Tour "Pearls of Sicily" or a trip of a Ukrainian woman in Italy, or how not to rest
Everyone knows the film "The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia", here everything is exactly the opposite, only the Italians were looking for treasures in Russia, and I was looking for a tour in Sicily called "Pearls of Sicily". The second day of my stay on the island ends and - no tour, no pearls... but everything is in order. The Italians were also not lucky all the time, I would like to hope that my vacation and tour will be more successful.
The first day. Arrival in Palermo at 11.30 am. On the one hand, everything is fine. I was met and taken to the hotel. But… where is the Russian-speaking guide Olga promised by LARUS VIAGGI? Do not know. Did not see. I will say more - I have not heard. The phone number left in the program, why it is recalled either by the Italian semblance of voice mail, or even worse, by our painfully familiar “Subscriber out of communication area”. Okay. I decided that SMS would reach sooner or later (in case it was really “out of the zone”), I sent it... first in Russian....Then …. thinking…. and suddenly it does not support Cyrillic....in English…. And what …. As in the proverb “And things are still there”, so with me - silence was the answer to me. Now imagine this situation. You are in a foreign country. The hotel accommodated you for one night. The reception at the hotel does not know anything, and no Russian groups (and you notice a group tour) are not expected today. When you are supposed to be picked up tomorrow, they have no idea. Let's say the first day was a success. Without losing my mood, I decide, let's see what happens next, and with the thought that the sea is somewhere nearby and I need to find it, since I have already arrived, and there is still nothing to do at the Azzolini Hotel. Having learned from the administrator of the hotel the way to the sea, she moved in the indicated direction. After walking about half a kilometer, I met a bridge on the way... across the autobahn... wide for the passage of one car - and it became clear why they lightly honk so often - to warn oncoming people “I'm on my way” . I didn’t believe that this was the desired road to the sea, I returned a little... I want to note that there are no pedestrians as a class, everyone drives either cars or motorcycles, there is no one to ask for directions, I went to look for people . Not far away on one of the crossing streets - I found it! The man was watering the lawn in the yard. And how lucky! He spoke in English. Later I realized that I was really lucky, because. most Italians, however, like most of our fellow citizens, do not understand English. Even simple phrases. Yes, and why? It is understandable “You have come to us” . Forgive me for digressions, but they, i. e. retreats will occur at every turn, if not more frequently.
So. I was confirmed that the road to the sea really lies through this bridge, and if I want to get there, I must decide and go. Because no options - go. Yes, the sea really turned out to be almost immediately behind the bridge. There is even a small beach, which is not typical for this area, because. mostly rocky coastline. And here it is small, sandy, almost completely strewn with dry and not very algae, which emit a corresponding thick smell. But... this is the sea, and the smell of algae, i. e. iodine fumes - is useful, and with the thought of unscheduled therapeutic air baths I go for a swim. Separately about the beach. There is a charm in small resort villages on the seashore. And this beauty is hidden in what the world calls “first line hotels”.
There are no hotels here. There are private houses that stand right on the beach. And through one, at the gates of each there is a motor boat and benches. They just go out of the house, sit on the benches and rest. Yeah interesting…. And they are watching. . . There will be five people with me for vacationers on the beach, who are not many at all. This is good. Remembering the beaches on which “the needle has nowhere to fall” I quietly rejoice. The sea is a little rough. But the water is clean and warm. After the sea, it seems that the air is very fresh, and the wind is not the warmest, but Sicily is not far from Africa, d. b. warm, maybe it’s even hot, but it doesn’t matter, the weather is +25C, this summer in Kyiv we could only dream of such a temperature (I specify - it was +38C, humid, hot - a long-term sauna). Having rested a little on the beach, breathing fresh air, enjoying the silence and the sound of the surf, slightly freezing (not Africa is here now! Not Africa at all! ) I'm heading to the hotel.
A little about the hotel. Hotel Azzolini. Small, cozy, clean with good landscape design, located 5-10 minutes drive from Palermo airport. It is absolutely incomprehensible why I was told in the travel company "Sia Tour" that since I was traveling alone from Kyiv, the group transfer, which is included in the cost of the tour! - does not work. And an individual one costs 180 Euros. Round trip. I start searching the Internet for information about Palermo airport, I find out that it is very easy to get from the airport to Palermo both by bus and railway. I'm trying to find out in the agency what the name of the hotel where the stop in Palermo will be is called - they don't know. The names of the hotels will be known a day or two before departure. But what a miracle! Moscow partners (or maybe they were Italians) report that the transfer still does not need to be paid. There is happiness! : ) Let's go back to the hotel. Yes, the hotel is nice. If he stood on the shore, or at least the path to the sea was not so....let's say unpleasant (streets - especially with two-way traffic - are mini-garbage bins, despite the fact that garbage cans are at every house) - then this hotel would not be worth the price. And so..... the hotel is not even half empty, but completely empty. Suitable either for tourists who rent cars and travel on their own, or in transit (for one night), and even then on the condition that they arrived in the evening and left immediately after breakfast. Nothing to do. There is nowhere to go. Around only private houses (villas, cottages - whatever you call it - the essence does not change). And silence. After the city, the silence pleases. But in order to enjoy the silence, you can go to the village, or to the Crimea, or to the Carpathians, and it is not necessary to buy a tour that is not at all cheap and follow it to Italy. I was promised a very rich program of impressions. I will not hide, there are impressions, but not promised ones, but those that are better to be avoided, and not to pay money for them. There was a pleasant surprise at dinner that evening.
Briefly about the food - good and tasty. The hotel director's wife, Russian, decided to ask if everything was all right with me. And at that moment, she and the director were not lucky. I told about my little problem with both finding a guide and finding a group with which I should continue the tour. What unspeakably surprised them (Elena and her husband). Thank them very much! After making sure that Olga's guide's phone really did not answer, they promised to get through to her and find out what I should do tomorrow. We got through. Learned.
Second day. In the morning, the hotel administrator said that Olga needed to call back later, because. Olga still doesn't know when they'll pick me up…. . ? When asked to allow me to talk to Olga, she agreed. And here another “pleasant” surprise awaited me. Olga is not in Sicily! She's with a group of tourists on the mainland. And will be in Sicily only tomorrow (the third day of the tour in the evening)! . Hours at 20.00-21.00. Not earlier. And then finally I will meet the desired group....
The idea that the tour "Pearl of Sicily" does not exist, came immediately. There is some mixture of something with something, but absolutely not a mixture of Sicily with pearls. No. Sicily is. And probably pearls too. Somewhere. But obviously not here. In addition, Olga does not know who and when will pick me up from the hotel. As she does not understand why I am calling her, and not the agency in Kyiv. She is also not aware of the fact that she is the guide of this tour. As the answer to the question is not known - why is her phone number listed in the program. Interesting - right? The farther into the forest..... , the farther everyone knows. Recalling that, firstly, today is Sunday and a day off, and secondly, the cost of calls is different, but God bless her - with the cost - but where to call ? ! I suggested to Olga to find out in my company (it turns out Olga does not work with the company “LARUS VIAGGI”, but works for their partners of the company “GARTOUR” - it becomes more and more interesting . . ) who and when will transfer me to the next hotel according to the program (about that the above program is just paper - on which someone wrote something, and who and what is a mystery, I realized by the end of the conversation.....Although I'm wrong... Someone knew about this program. Since I was accommodated in the first and second hotels without any problems. Having learned the name? ! of the hotel where I stayed and the room number, Olga promised to call back and provide the necessary information. Of course, no one recognized or called. The administrator of the Azzolini hotel Titiany helped, who called a friend at a travel agency, told the situation, and... after 5 minutes I knew that they would still pick me up and transfer me to a hotel in the Taormina area. "near".
The tour continues. Of course, it looks more like an individual one - but who would complain. It’s just that I plan my individual tours better than the indicated group companies, but these are not the problems of the companies, what the tourist will do in the wilderness where they send him. Tour bought. And then it's your business. And with the fact that people don’t go there and dogs don’t run, figure it out yourself. The transfer of the body from hotel to hotel was successful. There was only one passenger in the car; I. At a speed of about 140 km / h (they also have a limit on highways - 120 ), the car crossed Sicily through its central part and after a short search, the driver found the next hotel "Park Hotel OASI". The fact that there is no park there can not be said, as well as the fact that the driver of the travel agency did not know. where is this hotel located. Although…. M. b. it was not the driver of the travel agency, I don't think that the travel agency keeps the "Mercy" to transport tourists....But who knows…. . Hotel «OASI» is located exactly in the area of Taormina, to which, in order to get there, you need to find some kind of transport that runs somewhere. He walks, even the bus schedule hangs in the hotel. "OASI" is a special song. Not comparable to Azzolini. In the role of administrator - an old Italian. She is certainly not 80, but she is 65 years old. Represented. No, this is not an intelligent dandelion grandmother, but where did you see "dandelions" - administrators, but rather looks like a Baba Yaga, only slightly fatter, or an old Jewish woman....In no way do I want to offend Jewish women, I am generally far from racism. Just a colorful person. She began by putting her in a room on the "-1" floor. Need to explain? I think no. Everything would be fine, but after 5 minutes of staying in the room it becomes clear that it is located under the cafe, and every movement of chairs on the floor is heard directly above your head and there is no soundproofing. Grabbing the key, and calling for help all her knowledge of English, she rushed upstairs. Hmmm... my grandmother didn’t know English, but she knew perfectly well where she settled me. Therefore, leafing through the Talmuds, and looking for something there, she took me upstairs. From basement to attic. Yes, the room is half the size of the previous one, but... there is a roof overhead and no one walks on it, and I have at my disposal a huge terrace with a sun lounger and a view of the eucalyptus grove, the sea and the surrounding area. Naturally, I agreed without a moment's hesitation. Better loft! In addition, as I found out later, despite the fact that there are several rooms in the attic, no one lives in them, and in the evening I found out that no one lives in the hotel except me.... .
We move on. Lunch time. According to the paid tour - lunch is not included in the price. I'm going down. I'm trying to find out if they can feed me for a fee. Granny found two teenagers who somehow understand English. Frankly, my English is far from perfect, but in such situations I remember everything I knew and did not know, and I understand better than I speak. These teenagers know English even worse. But it's nothing. By joint efforts, we found out that lunch at this hotel does not shine for me, neither for money, nor without. Need to find somewhere to eat. . . BUT WHERE?? ? After some questioning, I found out that there is a supermarket two kilometers to the right, but again today is Sunday and it does not work, and there is a restaurant two kilometers to the left. The path is long, but I want to eat. I'm going. Everything turned out not so bad. In a 10-minute walk I saw an institution with the name "Pizzeria" (in Italian, of course ), I decided that it was the right restaurant or the wrong one, anyway, the main thing is food! I went. The menu is in Italian of course. Having decided to order a pizza (in Italy, after all), I find out that pizza is not being prepared at this time and they show a menu on two pages that can be ordered now. On one page there are all kinds of spaghetti that I don’t eat, and on the second……. And who knows what on the second , the menu is in Italian. I choose at random, i. e. finger to the sky, I settle down more securely and wait. After some time, they bring..... the choice turned out to be successful... fried seafood. Amazing. The fact that my liver is not accustomed to this amount of fried food and is indignant is not important, but it is delicious. The weather is non-flying, cloudy, a rather unpleasant wind, I return to the hotel. Since dinner is still included in the boarding house, I ask the question - when?... And here, this wonderful granny dumbfounds me, it turns out that dinner is not supposed to be for me today! I want to know why? (In the evening, while having dinner, I realized - who wants to cook dinner for one tourist !!! ) But then..... Grandmother is bustling... and says that tomorrow with a group, yes it will be, but today - no. I explain that “dinner” is written in my program, and if she wants, I will bring her... All the same... that Italian is bad who does not dream of deceiving a crest... failure... my grandmother gave up... they fed me dinner in the evening.
About the sea and the beach. The sea is 2 steps away from the hotel. Cross a traffic-free road, a small eucalyptus plantation, and there it is! A wide and long pebble beach, starting from Taormina and stretching to Catania. Perhaps closer to Taormina or in the season it is cleaned, but now..... This is not Spain for you, where the beaches are cleaned to a shine. Something similar in terms of the amount of garbage I met only in Bulgaria in Pomorie. Plastic dishes and bottles - as far as the eye can see, there are only small relatively clean islands. In the evening, around 21.00, the guide Olga remembered about the additional tourist and sent an SMS, asking if I had moved. Answering that she had moved, she complained that I would not see an additional excursion to the Ancantara Gorge according to the program , however, as well as an additional excursion to the evening Taormina... for which I was advised to go to Taormina tomorrow myself. Equivalent replacement No comments.
Useful advice: when heading to Sicily (if you still decide to go here): firstly, you don’t need to take electrical appliances for euro sockets. Euro sockets are not popular. My mini electric kettle rests quietly in a suitcase. A regular kettle will work better. And secondly: take mosquito repellent. They are here. No wonder I looked at the raptor before leaving and I really regret that I didn’t take it. Hat, I know that even if there is one mosquito for the whole district, it will be mine....The night was fun....
Day three. Sunny morning. Even hot. Clouds clinging to the tops of the mountains look very impressive. Ahead of a whole free day and something to do. If I had taken a driver's license, I could rent a car and there would be no further problems. There are no rights. Cars too. It remains the schedule of buses to Taormina and Catania. The weather is very good for photography and I decide to go to Taormina. Having learned how to find the bus stop, I move on. And the path turned out to be far... . I confess - I did not expect that it would be so far to go to the stop, and after walking about two kilometers, I stopped the car and asked the driver if I was going there. It turned out there. But for some reason, by his smile, it was hard not to figure out that I had to go and go. And that's just one way. But you still have to take a walk around the city and walk back ... In general, the bean died... I returned to the hotel with the thought that it might be tomorrow, having better equipped, I still go and find this mysterious stop. By the time I returned to the hotel, the weather began to deteriorate, I wandered for about an hour and a half, the clouds safely passed the mountains and reached the coast. And again, like yesterday, the whole sky is covered with clouds and a not very warm wind is blowing. There was a slight rain, which inspired the thought - maybe it’s good that I didn’t find a stop. From my terrace there is a magnificent view of Taormina, and I see clouds hanging over the city too. A little later it started to rain. . .
Day four. Nothing interesting. The rain that started yesterday is still falling. In the evening, I finally met the long-awaited guide Olga and her group. They arrived around 9pm. Olga decided to make me happy with a trip to Catania today, despite the rain. What to look at in Catania, especially in the rain, remained a mystery to me. Let the departing group solve it. My throat said in the morning that for today I was prescribed bed rest with a lot of hot tea with honey. What do I do under the sound of drops on the roof. It’s good that this bucket of water will be empty until tomorrow. Although the sky is reliably covered with gray heavy clouds.
Day five. Morning. Etna. Volcano. Active. Mumbling. Breathing. Sicily stands on a time bomb, which periodically shows its character. Last time not so long ago. In 2002-2003 The rise above the cloud level to a height of 1986m took about 1.5 hours. The group was passive. And the program is "carefully" thought out. There were only three who wanted to climb to a height of about 3000m, including me. And since the ascent to this height takes an hour longer than the stop provided for by the program, we were deprived of this pleasure (I wonder for whom the program was so “competently” compiled). I had to be content with little. 2500m. Rise on the funicular. When you get into the cloud, a feeling of unreality of what is happening. You. Cabin. And fog all around. The weather on Etna changes quickly. The cloud has passed and the sun is shining brightly. Not for long. 5-10 minutes. And again, the fog rolls over the mountains of intricately frozen lava and you understand the feelings of the hero of the famous cartoon "Hedgehog in the Fog"... Visibility is 5-10 meters. People gradually emerging from the fog seem to be strange silhouettes. And, oddly enough, ladybugs live here. Whole colonies. Tourists, mostly of retirement age, stand in line to get into jeeps to climb 3000m and see the 2002-2003 craters. Ours, mostly much younger, sit in the cafeteria downstairs. To each his own. Who is going for what? The brave ones, who climbed 2500m, manage to do both in two hours.
Day and evening. Further on the program of Syracuse. An archaeological city with excavations of a Greek amphitheater and a small town on the peninsula of Ortigia. An amphitheater is like an amphitheatre. A beautiful panoramic view of the sea, the peninsula and the ship, frozen like a white statue in the port. Ortigia is somewhat reminiscent of Venice, small with very narrow streets, only some of them can be driven by car. In this case, it is advisable for the pedestrian to come closer to the wall of the house . After the obligatory excursion, the group decides to go to the hotel and visit the evening city in the evening. 17.00. Little riot. Three rebels remain on the island for a walk. The Trinity is the same that wanted to climb Mount Etna . We agree to meet in the evening before the tour. It wasn't there. Our amazing Olga calls back around nine in the evening and says that the group allegedly did not gather, so get there yourself. Later it turned out that there was a minimum group of people who wanted to, but why did Olga decide not to go, but to keep people in the hotel ?? ? We had a wonderful time. We walked, sat in a cafe and after 22.00 we calmly took a taxi to the hotel.
Day six. Villa Armerina. Roman villa of the 3rd century AD Presumably belonged to Emperor Maximilian. Of interest is only the floor lined with mosaics. Nothing remains of the villa. Only gender. Which is restored if possible. The floor acquires paint only when wet with water. Then it's really beautiful. Hot. Nature seems to have decided to pamper us and the second day is sunny, hot weather. Olga brought the group to have lunch in Agrigento, in some obscure eatery, more like a Soviet-era canteen. The riot is growing. More than half of the group refused to eat at this establishment. Someone went to the sea, someone (8 people) further along the beach along the sea in search of food. At 50 or maybe 100 meters from the dining room, there is a small bar with an open terrace overlooking the sea. The hospitable owner of the establishment met a group of Russian girls with a promise to feed them with wonderful, personally cooked pasta, especially for us. And although everyone during the trip managed to get bored with all kinds of pasta, no one could leave. The hospitality of the owner charmed all the girls, of all ages, from 30 to 70. The dinner was fun. A lively grandmother from Switzerland was relaxing on the beach, having heard the Russian speech, she decided to sing Katyusha for us and dance. But our grannies also have enthusiasm! How they danced to our accompaniment! Pasta really turned out to be better than the ones we were fed before. The cheerful atmosphere helped to relax and we felt much better than the people who stayed to dine with Olga. Some got lettuce along with Sicilian soil. Evening Valley of the Temples. The tour, which started at about 16.00, lasted more than 3 hours, and if it were not for the emotional, incendiary and interestingly telling the history of Greek temples and the city of Agrigento, the guide Rino, half of the group would have given up halfway. But the blessing around the ruins! And basically the second half of the tour took place with their use as benches. There are also benefits from the ruins.
Day seven. Monreale. A small town lurking on a mountainside above Palermo. The entrance to the city from Palermo is marked by two vases on the side of the road. Narrow streets lined with souvenir shops. Two squares with a fountain and a cathedral. With gold painting and Arabic mosaic patterns on the walls and floor. Next is Palermo. With heavy traffic. For 700.000 people, there are only 620.000 cars and about 300.000 motorcycles. Traffic congestion. Perhaps, to feel the atmosphere of Palermo, you need a little more than the 6 hours that we spent there, or maybe it's just not my city, or maybe we walked along the wrong streets... I don't know. Didn't make an impression. I liked Syracuse and Montreal a lot more.
Day eight. End of story. Yesterday, at about half past six in the evening, I parted with the group, they went to Naples by ferry, and I returned to the Azzolini Hotel and fly home this afternoon. I must say that despite the fact that during the day there was no one in the hotel, and naturally dinner was not prepared, they fed me. Knowing that I would not arrive home until after midnight, they prepared two huge sandwiches and a cappuccino.
Afterword. My assumption that Moscow travel agencies strongly "like" only Ukrainian tourists turned out to be unfounded. The Russians, who formed the basis of the group (I was the only one from Ukraine), were "lucky" each in their own way. Some were waiting at the Naples airport for about 2 hours or more, while others on the bus had a drunken tourist bring the situation to a fight, as a result of which he ended up in the hospital with a cut eyebrow, and then was completely detained by the police in Capri. They simply forgot to meet one girl at the Catania airport, despite the fact that she did not even know which hotel she was going to. Our group consisted of pieces of different programs that joined the South of Italy tour for 3 days. They are also "lucky". After two days in a hotel in Naples with bedbugs and one, but large, towel in a 3-bed room, the OASI hotel in Moskali seemed like a paradise to them. And hotels in Syracuse and Agrigento are super-hotels. Yes, the tour operators that make up the program, select hotels and accompanying guides, do not worry at all and do not bother thinking about the conveniences of tourists. Our guide Olga, a Russian living in Italy, spoke with Italians about Russian tourists with such disdain that she involuntarily wanted to ask: “Where are you from?! ” And her condescending and contemptuous attitude towards these tourists, thanks to which, by the way, she has a job, was generally bewildering. I would like the travel agency "Artex", which offers a tourist trip "Pearl of Sicily" in Kyiv, still better studied the tours offered by other tour operators and warned tourists in advance about possible completely unpleasant moments. And even better, of course, if you are adventurous , make your own tour, do not rely on the “professionalism” of agencies, and then you will definitely have a good rest, if only because you will know about all the “dogs” that are buried somewhere