Thursday 29th September

We’ve were up fairly early this morning as we have to vacate our AirBnB by 9 a.m. So we showered and dressed and then started the movement of our bags and stuff down to the lobby to load up the car which was a short distance up the narrow street. With the car loaded, we walked the short distance to the café at the end of the street for a farewell cappuccino. While sitting there we observed the various rituals of life in Palermo. Right next to the café is a very small grocery store and Carnizzeria, A truck drew up just at the end of the street and the two delivery men delivered about 5 very large sides of beef to the very small store. Then there were trays of what looked like offal, followed by whole lamb or pork carcasses. Looking into the tiny store we could see them hanging the meat on hooks at the rear of the narrow space. The simple job of transporting these huge slabs of meat from the truck to the shop required quite some feats of strength. Meanwhile the usual stream of cars, scooters, cyclists and pedestrians moved down the street unconcerned. Such is the life of the Sicilian city day after day!!

Street delivery in Palermo, the macelleria that this was going into was only as big as a closet!

Then we got in the car to leave  the city. This proved to be as hectic as usual as the GPS gave conflicting information but eventually we were on the highway to Messina. After a couple of hours we saw signs to Capo di Orlando which seemed to be a small town by the sea, We took the exit and eventually were down by the beach in this small town. We parked the car next to a seafood restaurant called Doria 66. The restaurant did not open for 45 minutes so we walked on the beach and MAC put her feet in the Mediterranean. 

MAC braves the foaming brine!!

The sea was quite rough and there were waves coming ashore and crashing on the small breakwater. At 12.30 p.m we went to the restaurant and they sat us down. We had a great meal of appetizers of cooked and raw fish followed by a fish called spatola and ombrina both of which were very simply cooked and wonderfully fresh. Amazingly the owner of the restaurant whose English was very good had actually worked at the Opera de Pupi that we had attended the day before!!. We ended the meal with a dessert and espresso and suitable refreshed we set off for the rest of our journey to Messina and the ferry to Calabria which we will take in the morning. 

We checked into the hotel Europe Palace which is in the Trimestiere neighborhood of Messina close the the BluFerries terminal. The description ‘Palace’ was not entirely descriptive of the hotel which has seen better days but it provided a convenient staging point for us on the journey back to the mainland. The beds were not very comfortable and the facilities need some work but for one night it was OK.