Stuck in Milazzo - Sicily because of engine issues...
Knotty Girl
Tanya/Roberto
Thu 6 Jul 2023 10:50
| 38:13.1N 15:14.55E Back on 23rd June in Sicily were I joined Roberto who just said goodbye to his family I found myself on naughty Girl whose engine decided it was not happy and neither was Roberto… We had it dismantled and discovered that a few pieces were faulty so have had to order them and guess what ? They will take about 5 days (not included week-end of course…) to get there - hence our planned schedule to sail slowly to Naples to pick up some friends on Friday is going to be reshuffled big time - but such is life on a boat… While waiting for the pieces to arrive, we are doing our best to occupy ourselves and visit places that are nice around Milazzo (which is not very nice except for 1 or 2 bits). For example we rented a car to visit the city of Palermo which we both very much enjoyed. In particular : Il Palazzo dei Normanni which is home to Sicily's regional parliament and that dates back to the 9th century. Unfortunately we were not able to visit this place as it was closed to visitors at that very moment…so we were not able to visit the apparently magnificent “Cappella Palatina” - a pity. La Cattedrale di Palermo which is a prime example of Sicily's unique Arab-Norman architectural style and very peculiar, yet interesting ! The Quattro Canti corner - The origins of the Quattro Canti date back to 1600, when the Senate of Palermo decided to create a new street, Via Maqueda, to intersect with what is now Via Vittorio Emanuele and divide Palermo “into four noble parts”. Piazza Vigliena was thus formed at the intersection of these two streets. In 1608, they decided to architecturally unify the four buildings that bordered it. A very special corner for sure ! Il teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele which when inaugurated in 1897 was the biggest opera in Italy and the third biggest in Europe (behind that of Paris and Viena). It still welcomes some very important operas. Numerous churches, some magnificent, some a bit less. We saw numerous weddings on that day which means we were able to enter many more churches than normally as in general they are closed in the afternoons ! Coming back from Palermo and given the busy traffic and the bad road - a lottttt of tunnels with “so to say” roadworks but in effect just parts of roads closed for no apparent reasons…and probably for ever... - we decided to stop in Cefalu - were there is a very beautiful “passeggiata” on the seaside and which has charming narrow streets. Its stunning UNESCO classified Cathedral hooked to the rocks of the same colour is very impressive. We had a nice dinner-aperitif there and witnessed an extra-ordinary sunset. The day after we used our rented car to go to the "Capo Milazzo" - and from there we walked in the marine protected area of Capo Milazzo down to the "bains de vénus” a beautiful rock pool where I very much enjoyed swimming - beyond the rock pool of course !! We also acted as real “tourists” and took the ferry (no comments…) to go to Lipari Island (by now we knew the ferries schedule by heart…) after Tanya’s great yoga session. Yet as we were getting ready Roberto learnt that the engine piece he ordered had arrived in Milazzo and he thought it might be a good idea, to speed things up..., to drive this piece to Messina - the place where the other engine pieces were to arrive. So we delayed by one day our planned trip which allowed me to do some washing and cleaning of the boat ! Our trip to Lipari - the biggest and busiest of the Eolian Island was actually very nice - after trying to walk (and Tanya did NOT like it in the middle of the day) we took a bus to go to a very nice beach (Spiaggia bianca) so that I could have a swim, then we visited the castle, the 2 harbours and wandered (and I did some shopping…) through the village. On the Sunday we were invited by an ex-colleague and friend of Roberto and his wife to visit them in their family summer house in Messina. We spent a nice time with them and saw from their terrace - the Messina strait and the very particular “sword fish” fishing boats which I love to watch. Except this, not much to see in Messina… We spent time enjoying some Sicilian food and drinks - e.g. the “real” granita, the cornetti alla ricotta, the cannoli Siciliani, the gelati, seafood pasta, etc. - how much weight we put on, hmmm we do not know…yet. Roberto was sweet enough to almost everyday take me out in with “Mini" (our dinghy) for a swim - for my mental health sanity :) We invited onboard for an aperitif the captain of a beautiful wooden sailing boat which we visited (very “old fashion style and dark inside). The guy is the captain of this boat for a couple of weeks only as his regular work is to serve as the captain of a motor mega yacht based in Montecarlo. It happened that he knew a lot of people Roberto knew and in particular Roberto’s mentor at medical University - what a small world ! And finally we did some work on the boat and each of us for ourselves ! So you see we tried to make the most of our almost 2 weeks in Milazzo but we are SOOOO happy to go sailing again, even if on a rushed trip ! We were extremely sorrrrrry not to be able to honour our schedule and pick up some dear friends close to Naples to sail with them to Rome. First time we were not able to do this and very frustrating for us and for them, even if they have been wonderful and totally understood that it was waaaaay beyond our control...       |