Final Full Day.
Thursday morning a quick peek out of the front door revealed a sky that was just too heavy to remain in place.
I’m convinced it is a special event that Nature lays on whenever ships are disgorging their cargo of flightless pigeons into the streets.
As was Costa Lines with its contingent of 6500 passengers, all scrambling to buy defective umbrellas and paper thin plastic ponchos from the various street vendors on Via Roma and the routes to the Churches, fountains and streets surrounding the Four Corners- ( Cuatro Conti)
Grabbing an umbrella we bussed it to the Porta Felipe, the eastern gates of the old city where we planned to visit a well known Puppet Museum. Arriving, just before it’s opening time of 10am we sheltered under a meagre awning while the rain began. By the time the doors opened, the light shower was a major downpour which could be hears rattling the roof tiles.
With puppet displays covering much of the known world, it proved to be an interesting way of killing off an otherwise rainsoaked morning
Taking a quick look at the city gates, we hopped a bus back to the centre, timed almost perfectly with the rain ending
Thus allowing us a quick walk in the park before returning to the main drags as we searched for last minute souvenirs. A lengthy seach for a genuine Coppola (sicilian mens cap), proved fruitless as they were either made in Somewherstan out of cheap polyester or they didnt suit or didnt fit properly. Oh Well, there is always next time.
Our final dinner, after multiple attempts to secure a reservation got us into Trattoria Nona Dora for a meal of whole grilled seabass and various local samplings.
A prearranged taxi ride got us to the airport in plenty of time for the day ahead. Which dragged out to a full 24 hours once or son Bryce picked us up for the 2 hour trip home- lengthened by a further 2 hours by a stop at Congee Queen for our first taste of Cantonese food in over a month.
Now, a week later, normal sleep patterns have returned and I face the daunting task of wading through a couple of thousand photographs of our travels- dumping duplicates and editing the ones worth keeping.
Over the course of a month, according to my iPhone I logged an average of 11km per day, climbed 18-22 flights of stairs and had a few more atrial fib. episodes than I'd care to mention.
I'd guess we covered almost 2000 km on our travels, by plane, train, bus and taxi, not including the transatlantic flights but, unlike the "organized" tours offered by G Adventures, Intrepid etc. we actually spent enough time in most places to get a real feel for the things they offered. Italy remains one of my favourite destinations and I foresee at least 3 more trips before I can safely say we've seen almost the entire country. Like most of the cities deemed "shitholes" by many tourists, Palermo, like Naples and Milan remain some of my favourites as they tend to be a little less touristy than the main magnets of Rome, Venice and Florence.
I'll end this commentary with a single photo that I took while wandering in parts of the city that would not normally attract tourists. It sums up, in a single image, both sides of a city- it's extreme wealth and significant level of poverty- Haut Paris vs. the backstreets of Havana, if you will!
