The flight was great. However, when I arrived in Sicily the airport lost my luggage. I had all my medicine, chargers for GPS, cell phone, camera, information on where I was staying etc. in my luggage. So, all my electronic equipment “died”. I filled in the appropriate forms (I was lucky and had the telephone number of my first host on the back of my electronic airline ticket as well as a print out of the Google directions to their house (in Pachino) which was (77 km away from the airport).
I picked up my rental car (a SMART car-the smallest car I could rent) and followed the directions. The drivers in Sicily are crazy. The highway speed is 80 km but everyone, including trucks, goes 120 km. Since I had to read the directions I had to drive slower. Besides, the SMART car is not built for speed. But I did it without too many drivers honking at me. I later found out that they were honking to let me know that they were passing me and not being aggressive.
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The landscape was beautiful. It reminded me of southern Florida in that it had palmettos and orange groves (loaded with oranges). Except that there were mountains and red-tiled stone houses, many of which were falling down (very picturesque) and had sheep grazing in the orchards. It was very sunny and 13 Centigrade. I had to wear my sunglasses which caused a problem when I went through the many tunnels.
I arrived at the hosts’ house to find out that their son had not informed them when I was arriving. They thought I may have decided not to come to Sicily. They were very emotional (happy) to see me and therefore treated me like the prodigal son. They fed me, communicated with the airport about my lost luggage, and arranged for it to be delivered to me the next day. They accompanied me to the rental house which was about 20km to the coast. An incredible storm began as we drove along the coast, with them driving too fast. I tried to keep up but was afraid of hydroplaning through the immense puddles on the road. When we got to the house, they turned the hot water on. Made the beds, and insisted on bringing me to the local “supermercato” where they introduced me and negotiated a good price for local oranges (still with the leaves attached), local olive oil, local field-grown cherry tomatoes, etc. They insisted on buying me water and local wine (3 Euros for 2 liters). They finally left after telling the neighbors to look after me. I dropped asleep in a very comfortable bed under a mound of covers.
