Sicilian Sun

So I’ve had about eighteen paninis and more than eight cones of gelato since I’ve been here. I can’t tell which I look like more: a Panini or a gelato cone, hopefully neither. Regardless I am enjoying the warm crispy spice of my vegetarian paninis with spicy sauce and the sweet creaminess of the soy gelato, so just try and take me away from them…

My Italian is improving and apparently I am pretty darn good at understanding the locals even though they speak about five million miles per minute. Do Americans speak that fast too? I’ve always wondered if other people think Americans are the same way… I looked for some peaceful activities to take part in this way to help calm myself down after an eventful weekend. What did I find? Well, dancing, running and laughing with my friends here have definitely fallen into the category of relaxing but as I got through a chillaxed week of school work and dinners of endless Italian food service it was already time for the weekend.

The second to last weekend! How could this be already? My roommate Liz and I were in a bit of frenzy thinking about how much time we’ve spent here and how little time we have left. Didn’t I just start writing about life in Firenze? Didn’t I just get off of the plane in Rome? Wasn’t it just yesterday that I stepped in front of my apartment building in sheer wonderment…Not really I guess.

Same old story though. You travel somewhere. You fall in love with the place and all its treasures. It never feels real until the day you have to leave. Then you are pushed right back into reality and you hate your life for a good amount of time because all you think about is the dream life you have been living for the past however many days, weeks, months, etc. Well I’m hoping that doesn’t happen to me and I’m sure it won’t to any extreme measure. All I can really do is take in everything now and every day that passes here in Florence is a day that I can experience something different.

With the end of the school week coming to a close Thursday and my midterm project for travel photography complete, it was time to pack up and head down south- to Sicily that is. A few of the girls from my program and I signed up for the Sicilian Extravaganza weekend with Florence University of the Arts (FUA). We packed up and headed (or ran same thing) to the train station to catch another train to meet the rest of the group.

A twelve hour overnight train ride to Sicily isn’t really the most comfortable or the most beautiful thing I’ve done so far, but it sure got me to a place where I would find comfort and beauty. After a few tosses and some turns in the top bunk of the cabin, we arrived in the city of Taormina on the Eastern coast of Sicily. It was here that our group enjoyed freshly made cannolis as well as a true taste of a small Sicilian town known for its cultural diversity both of the past and the present.

the cannoli I didn't eat haha

Taormina, or the city of the bulls, was first inhabited by the Ancient Greeks as a cool and safe town up on the hills, but later it was taken over by the Romans and eventually the Nomads. Each group passing through managed to leave some sort of architectural building behind and I was very intrigued by the stories our tour guide told.

Let me tell you a little more about this man Francesco. Well he was born outside of Milan in Northern Italy and basically traveled all over the world and learned seven languages. He has friends in every corner of the world and knows just about everything (an exaggeration) about everything…He smokes two packs of cigarettes a day, can swim better than most of us, drinks about six espressos a day and had more energy than each of the 20 students on the trip combined. This man was dubbed a lot of nicknames….Father Time, Wizard, etc etc. Sometimes when he stood pointing at a ruin and was explaining the history behind it I got lost in wonderment of how much information and wisdom was stored inside the merely 5 foot 5 body that stood in front of me. But than I snapped out quick because before I knew it the group was already about a mile ahead of me moving to the next historical site. What an inspiration I tell you…He had a lot of patience to put up with us and though he gave me a weird face every time I reminded him that I was a vegetarian and couldn’t eat cheese, we were still cool. He made our trip educational and interestingly fun at the same time, especially when he invited us out to a lounge in the center of the city. Yes, a 60 something year old man was telling young college students that he was leaving to go out if anyone would like to join him. Because we did, I learned how to get around Siracusa with ease.

Getting back to our travel schedule, after Taormina we headed to the beach at Giardini Naxos on the coast where I got some serious sun time. After just about three hours in the hot Siclian sun, my skin got quite dark and a bit burnt too.