Sicily Day 2: A mixed bag, but mostly great

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. – Charles Dickens.

That guy knew what he was talking about.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this trip is different from any we’ve ever taken. Betsy’s injuries from being struck by a car bring a new set of challenges. Our other trips built in walking as the major activity, not just walking as a tourist as we all do, but actual walking holidays where we spent days walking up to 15 miles through vineyards, orchards, across fields, down white roads and up and down hills, rocky paths…all of that. Now, Betsy can’t really walk more than a mile at a time and even that depends on the terrain.

To make things easier for her and more enjoyable, I booked mobility scooters for this trip. We had one in Madrid. It didn’t go well. That first rainy, cold, windy day, it just didn’t work out like we had hoped. After that, we walked to places nearby or took Ubers.

I had already booked a scooter for Palermo. I was certain it would be great to have one here. We set out about 10 a.m. this morning headed toward the Teatre Massimo, an opera house in the center of Palermo’s old town. It was supposed to be a 15- minute walk and maybe that’s true. Not for us. Managing uneven or blocked curb cuts, cars ignoring pedestrian crosswalks, motorcycles zooming and real scooters weaving in and out stretched that trip to a very anxiety-ridden hour. To say it was difficult doesn’t even begin to capture what we endured, especially Betsy. But we managed.

We toured the Teatro Massimo Vitoria Emanuele, Italy’s largest opera house and the third largest in Europe. Known for its exceptional acoustics and Neo-classical architecture, it serves as a central cultural hub for opera, ballet and symphonic music.

Among its many features, it has a round room, the Sala Pompeiana, known as the Echo Rom. The circular room was once a smoking room for male nobles during intermissions. Thanks to the design, the room is place where two opposing truths exist. It is a room designed to keep a secret and a room designed to betray one. Thanks to the ceiling’s shape, depending upon where you are standing, a whisper can travel throughout the room and be heard by everyone. But, if many people are in the room talking at the same time, the echoes are such that you can only make out what the person very close to you is saying. Visitors can experience both sending a secret across the room and find they anre unable to hear anyone but each other even though everyone was talking. Physics is a cool double agent.

We left there and continued on the Rick Steves walk and visited an amazing wood-working artist, a puppet theater and some other shops.

The walk along these lanes was really a feast for the eyes. So many shops and cafes and artisans, plus the buildings themselves and the atmosphere. It was a beautiful sunny day and this was really a treat.

Then we went to the rooftop restaurant of Italy’s department store version of Nordstroms. We had a wonderful lunch and lots of laughs.

We left there and stood in the center of the Quattro Canti (The Four Corners). It looks like an architectural theater set. It is essentially the city’s crossroads, built in the early 1600s during the height of the Baroque period. The four facades are identical in design and each is divided into three levels and decorated with statues that tell the story of Palermo.

Just a few steps away is the Fontana Pretoria, which is now known as the Fountain of Shame. This massive 16th Century Fountain has dozens of marble figures who are nude. Yep, naked as jaybirds. They make Musicale in Nashville (known as the nekkid people) look tame. In the late 1500s, the nuns in a neighboring convent were horrified by the naked statues and would cry, “What a shame!,” as they passed by or saw it from their windows. It is said the nuns would sneak out at night with hammers and destroy some aspects of the statues’ male anatomy.

Just strolling (and rolling) along the streets was a highlight of the day.

I really wanted to see the inside of a church. I tried three times in Madrid, but the cathedrals I wanted to visit were closed. The church next to the department store, one of the main tourist sites, was closed. I was beginning to take it personally. We found one by accident when we got lost trying to follow Rick Steves’ route. The trek was farther than we anticipated and it was extremely difficult to maneuver the scooter on the large cobblestones, many of them broken, but we made it.

I don’t know what this church was, but it was really sweet and beautiful.

And that’s when things took a turn. As we worked our way to other sites, the labyrinth of cobblestone streets seemed never ending. Usually, we would love that kind of experience, but with Betsy bouncing along on a scooter, it was difficult and uncomfortable. Sometimes she would walk with her cane and either Sheri or I would ride the scooter. I have to say, I expected that riding a scooter would be fun, but it’s not when your teeth and bones are rattling from the bouncing. And for Betsy, it’s even worse since she battles vestibular issues.

When we were done fooling with that scooter — and I mean that “stick a fork in me” kind of done -I was trying to send Betsy and Sheri off in a cab, with me riding the scooter back to the apartment in a darkening sky at rush hour. No one wanted that, but I couldn’t think of an alternative…until we happened upon some van taxis. Big vans. Betsy talked to a driver and he and another driver hoisted that scooter up in to the back of the van and we had a relaxing ride home.

Ahh..but then the inevitable happened. I lost something.

While the driver and I got the scooter out of the van. I had to toss my coat on a parked motorcycle to free my hands. Then as the driver left, I had to get that scooter back up a high curb and onto the sidewalk. I realized after a few minutes I had left my coat. When I returned, not 10 steps away, it was gone. Damn. It wasn’t even a great coat, but it was the only one I brought. My mind raced about what I might have left in the pockets. My phone? No. My small wallet with credit cards and money? No. Turns out I only left some drugstore reading glasses and tissues. It was 70 degrees today and will be the same tomorrow, so I won’t miss it. Yet. There’s snow around Mt. Etna.

If it wasn’t for the fact that I’ve been losing my purse and lots of things since I was a teenager, I would worry that I am losing my mind.

Once home, we drank wine. Copious amounts to wash away the anxiety of the scooter journey, Betsy’s bouncing on cobblestones and the lost coat. It wasn’t long before we were laughing at the challenges we experienced and focused on the great things we saw and experienced. Then we walked to a nearby family-owned restaurant and had some fabulous pasta.

Lo Scrigno di Donna Rosa is a family-run restaurant not far from our apartment. The front-of-house is managed by the owner and his daughter-in-law, Roxanna, while his son leads the kitchen as the head chef. The menu focuses on traditional Sicilian recipes and fresh, local ingredients, all served in an intimate setting with stone-walled decor. We had a great table and really enjoyed everything. Sheri had a shrimp and salmon pasta dish, Betsy had a tomato and guanciale dish and I had a carbonara. I liked Betsy’s the best.

Like that echo room keeping and revealing secrets, we had a fabulous day and a day fraught with anxiety and issues. Two things can be true at once. We’re still learning this new life we have ATA (after the accident). I think tomorrow will have more of the high points and fewer of the low points. And the scale will keep tipping in our favor as this trip progresses.