21 hours on the ferry – that’s all it took to get from Genova to Palermo. The ferry ride was comfortable and smooth and we arrived in Palermo at 21:00 hours on Saturday evening. Thanks to camping.info we found a guarded parking close to the city center that is open 24 hours. On Sunday morning we got up early and walked to the the city center. Palermo is leaving us with mixed feelings. Rotten buildings and lots of garbage are next to beautiful palaces and plazas. At the first cafe we experienced the worst service of our travel. Our waitress was the perfect imagination of „arrogance“. Arriving at our table, still chewing on her croissant, smartphone in one hand, menu in the other, she silently dropped the menus, turned around and walked away. She was ignoring other guests while her smartphone (and her colleague) got all the attention.The croissant was cold and overloaded with cream and the price of the cappuccino reached almost Zurich level. Our revenge was paying the exact price in small change.
We didn’t give up and gave Palermo a second chance at a cafe on one of the main streets. What a difference. We were greeted by friendly staff, the coffee and croissant were perfect and the location was even better. From there it was only a short walk to the cathedral and the big palace and then on to the market. The market could also have been in Marocco. A mix of stands with vegetables, meat, fresh fish, clothes, shoes, household appliances, with sales people shouting their offers and smells of all kinds, created an „African“ atmosphere.
After a bus ride, that was an introduction to Italian driving, we reached our guarded parking shortly after noon. The drive to Punta Braccetto, (approx. 240 Kms south of Palermo) took us right across the island from north to south. Scarabeo is one of the few campgrounds that remain open all year long and from what we learned , it is also one of the nicest. So here we are, camping right on the beach, watching marvelous sunsets and enjoying the warm breeze. How much better could it be? What is next? This is one of the questions that is (slowly) creeping up in our minds? What do we want to do in the future, and how far away is this future? Where do we imagine ourselves to settle down? We want to use the next couple of weeks/months to get closer to answering those questions. But as life always takes some interesting turns we will leave min. 50% unanswered.
One Life. Live It.
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