Trapani - Trapped in....

Sometimes I don't research a place enough, this was that time. Trapani looked a good option on Instagram but in reality, it wasn't. We arrived to a town that looked forlorn and empty but I think the Italians had moved somewhere cooler. The heat here was vicious. We had a big room in an old palazzo with so many stairs that they brought our bags up via a pulley system. For lunch we chose a restaurant based on the cover charge price which was overpriced even by Venetian standards but the wine was cheap which made up for it slightly. Maybe we would drink our way through this strange town. We had a lasagna made with fennel sausage which lightened our mood somewhat.

That night we sat down at a restaurant that we thought looked ok only to find out there was a service/cover tax but it didn't say what it would be. We asked a friendly waiter and he said it was dependent on what you ordered but wouldn't tell us how that worked so we up and left and found another one. This was not the end of this story after the daughter left a bad review on TripAdvisor. To be continued....

Breakfast at the hotel was sumptuous, fresh orange juice, good croissants, pods of nutella and deadly machiatos.

Today we took the funivia or lift up to Erice, a mountain town; it was a ten minute ride over some dizzying heights then we walked up to the castle which began it's life as the Temple of Venus, was built over by the Saracens and then the Normans came in 1167 and added onto it. The views were stupendous, even Trapani looked good from up here.

Wonderful ceramics shops lined the quiet, tiny streets and I bought a Xmas decoration, the first of many from countries I visited after that. They're portable and fantastic memories. Arabic cuisine is prevalent still in Sicily, we had a seafood couscous for lunch flavoured with garlic, tomato and cumin with a chilli sauce and good rustic bread.

But getting back on a Sunday was another issue, we got back to the outskirts of town on the funivia but there were no buses until late so dripping with sweat and having walked forever, we ended up finally finding a taxi. Then on the way to our room, we saw the waiter from our aborted restaurant running up the street after us. He asked if we'd remove the Trip Advisor review as his boss had seen it and he would not be paid for a month if it wasn't taken out! We argued that that would be illegal but he said he was here from Africa illegally so they could do anything. The daughter took the review out and we hoped he would be paid. He said he thought the mafia was still running Sicily. Trapani did have that feeling about it.

The next day we went on a cruise to Favignana, which is where my husband had a caravan for many years and where he took me on my first visit to Italy. I didn't last long in the caravan, how spoilt was I way back then? After 30 years, I thought we should revisit this famous tuna fishing island but arriving there I know why I wanted to leave. This had beautiful swimming beaches but it was desert-like, almost treeless and baking in the harsh sunlight. We wandered and consumed expensive granita and were glad to get back on the boat out of the heat.

They served us a great lunch on the boat made by the staff; a pesto made of basil, parsley, oregano, almonds and fresh tomatoes with home grown olive oil brought by one of the sailors on board, tossed with rustic pasta and slathered on bruschetta alongside plentiful jugs of wine. Then we swam in 10 metre deep water until someone said: Medusa! And everyone started to get out of the water. Medusa is Italian for jellyfish, the stinging variety. We were back on board within seconds.

One more day trapped in Trapani. It's too hot to go out. I breakfast early and having emptied my coffee cup, I see clearly a girl dancing on a mountain peak; free. I am single and free and dancing could be on the agenda once we're out of this weird town.

The next day we're on the bus to Palermo to another refurbished palazzo for a night. It's badly decorated but cheap and must have been so beautiful in 1500 when it was built. It started to rain and we were so relieved after the Trapani heatwave but the Sicilians were surprised as it never rains in the summer here.

We had an amazing lunch in an old traditional trattoria, eggplant stuffed with bread and spices in a chilli tomato sauce whilst the daughter had an amazing turmeric flavoured bun stuffed with pulled pork.

That afternoon, I found the Ballaro market with it's amazing vegetable displays. Then, fascinated by the amazingly beautiful occupied and abandoned palazzos, I kept on walking and ended up in a part of the city that didn't look safe, lots of guys sitting on battered motorbikes yelling at each other, smoking furiously and eyeing the young women who walked seductively by. I ended up following some other lost tourists back into the main part of town. Then we went back to our favourite restaurant for spicy anchovy pasta and a salad but we are done with being on the road and eating out. I've been on the move now for 2.5 months and ready for home away from home tomorrow via plane, bus and taxi.

Palermo - A collage of cultures.

Woke at dawn and looking out the window, saw people just going home, the girls with high heels in hand and maybe a partner, a lover alongside, then there were the cleaners just starting their day.

We had a long trip to Sicily via Athens, finally making it to Palermo and our room in a converted Palazzo. A crickety lift took us to the fourth floor, where a vintage theme awaited us. We embraced the aircon, went in search of food close by and then retired early.

Palermo, a melting pot of Middle eastern and Italian influences in food and architecture. Still suffering like Naples from wartime bombing and the Mafia, we wander in late summer heat, past palm trees and abandoned beautiful buildings. We went to the Capo markets with it's artistic arrangements of fruit and vegetables and painted barrows of pomegranate, orange and lemon juices. We bought small green jammy figs and wandered into the centre. It felt as if caught in the 50's . Men with hand painted barrows of gelato and juice carts walked by; brightly coloured barrows selling beautiful cane bags decorated with tassels, gold and artwork; tiny old fiat 500's and Ape, small Italian delivery vans.

I was here with my husband 31 years ago, visiting his sister who lived here. I remembered her picking us up in her tiny coffee coloured Fiat 500, trying to pack us and our bags into it, stopping alongside a gelateria near the port and making us try the brioche stuffed with my first taste of hazelnut gelato. I was overwhelmed and in instantly in love with Italian food. We passed by armoured tanks parked on the side of the roads here and there, the Mafia still in residence.

My sister-in-law was generous and as tough as you have to be living in Palermo alongside the mafia. She showed me through Byzantine churches of golden mosaics and Arabesque style cupolas: we went up into the hills to get the best coffee granita topped with whipped cream which was so strong it gave me heart palpitations and I was high on caffeine for the rest of the day; she took me higher into the hills where they made the best cannoli with sheeps milk ricotta that were lined with chocolate so the shells didn't get soft; she took me to another place where they made watermelon tarts, again lined with chocolate and the watermelon jelly dotted with bitter chocolate chips. The memories!

We found a patisserie where they had tiny cannoli, baby cassatas and the watermelon tarts but I don't think they tasted as good as the ones from almost thirty years ago. We walked past the castle, built by the Normans who conquered Sicily in the 11th century.They were originally Vikings from Scandinavia who settled in Normandy in the north of France and then terrorised and conquered European coastlines and invaded both England and Sicily. The castle was built over an Arabian palace and is the oldest royal residence in Europe. We saw the Fountain of Shame (1554), named because most of the statues are naked and then we lunched on a buffet of different type of vegetables, radicchio, chicory and slices of eggplant simply done with garlic, parsley and olive oil.

I left the daughter to have a siesta and wandered through another food market, enjoying the noise, the shouts of the sellers, the smells, the heaps of wilted peelings to the side of the markets, the amazing street food tantalising with aromas of seafood, garlic, tomatoes and herbs. The city is well lived in, not very clean but the people are full of joie de vivre and pride in their stalls, their food, their art. I find a street full of amazing colourful ceramics and wish I could buy everything and take it home but it lives here, the colours and shapes, the stories the ceramics tell exist in this crazy environment.

Crete - Of snake goddesses and minotaurs.

So bae departed today to Cyprus and we were to leave for Crete. Bae's boat was very late and was so tiny and the seas so rough that she missed her flight from Athens. Ours was so big that it had a helicopter pad, four levels, restaurants and an enormous amount of mirrors to check yourself in and as most of the people were Greek and looking glorious in their summery outfits, gorgeous wavy hair and lots of bling; there was a lot of checking out to be done. But because it was so large, I made sure I checked out all the exits and found where the most lifeboats were located, memories of Titanic in mind.

I had been to Crete many years ago with the husband to see the Minoan ruins of the Palace of Knossos that I had studied both in ancient history and art so was keen to return with the daughter but Heraklion was not as I remembered it. Lots of modern ugly buildings, the odd old one snuggled in between, luckily I had found an old style hotel.

We walked into the centre where all the restaurants were but the vibe here wasn't what I had remembered either. We did find a cool cafe with fantastic small cakes and later we walked down to the old port.

The next day, we went to the Archeological museum which was amazing. The pottery, jewellery and frescoes from Knossos built around 2000 BC were unbelievably beautiful. Shops surrounding the museum had wonderful copies of the jewellery and artefacts. Knossos was known as Europe's oldest city and is where the Minotaur was supposedly kept and where Ariadne fell in love with Theseus. It was also one of the first settlements with sewage systems and flushing toilets and their artistic endeavours were superb.

The next day we were on our way by bus to Chania. I hoped my memories of that place still held true. And they did. The trip by bus showed a wild, barren rocky countryside; the outskirts, as with all cities, were industrial and sad and I wondered whether I had made a mistake coming back. When we arrived at the bus stop, the daughter said: Are you sure this is it? And I wasn't but then we saw my mother's name on a bus and then the late husband's at a print shop and suddenly we were in the centre as I remembered it. Tiny streets full of gelato coloured old houses, artisan shops, cafes and restaurants. We found our hotel and were welcomed by classical music and were shown to our room, where the host opened the shutters and showed us with a flourish, the view of the harbour. There were fresh flowers and a small bottle of liquor. All was well.

We ate in an abandoned roofless building that was so cool, sharing fried zuchini balls with haloumi and salad and then spending the afternoon discovering the beautiful boutiques. There was old shabby deserted buildings in between with ancient paint peeling doors, cats everywhere and we stumbled upon the place where my husband and I had stayed and the same lady was there, running the show around 28 years later! If I come again, I'll stay there.

We walked around the port and chose the restaurant Amphora, beautifully decorated with blue tables and chairs, red checked tablecloths and a great menu. We had eggplant stuffed with feta and our favourite horta and as usual when we asked for the bill, free chocolate slice arrived with muscat wine, the late husband's favourite.

I woke early and put an ad in for a tenant at my home in Randwick (as the last one had moved out) and made a booking for Morocco which I had put off twice before, slightly concerned about going there alone but I did it. The deed was done!

We breakfasted at Phyllo, had a croissant filled with a bitter chocolate ganache and strong Greek coffee and then I shopped till I dropped. I bought two beautiful dresses; the materials here are so beautiful and all natural. Lunch again at Phyllo, chicken with okra and moussaka. We visited a house that had been turned into a museum which was really interesting, showing life here in the 1800's, the crafts the women did, the beautiful sewing and tapestries, the tiny kitchen which would have produced amazing food.

At one of our stops, a woman recommended a place to dine that cooks in ceramic dishes. It was fantastic. We started with fried zuchhini chips in a light batter then we had chicken with prunes, potatoes and spices cooked in ceramics in a wood fired oven. Extremely full, of course they then brought us free yoghurt cake, watermelon and the traditional aniseed flavoured rake. We walk home slightly inebriated, the cats darting out of our way.

Arriving back at our hotel, we looked out our window to see a lot of people gathered around the water's edge. We re-dressed and went down to find out what it could be. It was two sea turtles, they kept surfacing and staying near the edge as the crowd followed them along the sea walk. Our last night was made memorable by their appearance.