Cefalu - Day Five

I’ve been in Cefalu for five days now. It’s a great little town and I don’t really feel like I’ve overstayed my welcome yet. I’m not doing a whole lot here. That was the plan: read, write, sleep, and see some sights. I think a week is a really good amount of time if you have the same agenda as me.

One thing that I’ve really wanted to do on this trip, and I didn’t think would happen, was to go to the Aeolian Islands. I got talked out of it earlier in my trip. I was told the weather could be bad up there until about May or June, when their tourist season opens. I was sad about this but figured I would try to go from Cefalu or it wasn’t going to happen this trip.
The office that I rented this apartment from had advertised tours to the islands so I signed up for one. The tour only went one day and the boat was departing from the town of Milazzo instead of Cefalu. Milazzo is about an hour ½ away, on the northeast corner of Sicily.
I met the driver very early in the morning and he took me and three other people to another location where we got onto a large tour bus that would take us to Milazzo. Shortly after the bus departed, a tour guide got up and began speaking…in French. I’m on a French tour of the islands. As if my head isn’t boggled enough with language? I tried listening for maybe the first few minutes and quickly gave up. I zoned out and read my book a little.
Once we got to the port, I realized I had to find out if anyone spoke English or Italian so that I could at least find out what times I needed to be at the boat for departure from each island. The tour was to take us to Lipari and then Vulcano and I had no idea of the schedule. I found one woman who had taken over as the French tour guide and I asked her if she spoke English (forgot about Italian). She quickly introduced me to Giuseppe who would be one of the tour guides on this trip. He was the German-speaking tour guide. Oh, I’m on a German & French tour. I feel like “Its A Small World After All”. An Italian tour would have been good practice. At this rate, Italian is out the window and I’m now working on my French and German. Thankfully, Giuseppe says, “okay English” and makes a mental note to add that to his repertoire for the day. If I could only have that much talent.
We all pile onto the boat, German, French, and me. The boat speeds out across the sea for the hour or so long journey. I initially sat up on the top level of the boat. After about half way, I decided to head down the main level and use the facilities before we got into port. Once I was down there, it was a pretty hairy idea to try and climb the stairs back up to the top level. The sea was really choppy. Waves were crashing onto the back of the boat by the stairs. I didn’t really care if I got wet but I didn’t want to go flying overboard. I’ve had enough excitement on this portion of my trip.
So, I decided to just stay put on the main level. I sat down on a bench that faced backwards in the boat so that I had a nice view of where we had been. It was actually a good spot because there was lots of fresh air. This became very helpful.
I was sitting there watching the wake of the boat and enjoying the feeling of being on a roller coaster. We would go flying through and over waves and catch air and come back down again. I was having a blast.
I slowly started to notice that people weren’t feeling so great. First, this woman came staggering from the bow of the boat towards me, which was by the bathroom. She gets help into the bathroom. She looks Bad. She comes out and plops right next to me. There are about three boat workers who are now standing around in this area. One of them gives her a plastic bag. Next, I notice that there is a very tall man in front of me that doesn’t look very good. He decides to sit on the floor of the boat. (Is this a good idea? It didn’t seem like it to me.) He is sweating buckets. His girlfriend brings him a towel. He also has a plastic bag. On my left side, there is a very pale woman with a plastic bag. The moment I look over at her, she convulses into her bag. I quickly turn away.
Then I notice that the workers are collecting filled plastic bags. Yucky. That almost makes me throw up writing it. The woman behind me has a sick child throwing up. I am literally sitting in the middle of “Barf-o-Rama”. I want to get up and move but I can’t really go anywhere. Getting upstairs would be a major challenge. Moving to the bow is possible but it’s further away from the nice fresh air, which I think is really more helpful than I know, plus the boat is really rocky. I feel a bit like a scene from a movie when the camera focuses on the main person who is sitting very calmly while everything is chaotic around him. I was really having so much fun and didn’t feel sick at all. That was an accomplishment. I felt bad for these people because I’ve definitely been there. I was really grateful that I wasn’t sick.
It was really total comedy but we couldn’t laugh. Finally, Giuseppe and a couple of the workers start clapping their hands and break out into a John Phillip Sousa song (I know it was one of his songs because Jill always hums it). It made us all laugh…at least those of us that weren’t throwing up.
Once we got to Lipari, I had opted to join a bus tour around the island. I figured the tour would be in French or German but I didn’t care. It would give me a chance to see everything. Well, it was in French, German, Italian, and English. Bravo tour guides!
The tour took about an hour and gave us a chance to see all sides of the island plus get out and take a few photos. Afterwards, I had about an hour to walk around the main center. There wasn’t a lot to see but some cute shops and evil pastries.
Next, we took the boat to Vulcano. They have mud baths and thermal springs here. I really wanted to do this but my guidebook said to not wear your best bathing suit because you never get the smell out. Well, I only brought one swimsuit and it was one of my better ones so I opted against it. I watched some people attempt the bath. It wasn’t what I thought. I just looked like a mud puddle versus some thick muddy pool. Apparently it’s very hot too. You aren’t supposed to stay for more than 20 minutes but I saw people barely in there for 2 minutes.

I decided to have lunch and wander around the really small town. Only 700 people live here and I know why. It stinks! The volcano is constantly releasing sulpherous gases. Pee Ewe!
The boat came and picked us up after a few hours and we headed back to Milazzo and to return to our hotels. The ride back was very smooth by comparison and no one needed a barf bag.
I don’t feel too bad that I didn’t see the others, except for Stromboli. I really wanted to see it at night. I think another long visit to the islands would be a very relaxing trip. There isn’t a lot to do there and they are pretty small. Stromboli doesn’t allow motorized vehicles so it would be a very peaceful visit. I’m glad I saw at least two of the islands.
I leave Cefalu on Saturday for Palermo. I have a lot of time there. I’m a bit nervous about spending so much time there, especially after such a relaxing time here. I’m going to do some day trips to places outside of the city and make sure I don’t get too bogged down in the city hustle. It’s surprising to me but I am excited to get back to the chaos of Rome so maybe Palermo will warm me up for it.
Photo is of Vulcano blowing steam.