Wrapping up Sicily - Corpo Di Cava, Italy
Corpo Di Cava, Italy
Last week we covered a number of the distant sights. This week, a couple of spots closer to home and a little on Palermo, our base for the past fortnight. We round it out with something on our trip from Palermo to the Salerno area in Campania.
Mondello
Mondello is Palermo's version of Oriental Parade on a much larger scale, with a long curving stretch of golden sand. The waters are quite clear [even on a very cloudy about to rain day] and it is rated by Palermanese as one of the places to be during the summer. Many homes fall into the palazzo category. Originally, however it was [and part of it still remains] a fishing village. There is an old tuna factory [still working in early 20th Century], in the northern end of the town. A 15th Century cylindrical watchtower stands alone on the edge of the bay. In the centre of the bay front is the 1912 Bathing Establishment which is reminiscent of late 19th Century beach piers on the English south coast. The resulting structure has stood up reasonably well to the salt water and occasional stormy conditions. The waters seemed to have all kinds of fish and we spotted some snorkelers who were catching among other things, moray eels.
The day that we visited it was overcast and threatening to bucket down. We had a seafood lunch on the waterfront, recommendation from our landlord. Food was good but not the best we have had. And sitting on the outer edge of an open fronted restaurant was a little cool on us and the food. Pity because it would have been much better hot - aperativo of fish cubes with aubergine, seafood salad [octopus, mussels, calamari] and crumbed fried sardine fish balls with a separate dish of sautéed mussels. The seafood salad and the mussels were the best of the dishes. Pity it got cold.
Overall, Mondello is a nice town and in the summer would be a lovely stopover [along with 50,000 other sun worshippers].
Cefalu
Cefalu town is tucked into the base of a headland beneath the heights of La Rocca, a crag that soars almost 300 metres above the town. The view from the top is simply magnificent on a clear day and [when we got back our breath and were reasonably sure that we weren't having a heart attack], we soaked it up. Unlike the song, we couldn’t see forever but we could see Palermo about 50 kms in a straight line further west and 50 kms to the north west, the Aeolian Islands. The Rocca is topped with a Norman fortress built in the 11th and 12th Century. The waters off Cefalu [and Sicily, in general] are a bright blue, every bit as good in real life as the tourist photos profess them to be.
Cefalu was inhabited back about 3000BC. Legends and myths suggest that the first inhabitants were descendantsof Noah but the academic world ascribes to them being the Sicani to be followed by the Phoenicians. The promontory high above the town bears traces of most of the outsiders who visited and ruled over the years. There are two caves on the northern side of the "fortress" that can be dated back to the 5th Century BC and there is the Temple of Diana about half way up the hill from the same period.
Under the Greeks, Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs and finally, the Normans, the town flourished. The latter, led by the Great Count Roger captured the town from the Arabs in 1063 and under his son, Roger II [does that mean he was no greater or lesser than his father?], Cefalu renounced Mohammed and returned to Christianity. Roger II marked this success by building two major churches in the town, the Church of St. George (1129) and, then, the Cathedral (1131). The Cathedral carries some of the rich trappings of Monreale’s Cathedral in the apse but the rest of its interior has a simple clean white face.
From that period, however, Cefalu’s star waned somewhat for over 500 years before being "rediscovered" by the outside world. In the mid-1700s, a number of European countries established consulates in the town and it began to be included in the European Grand Tour itinerary. Eventually, after a period of rebellion against the rule of the Bourbons, Cefalu opted to join Garibaldi’s movement to unify Italy.
Today, Cefalu [pop ~14,000] rates as one of Sicily’s prime summer resorts. The local population trebles over the August period which is the Italian holiday period. Those whose shops and restaurants were closed when we arrived in Milan and Turin four months ago, if they hadn’t headed for the Lakes in the North, were probably sunning themselves on the beach at Cefalu.
Palermo
Prior to leaving NZ, we had been warned that Palermo was second only to Naples for pickpockets, thieves, con men and the "men in black". We can report that none of those potential disasters presented themselves [at least to us] during our stay. In fact, we felt entirely welcomed by just about everyone we met.
Palermo’s history has been anything but stable as the town passed from one dominating power to another with remarkable frequency. Its strategic position in the middle of the Mediterranean brought wave upon wave of invaders including the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Saracen Arabs, the Normans, the Swabians, the Spanish and the French Bourbons just to name the most influential. The result of this quilted history has led to the wide range of architectural styles, an intriguing fusion of ingredients used in many local dishes, and in many place names which are obviously not of Italian origin.
We have included some of our shots of the city as we saw it. To try to explain what we saw [and lots that we did not see] would not do Palermo justice, so we have included a couple of YouTube clips which will give you a better feel for the city:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= FAeEnXtg65g [9.48 min] Gives you a series of stills on some of the major sights
http://www.yout ube.com/watch?v=Okd4CQBq0-o [1.12 min] We had taken our own video, but after editing out the bad language [ours], and the fearful shaking of the camera [ours also], it was only 2 seconds long. So we found this clip as a replacement. It gives you a small insight into driving in Palermo [and Italy generally]. They don’t go through any of the busier roundabouts which can have slip roads feeding in to the off ramps so they make life even more interesting. And there is always someone at the centre of the circle who wants the next off ramp.
The Xmas sales looked like they were just starting the last day that we
went into the city. There were lots of temporary sidewalk tent shops
being set up, selling Xmas trees, Santa Claus dummies, Xmas tree baubles
and lots of other low end tat. Our Palermo base was a 45 min walk from the centre and an interesting walk as it went past most of the up market stores [Prada, Louis Vuitton, Gucci etc]. Unfortunately none of them were having sales and Trish felt she could do without the €5,000 purse in Prada’s window.
Palermo [pop ~ 635,000] is a city of crazy contrasts; fascinating old ruins and extravagantly decorated buildings sit next to poverty and eyesores of buildings long dead with just their rotting bones providing evidence of a previously grander life; works by European masters on display in buildings rubbing shoulders with an Arab-style noisy open market; people coming out of the aforementioned luxury shops with loaded shopping bags and the beggars at every set of traffic lights and the front doors of major churches. A rich but ragged capital, one which reflects the extremes of the “haves” and the “have nots”, something that it has done over the centuries. There are symbols of its former ruling classes - the clergy and the aristocracy – in the form of the major churches and palazzos, the huge Fontana Pretoria and the large parks and gardens. There is equally a significant beggar population which seems to have honed their guilt giving skills to a fine edge. And in between, everyone else concentrates on getting on with life and carving out a living for them and their families. We gave a bag of clothing to a woman working a corner near us, and were delighted that after walking a few metres she stopped, pulled out a jacket and put it on. Instant positive feedback.
We have talked about food quite a bit in the previous episodes and the fact that great food starts with great produce. In Italy, for “great” read FRESH produce. The place where the serious foodies shop is at the fresh food markets and the markets in Palermo are quite something. They are open Monday to Saturday although some of the non-Catholic vendors showed that for them, it is a seven day operation. The markets are noisy, crowded and generally assail the senses with sights, sounds and smells of a very active foodies’ heaven. We managed to visit three of the main ones and witnessed first hand the day to day living of local home makers.
La Vucciria. The most famous Palermo market and open from around dawn until 2 pm (as are most of the markets in the city). All kinds of fresh seafood, herbs, and local produce are on offer, but if it’s produce you are after, you need to get there before about 10am to get the best offerings. Souvenirs and local handcrafts are also offered at the Vucciria market. Because it is immediately adjacent to Via Roma, one of the two main retail streets in Palermo, La Vucciria has become very touristy and we were told that many locals tend to shun it for one of the next two markets.
Mercato di Capo. Though the Capo market sells a variety of goods, locals tended to bypass them in favour of the food. The street vendors have all the local delicacies, with local Sicilians mainly dealing in fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and bread. The South Asian immigrants appear to have cornered the cell phone cover/ tools/electronics/ market; indeed, we have never seen as many cell phone covers in the same place in our life. Sad to report they are targeting the newer models – nothing there for an original model iPhone.
Ballaro. In the Ballaro, Palermo gets to combine the two Italian greats, food and clothes. While primarily a food market, the Ballaro market is also a street eater’s fast Italian food delight. It is also home to large numbers of discount clothes sellers [virtually all of which seems to come from the Peoples' Republic.]
For a visual show of what they look like, check out these to links http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvvq1Qj2 sno and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNM4UMYA 8wk
Back to some foodie delights. Over the past fortnight, we have had some really memorable seafood meals. [In fact, we have probably had more seafood meals over the past six weeks than we had in the previous six years.] With one or two exceptions, all have been really splendid.
We had the team’s second significant birthday while in Palermo and as our host had left a list of interesting sites, shopping areas and most important of all good restaurants, we decvided to check out one of his recommendations for the auspicious occasion. When we eventually arrived at the address recommended, we could not locate the restaurant, so did a bit of online research [steam driven iPhone originals can still cope with this sort of thing] and established that the restaurant had moved but fortunately, it was to a nearby street. The restaurant, close to the waterfront, cooked all of its dishes on an outside barbeque pit on the side of the road and looked very rustic. However, we are pleased to report that the end product was delicious: mixed barbeque seafood – huge prawns, calamari, octopus and swordfish accompanied by the house white. All round, another success..
Later in the stay, as we indicated last week, we visited Marsala. While there we visited an enoteca [wine shop] to do a little marsala sampling, and after making some purchases, asked the owner where he would go for lunch and he pointed to a restaurant owned by a friend of his just down the street. Obviously, this can be a bit of a lottery if the chap in question is simply pushing business towards an acquaintance. However, this was not the case and we had probably our best eating out meal of the trip to date. Again, a seafood theme; seafood antipasti - seafood salad, crumbed deep fried calamari and baby octopus, potato mash with shrimp, and onion and cubed swordfish cured in squid ink. All of this was followed by Zuppa di Cosse [Mussel soup]. This last dish was divine; small sweet black shell mussels in a rich tomato/white wine/olive oil/garlic/shallot soup. This one had us dreaming [and drooling] about it several days later. So if you are in Marsala and feel like a great seafood meal, try Ristorantino Tipico Portico Blu in Via Mario Nuccio. Definitely one to add to your bucket list. Their website is http://www.giubaldodesign.com/PORTICOBL U/
We’ll conclude this session with our trip up to Campania yesterday. It was a long run – just under 700km - so we wanted to get on the road reasonably early. We had arranged with our landlord for an 8.00am checkout but in reality could have left earlier. We programmed “Carla” for the journey but the street we were staying in at our destination, being so small, did not appear in her database so we just set one of the larger roads in the centre of town and would take it from there. Being the start of rush hour, it took us about 20 minutes to get through to the motorway out of the city. From there, the Autostrada ran smoothly all the way to Messina. The weather at that stage was alternating between sunny skies and heavy overcast but the traffic was generally well behaved [nothing like the video clip]. When we got to Messina, all went well until Carla thought we were going to cross the Straits with a different ferry company. Fortunately, after a few trips around the same roundabout, we worked out what was happening, sent her to sleep and worked out our own way for the last few kms. Successfully too, we might add. Boarding the ferry was again a fairly simple and quick process. Waited in the queue for only about five minutes before we started boarding. 30 minutes later we were driving off on the mainland. The ride cross the Straits this time was not as smooth as our trip across four weeks earlier and the swell was evidence of the bad weather that had dealt to the the region a couple of days earlier. Sardinia had been hit particularly bad and five days later we are still seeing on National TV reports of the damage and cleanup work. What with bad weather in New Zealand, cyclones in the Philippines and major storms over Italy, Mother Nature keeps reminding us of her presence.
About half an hour after we got off the ferry, the weather deteriorated and we had rain from there until we reached our destination – nine and a half hours after we set off from Palermo and by now [5.30pm], it was really dark. A long day which was not yet over. We now had to find the small street and the directions that we had received from our new landlady indicated that road works in the town had blocked off a number of roads. Because Carla could not see the target road, out came the iPhone and pad to see if they could help. After a further 20 minutes of “trial and error” – probably a reasonably healthy portion of the latter – we finally found someone walking along one of the roads and asked him. “Ah, Isabella Avellino. Park your car here and follow me”. About 150 metres later, up narrow dimly lit alleys [in the rain], we arrive at Chez Isabella. Home run almost complete. Just a matter of arranging a car park for the car [we were doing one of those crazy Italian parking jobs]. Finally resolved by about 6.30pm . We were glad to arrive and be checked in but because we had arrived in the dark and there were few lights on the approach roads to Corpo di Cava, we had no idea what our surroundings looked like.
But that is for another day. Corpo di Cava and our week in the Salerno/Amalfi Coast area next week. Not sure how much we will see because the bad weather is scheduled to last most of the week. Closing now and off to dinner.
Ciao, Ciao
Stuart and Trish