a chara...: Forza Italia!

Do you ever just feel like your entire life is one big long to-do list? That's how it feels for me sometimes. I bring it on myself mostly. I can hardly function without a to-do list. And if there is one perennial item that is found consistently on my to-do lists - it's this blog! Gosh, compared to:

Return Drain Unplugger ☑
File Erin's P46 ☑
Eat breakfast ☑
Book Hotel in Sligo ☑
Make offer on house ☑
Go to gym ☑

this blog is a nightmare! It's got a perpetual ☐ beside it. Staring at me. Judging me. Making the entire list a failure until it's completion. Months go by and yet I can't tear that page out of my planner until they're all ticked. Why is it so hard? I don't know. You'd think we'd want to keep you guys informed, up-to-date with the Madden latest, bridging the pond. But no, we'd rather you'd just be near us. We want you in the photos, viewing the houses with us, playing on our softball team, and eating the fruits of our ironing-board BBQ.

Having said that, you probably wouldn't have come to Italy with us so I guess this one is a blog worth writing.

You all know me pretty well. Would you think it's fair to say I don't often blow my own trumpet? Self-praise is no praise after all. But guys, I nailed this! No joke! I'm considering selling my itinerary it was so good. I'm a planner and normally put a decent amount of effort into our holidays (with no help from Erin - and she'll admit that). But this... I was having to reserve things in Italian because no one spoke English. These aren't the kinds of places you find on booking.com or your lonely planet guide.

Ok, I sense your soft spot for my sweet, humble Irish charm is fading fast after that chest-beating paragraph. So I'll get on with it. If we each had to summarise the holiday in one photo here is what I think we would choose (see if you can spot a common theme - and which belongs to whom):

Note: these weren't shared and were breakfast

But to say this was a foodies holiday would do Sicily a massive injustice! It is the largest island in the Mediterranean and most people recognise it as the land that the boot of Italy is kicking. Sicilians appear to be the most hospitable, welcoming, friendly people on the planet. They identify first as Sicilians, then Italians. Is that how Californian people feel? I don't think so. 'Murica!

We started our trip at the home of this older couple running a low-key B&B. No one there had any English but wildly expressive gesturing (them, not us! It's the way Italians communicate) got us most of what we needed to know. It was quaint, just 3 rooms, and a nice wee patio where Mama-luigi (that is what we christened her) served up the best of fresh Sicilian cuisine. When we arrived we asked where we should eat that night in broken Italian to which Papa-luigi responded passionately that his wife was the most brilliant cook in all the land (or at least gesturing that suggested the same). Erin and I were hesitant. We had travelled all this way and were willing to drop some serious green at the local ristorante. But Papa-luigi made such a convincing case that we accepted. This, alone, was probably the single most important decision we made on the trip! We had 2 nights there. We ate there both nights. We almost cancelled all our plans to stay with her the other 5 nights. Heck, I even considered letting her adopt us. They were delighted to hear we were pregnant and doted over us like our own grandparents.

Honestly, half the time we didn't even know what we were
eating but we knew it was good. And fresh. She was picking
the things from her garden as she cooked! Sto bene! We did know
the above is frutti di mare. Our favourite dish was the pistachio ravioli.

Our room

Front garden looking out towards Africa

My pregnant wife enjoying her first beach day

This book! I spent 8 days on holiday and the ensuing month at home
reading this thing! I'm on page 450. There are 890 pages. Trinity is one
heck of a book.

Mmmm... Gelato

This is the temple used on the UNESCO world heritage symbol.

You know what was great? So few tourists! And this was peak season.

This isn't directly related to the holiday...but my wife is gorgeous!

Mama-luigi's patio and one bella belle

The luigi's!

From there we set off to a town called Trapani. Here we would board a ferry to a small island 90 minutes off the western coast of Sicily. Marettimo is inhabited by about 300 people year round and is the furthest away and most mountainous of the Egadi Islands. This was the big surprise I had concealed from Erin about our holiday. She really enjoyed our day trip to Capri on our previous Italian getaway so I knew she'd dig this. What I had not planned on was stormy seas! I mean, come on! It's July. It's the Mediterranean. Where can the waves even come from?! If we didn't make it to this island I was pretty screwed! The 2pm sailing got cancelled. The ferry company running the 3.30pm sailing couldn't promise us we'd travel AND wouldn't give us a refund if we didn't. But we had no choice. I bought the tickets and we prayed.

Hallelujah! 2 hours later we had arrived to rapturous applause for the captain.
I wasn't applauding. I was trying to keep my lunch down.

It didn't help that I pretty much had three of these for lunch before
we set off!

Marettimo is not your typical tourist destination. Life is slow here and English speakers are uncommon. The only industry is fishing (and tourism for mainland Sicilians) and most men spend their evenings out in the street mending their nets and chatting the night away over a cappuccino. The island itself gets its name from the Italian for sea (Mare) and thyme (timo). The place is covered in thyme and rosemary bushes which in the Summer heat makes the place smell like a sauna.

Our apartment

This is how they ferry the produce around the one village on the island

We would spend 3 days on this island. A lot of people had asked me would we not get bored on an island that size for that long. I wasn't worried. There were some gnarly hikes and they ended up taking the majority of our time. The first night we got there we went straight on our first hike. It proved far too ambitious. 3 hours in, darkness was setting in and we had chosen a very perilous and high path. No one else was around (these paths lead nowhere) and ominous clouds were rolling in. I played confident to Erin who was fearful but in reality I had no idea how we could get back and if we could get back before nightfall.