Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Arrivaderci, Sicily

We spent the night at a rest area on the north coast (starts with a T; where the Black Madonna is located (which we decided to skip)) and then drove on into Messina to catch the ferry back to the mainland.

We had thought about taking one of the excursions out to
Stromboli and the other volcanic islands north of Sicily; but
they don't begin running until April; we think this may be
Stromboli pictured above; if not, some other island in the
Tyrrhenian Sea



















Sicily's northern coast: more hill-top villages, more tunnels
and bridges

















Have you ever been in a traffic jam, creeping along, on an
interstate, and every now and then some jerk comes whizzing
by, passing everybody, in the emergency lane? And you
wonder, where are the cops? Well, in this case, the cops were
waiting for the jerks, and nailed them. The traffic jam, a couple
miles in length just outside Messina, was caused by the
need to merge two lanes into one. In Sicily, and southern Italy
generally, this requires encounter and confrontation by each
and every pair of merging vehicles. If you let one in, then you
will have let in the next five or so until someone else finally
loses his [sic] nerve or pauses to light another cigarette.
Romanians are generally said to be the worst drivers in
Europe. Italians drive like Romanians on steroids (as Vicki
says).

























And so we are back on the ferry, crossing the Straits of
Messina; alas, I did not even get the name of the vessel
















That's because I was lashed to the mast, so
as not to be influenced by the Sirens, the
Whirlpool, Charybdis and Scylla, and other
local perils






















Farewell, Sicily, tunnels and bridges, and crazy drivers
















We much enjoyed our time with you
















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