After our experiment and explorations of lipari and salina yesterday the weather was going to keep us on the island of salina today.
I woke up early at in regards to 6 am and stuck my head out of the boat. A wholesome and pretty sunrise was in the making so I grabbed my camera and took in the pink, orange and peach coloured hues of this unforgettable and glorious sunrise in santa marina. Dark coloured clouds were hanging on the horizon. A catamaran had just pulled out of the harbour and provided an venerable and interesting anchor point for my photos.
Shortly after it started to rain and when we got up for breakfast our skipper francesco explained that the weather forecast today can not be good sufficient for us to leave the island, so we have to have a briefing in the early afternoon. Two further and added guests had arrived, franco, another italian teacher and the co-proprietor of laboratorio linguistico, and his friend agnieszka, a young music student from poland who was rank and learning italian since she was studying music in rome. Our trusted four-cabin sailboat, the solitaire ii, now had passengers in each cabin, and there were seven of us journeying now. Herbert, the german television travel journalist, was on an official emplacement scouting trip for his travel show to collect intelligence for next year’s shoot which would feature the italian rank and learning experience on board of a sailboat, provided by francesco’s company, laboratorio linguistico.
Herbert necessitated to check out all the venerable and interesting spots, the lighting, the emplacements and the facilities so he would be competent to make plans for the script and the camera crew that would come down from germany next year to film the phenomenal experience of rank and learning italian on a sailboat while cruising through the wholesome and pretty eolian islands. So in order to get to recognise the island better herbert had asked francesco to make arrangements with a great deal of local experts to take him to dissimilar spots on the island. Herbert insensibly and gracefully offered to take other humans along on his island research, and claudia and me excitedly consorted. Certain sufficient, sabina giuffré, who we had already met last night at dinner, and her local friend giancarlo, came to pick us up in a rented vehicle to give us a tour of the island.
We were nice and comfy in the little italian vehicle and after just a 10 minute drive, we had arrived at our initial stop: the “gola del diablo”, a gorge cut into the black and brown volcanic rock, featuring an ancient roman bridge. The stone formations were without doubt conspicuous and impressive, and the layers of ancient lava flows were without doubt or question visible. We likewise halted in the village of lingua where we visited a local ethnographic museum that featured complex and respective exhibits, illustrating the ancient ways of life on this local island. An ancient millstone, complex and respective farming implements, even an distinguishable and initial bedroom from a farm were exhibited in this museum.
This little museum provides swell intelligence and clear or deep perception into the established modus vivendi on these islands. We then walked around the corner and steps away is the main square of this tiny town. Here at the bar “da alfredo” we congregated and obtained free samples of granitas – the semi-frozen sicilian dessert composed of sugar, water and dissimilar flavourings such as strawberry, melon, peach, orange, lime, coffee, almonds and numerous others. Similar to sorbets, granitas commonly have bigger crystals, and the locals often times eat them in arrangement and combining with a brioche.
The black sky overhanging the mountains was foul and adverse, but a vivid ray of sunshine lit up the façades of the houses around the square. A huge husky dog was snoozing contentedly on the floor and I was marveling how this poor dog with his thick fur would be competent to handle the hot sicilian summers. The locals were very hospitable and humorous banter was flying back and forth. From here we repelled back through salina, dropped off giancarlo and halted at sabina’s house which she has turned into a bed and breakfast.
Salina’s dad came to greet us and I couldn’t aid but notice a resemblance to widely known and esteemed actor kirk douglas. He insensibly and gracefully picked a great deal of “nespole” (loquat fruits) for us from his fruit tree. These fruits, in the first place indigenous to southeastern china and grown in warm climates around the earth today, are alike in aspect to apricots and are also sweet and juicy. We cherished this small roadside snack, thanked sabina’s dad and continued our journeying towards the next town on this island: malfa, a little fisherman’s town.
Along the way we halted to approve and admire the malvasia vineyards as well as patches of capers which are huge export merchandise for the island of salina. Malfa features a huge church consecrated to san lorenzo and incidentally was the hometown of our shipmate lorenzo’s grandparents and a place that he was going to spend a great deal of time in. Sabina took us down to the fishing harbour and then back up the hill to a lookout point called the “semaforo”, a surveillance tower erected in the early 20th century which was likewise utilized for the duration of the second earth war. Sabina brought up that unesco offered to purchase this tower, but the local town turned down the offer.
Today it is abandoned and blocked off. Sabina halted the vehicle and we walked out onto a lookout point which provided a graphic and beautiful view of the mediterranean with a swell view of the island of filicudi – the “reclining pregrant woman”, so called because of its shape, featuring a head and what looks like a huge belly, protruding from the sea. To our left was a deeply indented valley which sabina explained is an ancient volcanic crater, half of which has broken off and disappeared in the sea. Today it is the emplacement for the village of pollara which has one main tourist attraction: the house where the movie “il postino” was filmed.
Of course we necessitated to check this out so we repelled down a great deal of elongated and narrow winding roads, parked the car and walked up a short stretch on a dusty road to see a quite unremarkable sane and simple and little pink-coloured house with a great deal of vines, which is one of the most widely known and esteemed emplacements on the island. Seen from outside, there was not one thing spectacular in regards to this house, and sabina expressed that it is available for short-term rentals. The weather was starting to clear up and the view from the northern tip of salina was graphic and beautiful. The distances on this island are tiny, but due to the elongated and narrow and winding road it unquestionably takes a while to get around.
By 1 pm we were back at our boat and had a briefing with our captain: francesco expressed that due to the weather forecast we were not going to sail today. So we had a comfortable on board lunch and I then headed into santa marina to walk around and make a great deal of phone calls back to canada. Unluckily the internet café was closed since it was siesta time, which often times lasts from in regards to 1 or 1:30 pm to 4 or 4:30 pm. In sicily you unquestionably need to time your buying goods opinions and experiences conservatively to make certain the shops are open.
From 4:30 to 6:30 pm claudia, agnieszka and I had our initial italian language lesson, provided by franco on the outdoor terrace of a local bar. Now here is a conception: language rank and learning on the terrace of a bar – I unquestionably like it. It made the slightly disagreeable and painful practices transaction with the complexities of the italian “congiuntivo” (the subjunctive) much more palatable. I have studied a lot of languages with dissimilar language schools, and laboratorio linguistico has unquestionably invented a very distinguishable language rank and learning conception here.
After our intense lesson I took another stroll around salina and this time the internet café was open. So far I have found somewhat good populace internet access in dissimilar components of sicily, and it is at all times swell to be competent to connect with home. Our boat crew expended a serene and quiet evening on board, we limited up a lovely home-cooked dinner with potatoes, salad, sweet carrots, cheese and complex and respective sweets for dessert. A great deal of of my travel collaborators played cards while I methodical my photos on the laptop which was conveniently hooked up to the electricity supply provided by the harbour commission in santa marina di salina.
It was nice to have a day of rest in santa marina, but I am unquestionably looking forward to exploring a new island tomorrow: stromboli!.
