn't eat much and so did Ryan, he hates wasting good food, but none of us were all that hungry. All this wouldn't have been quite as embarrassing if I hadn't told the waiter when we first got there that I had cousins in Cefalà Diana!! Everyone knows everyone in the little village, so it is kind of embarrassing! It would have been better to remain an anonymous crazy American family!
After the restaurant, we still had a few hours of daylight, so we decided to drive some more, but there was a huge black cloud rolling in to the south of us and it got quite windy. I didn't want to get caught in a big storm, so we went back to the hotel. Both of the kids fell asleep at 5:30. I thought I had the night to relax, until Jason woke up and then woke up Gabriela at 8! Two more hours of getting them out of things. Jason's favorite things to do in the hotel was unroll the roll of toilet paper, open the door and run into the hallway, and flip the lights on and off.
Saturday, November 24th - Today it was actually cold, windy, and rainy. Gabriela, Jason, and I all had fevers, but we decided to drive to Cefalà Diana again. I thought I'd try the cemetery again. It was open!! I got the kids out and got the camera ready. An old guy came up and wasn't going to let me go in. I tried explaining my great grandfather died in Cefalà Diana and might be buried there. He explained this was a newer cemetery and there was an older cemetery. I couldn't figure out where he was saying it was, so I gave up. We tried to find the Arab Baths, but couldn't find those either.
We decided to drive to Cefalu'. It was a nice drive, but on the way there, Ryan felt sick and was running a fever also. Gabriela cried for an hour because she wanted to go back to the hotel because her finger hurt. By the time we got to Cefalu' most of the stores were starting to close. The coastline is really beautiful there. There was an open market along the sea, and I found a parking place, but Ryan wouldn't get out of the car because he didn't feel good, so we drove around a little more, took a few pictures and drove back! I took the scenic route back instead of the autostrada. I didn't know it took me way into the hills. Of course as we got away from civilization, Gabriela had to desperately go to the bathroom. Finally at Termini Imerese, we found a gas station that had a NASTY bathroom. We stopped and got out . . . she guessed she didn't have to go after all!
After we got back by the hotel, we still had some daylight left. We decided to drive through Marineo and down to Corleone. I promised my husband I'd get him a photo of Corleone because he likes the "Godfather" movies so much. The road to Marineo was EXTREMELY winding and way up high. We saw a sign that said STILL 26 km to Corleone. By now, even I was getting kind of car sick. Ryan said "couldn't we just take a picture of any old town and tell dad it was Corleone?" Good idea, but I can't lie to him!! Anyway, I said forget it, if he wants a photo, he can come down here and get one . . . so we made the long and winding trip back up to Marineo and back down to Bolognetta. It was only 3:30 in the afternoon and once again . . . stranded at the hotel with the KIDS!!
Since we all kind of had fevers, I tried putting the kids to bed really early. Ryan was the only one to fall asleep. Then Giovanni came. I was kind of embarrassed on a Saturday night that I was trying to get the kids to bed already, but Ryan was sound asleep because he wasn't feeling well. We talked a bit and told us he'd show us around Cefalà Diana tomorrow and left.
Sunday, November 25th - We woke up really early today. All but Ryan still had a little fever. We left a little early, I drove to Mezzojuso. I wanted to get a photo of that place and drive around there, but there were some old people standing in the middle of the road on the main street. They didn't seem to move as I got closer, so I turned around and left. Giovanni had said that Mezzojuso's streets were even more narrow than Cefalà Diana's so maybe it's a good thing I didn't go through there!
We met Giovanni at the Piazza at 10 a.m. I had asked him about church, I had wanted to go to the church there, but I think he misunderstood me (or else he didn't want to go)!! First we went to the Bar and had a cafe' and the kids had a coke (Gabriela had her usual upset stomach). We bought our postcards and were on our way. Giovanni drove us to the Arab baths and then up to the castle (he was supposed to have a friend meet us up there with a key to actually see the inside of the castle--but the friend wasn't there). He took us to the old cemetery . . . it was right near the new cemetery, but there really wasn't much there to see. Unfortunately the old cemetery was in very bad shape, as you can see from the photos on the photo page. I made out one grave to be a Bonadonna and two graves to be Scarpulla, but that was it! The rest of the day, Giovanni kept teasing me about cemeteries! We then drove through Godrano, through a VERY winding road, through the "Bosco," a kind of forest, to Ficuzza, which is not too far from Corleone. It was kind of surprising to see so much green and trees because so much of what I've seen of Sicily is so brown! He took us into some kind of bird sanctuary. That was Jason's favorite part of the trip. There was another big building, I forgot what he said it was. He said it was beautiful inside, but of course, it wasn't open! Then came time for the long and winding ride back. Gabriela still wasn't feeling very well, Giovanni even commented that she seemed sad. Jason felt fine and was a real pain the whole time we were driving!
Giovanni stopped a few places and bought some stuff to make us for lunch. I got to meet his 80 year old Aunt Luigia that lives with him. I felt so bad because she wanted to talk with us, but I don't understand Italian very good, let alone Sicilian, which is what most of the older people still speak! Giovanni left for a few minutes to buy some pop and she kept trying to talk to me. I had to keep telling her that I didn't understand!
Probably the best meal we had was at his house. He made garlic spaghetti and pork chops. It even pleased finicky Ryan! We had cannoli and cassata (or something like that) for dessert! It was extremely rich and sweet, but it was great! I hated to eat and run, but I was feeling like we were wearing out our welcome. The kids were getting restless, so I said my thank yous and goodbyes. He really was a great host! The trip wouldn't have been the same without him. He had a lot of patience to put up with Gabriela and Jason.
We drove around some more to soak up our last sights of Sicily since we had to leave tomorrow and we still had some daylight left.
Monday, November 26th - Well, the vacation from Hell as Ryan and I referred to it at times was coming to an end and to be honest, I was quite sad to see it go. I was starting to feel more comfortable and my appetite was starting to come back. I would love a second chance to eat down there again!!
We woke up bright and early and got all packed up (which is not an easy task to do when you have Jason unpacking right next to you). I was quite pleased when we checked out of the hotel and the original 120,000 per night had been changed to 110,000! We saved 60,000 or about $30. The hotel crew was really nice and I would highly recommend this hotel to anybody going there. I'm sure it helped that I had some "inside" connections, the fact that I had locals visiting me! Anyway, we got in the car and stopped at the next gas station to fill up the rental car tank (to try to avoid downtown Palermo's gas stations). Anyway, up until now I had experienced only honest people, but I guess I had to get one major screw on the trip, and now was the time. I told Ryan to help me watch the gas pump to make sure that the amount he told us was the amount on the pump. Well, we both watched in amazement as the attendent flipped the key on the pump and added on a few extra 10,000's. He came over and told us the amount and it was about $20 more than it should have been. I just, like a dumb tourist, paid it. I figured we had gotten through the trip without any major problems and besides that, there were two of them, the gas pump did indeed read that amount he had told me, and I was so upset I couldn't think of how to say anything in Italian to let him know that I had been cheated . . . . so I just paid it.
I am offering this word of advice . . . don't go to the gas station that is in Bolognetta at the Motel Collina!!!
Anyway, once we got through Palermo's main traffic, it was about 9 a.m., so it was much busier than the first time I drove through there, we decided to veer off to see Mondello. Since it was a tourist town, and we didn't have to be on the plane until 1 p.m. we decided to look around. We ended up driving further down the way to Isola delle Femmine, which was a cute little fishing town and less crowded. We found a nice bar/gelateria called Valentina. We ordered some pizzettes and calzone and then went back in for our last gelato (ice cream). The food was good, they were friendly, and were very cheap. We followed the signs to the beach and got out for a few pictures. Gabriela's Italian CD had a song called "Mi piace la spiaggia" (I like the beach) that she had been singing for months. She was so excited to be on the beach. She wanted to stay and play, but I had to explain the beach was closed! After that, we figured time was about up and we got back on the autostrada and headed for the airport. Gabriela was bound and determined that we were going to miss the airplane and stay in Sicily forever. I have to say, I was feeling a bit sad to have to leave also. Ryan was counting the minutes until he could be in Germany again "where everyone spoke English."
We dropped off the rental car and got checked in at the airport. We found a few souvenir stands to buy a few last souvenirs, and had one last snack and cafe' (the little half full cup of espresso--major caffeine jolt). Finally it was time to board the plane and leave. Gabriela was so funny as the plane started up. She was hysterically crying "I don't want to leave my Sicily, I'll never see it again, Dad won't ever let us go again, Ohhhhhhh, my Sicily!" She carried like that for about 20 minutes. She even had Jason in on it. He'd push my head to look out the window and whine "ohhhh, ohhhh, ahhhhh" and wave out the window and give a fake whimpery cry! People, once again, must have thought my kids were nuts!!
We landed smoothly at
Roma and had almost a 3 hour layover, which was fine. We ate and they had
plenty souvenir shops to do some last minute shopping! The next flight to
Germany was smooth. As the plane started to descend, me and Ryan looked at
each other as we could see the rain on the windows . . . we're home. We
were welcomed home by cold, wind, and rain! The flightline van took an
hour to pick us up, which is normal. The trip home was a bit annoying,
Jason was tired and screamed about 90% of the way. Gabriela was a bit
annoying. She was sitting in the back row with another couple, who I'm sure were not thrilled to listen to her sing her Italian days of the week song,
her new invented song of "red light, yellow light, red light, yellow light,
etc." and hear her asking every 3 minutes "are we almost there yet."
Anyway, we finally arrived back to our apartment here, and Gabriela did decided that she was happy to be home! Within a half hour of us being home. . . . the nice, neat house was turned back into the tornado zone of dumped out toys!
THE
END!!!
I am an
American. I could never call anyplace else home. The Sicilians that
I met on this trip probably thought I was crazy because I didn't do the typical
tourist things in Sicily. My main mission was to see Cefalà Diana.
Sicilians have
their roots, they know who they are and where they came from . . . they are
still there! For me, this was a journey to see where my grandparents came
from and what they left behind. To
sell off all your possessions, leave all your family and close friends behind to
cross the ocean to an unknown, foreign place must have been a very difficult
thing to do. They did this to start
a new and better life for themselves and their children and grandchildren.
Giovanni said
it best . . . the people of Cefalà Diana are all "one big family."
My grandparents were also part of this family at one time. My grandparents
were dianesi. As I drove through the village, there were times I
felt like I had a sign blinking "TOURIST" on my head. Even
though I felt very out of place at times, and to the dianesi I was an
outsider, there was a strange familiarity there that kept drawing me back for
"one more drive around town." Even though I am 2 generations
removed, there is dianesi in my blood and I could feel it at times.
I wanted to be accepted there. This was a journey that I've wanted to make
since I was a little girl.
I thank my cousins . . . Giovanni L. and Giovanni C. and his
family for helping this journey be the success that it was ! !
