As mentioned in my previous post, after weeks and weeks of not seeing the sun, the endless grey clouds and cold weather slowly drove me into a mild depression. It was far too long since my feet left Poland, and I needed to get away, if just for a little while.

Weronika and I chose Italy because it’s one of my favourite countries, and would consider living there. Between the food, the wine, the food, views, the coffee and the food, it’s easy to fall in love with all things Italian. In fact, if money was no object, one of my dreams is to buy an old and busted villa and personally renovate it. Wouldn’t it be great to live in Montreal during the summer and Italy during the winter? Yep, I agree. The only question is where? Since Sicily is as far south as you can go, I figured we could do some field research while regaining our sanity.

Getting there was half the fun.

I booked the flights with kiwi.com, and they were really, really cheap. Wizz Air to Milan then Ryanair to Catania, and a direct Wizz Air flight back to Warsaw. A few days prior to departure, kiwi.com started sending emails such as, “give us your passport info so we can check you in. If you don’t, the airlines may charge you up to 130 euros per person”. I laughed this off for two reasons:

  1. There is no way I’m giving my passport details to a website I’ve never heard of or used before. Even expedia.ca, a website I use frequently while in Canada, doesn’t have my passport info. I treat information as sacred, and would rather not share certain personal details with just anyone.
  2. I didn’t believe an airline could actually charge me. Seriously, how could can an airline charge for something I must do? If I cannot check-in, I cannot board the plane and so the tickets would be worthless.

At Chopin Airport in Warsaw, flying with Wizz Air to Milan, things went relatively smoothly. We were able to easily obtain boarding passes, but had to stuff everything into a single bag. Apparently you’re only allowed one carry-on per person, and cannot bring an additional personal item, like a purse. Fair enough.

At Malpensa airport in Milan, flying with Ryanair, things didn’t go so smoothly. Ryanair said we had to web check-in at least 2 hours before the flight or they would charge us 45 EURO each to do it themselves. I thought the lady was joking and started to laugh, only to see she wasn’t smiling. After discarding my smile, I asked what are my options. Since there were 2.5 hours before departure, there was technically enough time to web check-in and luckily there was free WiFi at the airport. However the Ryanair website required my confirmation # and my email address, and after entering this information, it kept reporting it couldn’t find my ticket.

For those without mobile phones, there was a service offered by the airport to do these kinds of check-ins. The cost was only 8 EURO per person, so we went ahead with that. When I asked why wasn’t I able to check-in myself, they showed that kiwi didn’t forward my email address to Ryanair but instead used one of their own booking-xxxx@kiwi.com address. I was never provided this email address, and quickly realized this is how kiwi gets you: you must use their check-in service (with your passport info and maybe more) and prevent you from checking-in with Ryanair directly. Fuckers.

Once in Catania, the first of business was to order a couple of cappuccinos complimented with a cannoli with pistachios. There’s nothing quite like Italian coffee, and the airport cannoli ended up being one of the best of the entire trip. And let me tell you, we tried them again and again all over the place.

The second order of business was to pickup the rental car from my favourite European car rental company. I booked a Renault Clio, but ended up with a Twinkie instead. I mean a Twingo. It handled like a twinkie though. At least they gave us a free GPS for the week.

It was a short drive from Catania to Syracuse and the clear skies and the 18C and the not-being-in-Poland quickly lifted our spirits. We danced, we sang, and we stuck our hands out of the car windows, letting the cool breeze lift them as we pretended to fly. Once in Syracuse, we meandered down some lovely old streets into a beautiful square, where a minstrel played a guitar and people gathered on the steps of a church to listen. It was a perfect moment.

Since the trip was only 6 nights, and I didn’t want to spend the entire time driving, we decided to limit our trip to eastern Sicily. If we loved the place, we could always come back, we told ourselves. But we didn’t love it.

While the coffee and wine were great, and it felt was wonderful to be trekking around Italy in a light jacket in February, everything else was kinda bleh.

For starters, the food was sub-par by Italian standards, with the best pasta dinner comparable to the worst pasta on the mainland. With a few notable exceptions, such as our first dinner, every other meal was bleh. That dinner was simple and fresh, as the only thing available was the few fish caught that day. They were iced and on display, and after making our selection, they grilled them with oil, lemon and spices. Delicious!

Next, aside from a few spots, such as Mount Etna and the small mountain villages of Petralia Sottana and Petralia Soprana, the views were quite ordinary. Cities were covered in graffiti, and plenty of buildings were crumbling. Highways were littered with potholes, and the construction of some were unfinished, without any evidence they would be finished. Smaller villages were pleasant and better maintained, but they were vacant. In Petralia Sottana, we literally had one option for dinner after 8pm.

People were quite friendly though, and some even went out of their way to help us. The young fellow in Syracuse that apologized for not offering a suitable breakfast and directed us to his brother’s restaurant down the street; the brother, upon hearing we were referred by his brother, smiled warmly and gave us a free cannoli; the old man that slowly walked us to the only dinner spot open after 8pm, after getting slightly lost and walking around in circles for 20 minutes.

Some highlights of the trip:

  • Wine tasting at a biological vineyard, including a vegan wine (It was my first ever!)
  • Having a pic-nic on deserted beach near some old ruins in a deserted park
  • Walking along the cobblestone roads of the adorable mountain villages, and admiring the scenery
  • Taking a cable car to 2500m on Mount Etna and deeply breathing the cold, fresh air. It didn’t make any sense to go any higher, since the price was not affordable considering you don’t even see lava. For that, you would need a personal guide and go during the summer. Seeing lava would have been really cool!
  • Being witness to the Festival of Saint Agatha in Catania, an important religious festival that commemorates the life of the city’s patron saint, Agatha.

Sadly, it appears my future villa will not be in Sicily, and the search continues…

The trip completely rejuvenated us, and the grey clouds of Poland didn’t bother me so much anymore. Especially because I’ve already booked my next trip: next week Weronika and I leave for Thailand for 4 weeks!