Palermo, Sicily

We live on the eastern side of Sicily and have been wanting to explore the western side where the capital of Sicily is, Palermo. I decided to go ahead and surprise Gene with a hotel in Palermo for one night. I drove for 2 hours where we ended up in the city of Palermo. The street we needed to take to our hotel was closed, so I drove around trying to find a way. Somehow I ended up following a car down a very tiny road that our Honda Fit could barely fit down. It was so small we had to fold our side mirrors in. This little road went straight into the middle of a street market where hundreds of people and vendors stood. They don't usually block off roads and if your car fits somewhere it is ok to drive. So I had to go about 1 mile per hour trying not to hit tables, people, and vespas. After about having a heart attack and having a ton of people touch and bump our car, we made it. WOW. So we walked the streets of Palermo the first night and saw the theatre where The Godfather was filmed. The next day we went to Mondello beach, one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to! We are definitely fans of the mountains and beaches on the western side of Sicily.

inland Sicily, driving to Palermo

Palermo

Teatro Massimo

Mondello beach

a dock in Mondello

crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean

Mt. Etna, still blowing smoke after its eruption a few days ago

Mt. Etna

Last night Mt. Etna had a small eruption and we missed it! These photos were taken from the next town over, only about 10 minutes away, and we missed the awesome view! The doctor at Gene's work took these photos from his home...maybe next time?

back to life

We moved into our new apartment and haven't had internet or TV until now! Life is hard without internet when you are across the world from your family and friends. Things in Sicily take a lot longer than they would back at home, one of the perks huh? So a nice Italian man came to our apartment this morning and I didn't understand a word of what he said, but I saw that the computer was working so I said GRAZIE GRAZIE GRAZIE :) We got all of our stuff shipped here, unpacked, and have settled in pretty good. Gene goes to work every day and I have started a work out routine in the morning and then I walk to the beach in the afternoon and ponder life... :) The water is so beautiful here, I didn't even realize that it was so clear and had such pretty coral underneath. We also got our car here, so we have been exploring some other places as well. There is the most beautiful beach about thirty minutes away called Taormina, I can't wait to go back in the summer! We also stopped at a winery up by Mt. Etna called Gambino. They treated us like royalty.

living room with our own furniture finally!

 dining room with our landlords furniture (we didn't bring our big table)

kitchen

"our" beach

Gambino Winery

endless vegetables - eggplant, artichoke, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, and olives

endless cheese - smoked ricotta, provolone, wine cheese, pepper cheese, and pistacchio salame

the vineyard

Taormina