Took advantage of Ryanair’s spiffy cheap flights to spend a long weekend in Sicily: Pictures

In fact, it was quite by chance I ended up there - I got a free flight to anywhere, just pay tax. Obviously, there’s no point getting a £1 flight to Ireland or something, so I phoned up and said “What’s the most expensive place to fly to?”
“Palermo in Sicily”, said the nice lady.
“OK, I’ll go to Palermo.”
And so, £28 in taxes later, I was off on a plane, armed with a Rough Guide, a map, and “Instant Italian in 6 weeks”.
Something about the “instant” and “6 weeks” didn’t fit, but it was all I had.
I checked in online with only hand luggage, so I only needed to be at the airport 45 minutes before the flight, nonetheless, on arriving at 04:45, I was surprised to find the airport not only heaving with fat bald chaps all dressed the same and clearly off to some rugby match (or a gay convention, it’s often difficult to tell), but even more surprised to find the onsite Wetherspoons pub absolutely heaving with the same.
Turns out they weren’t Palermo bound, so anyone who wanted to lie across 3 seats could, so I put Instant Italian on my little mp3 player, lay down, and slept.

A €5 bus takes you from the airport and deposits you at the station. I had no clue where to get off, so I got off early and found myself at the Piazza Ruggiero Settimo admiring an epic outdoor exhibition titled La Terra vista dal Cielo, consisting of some remarkable aerial photography of the earth by Yann-Arthus Bertrand.

After a rapid learning experience about the local buses and a thorough exploration of the wrong bits of the city (€1 buys you a 2 hour ticket which must be bought from a shop, not on the bus, but validated in the machine on the bus), I headed for my first hotel, the rather out-of-town Bel3. You need a 120 to John Lennon Plaza, then a 534 to Baida. About 40 minutes in all. Then it’s a 10 minute steep walk up a hill, however, the views and facilities are worth it. That said, it’s just above a residential area, and the walls are very thin too, so if the dogs don’t keep you awake, the couple shagging next door might.

I’d already decided that Italian was my favourite language, and that was before I discovered that I had to go down the scale to the right piano to get to my camera. I deeply regretted not knowing more Italian, I felt like such a fool. I was determined, and over the next 3 days, during every spare moment, I buried my head in Instant Italian. I got the first two weeks done in 2 days, because it’s just such a lovely, easy language. French is like swimming in treacle, whereas Italian is like crunching on a crispy lettuce.

Next morning, I had no idea what to do. I was enjoying the hotel, but that night, I had booked into Giorgio’s House. I’d found both hotels using Venere.com and tripadvisor.com
I checked out at mid-day, caught the bus back to town, had a wander, and started looking for Giorgio’s House. Now, when Giorgio says he’ll pick you up, listen, and take the number with you. Don’t do what I did and think you’ll be clever. Otherwise you’ll discover large parts of Palermo by foot, including some around the market area which you might not feel comfortable in as a tourist with a camera etc. Besides, Giorgio’s House is just that - Giorgio’s House! No sign. He speaks good English, and that evening, I formulated my cunning plan - about time I did, as I was already halfway through!

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In short, I was supposed to land at Stansted at 23:15, instead, there
was fog, so we landed at East Midlands, took them another 2 hours to
find a coach company that was awake, then nearly another 3 to grind
all the way back down south in the fog. Tsk!

Categories: travelogue