Finally, ignoring portends that had accompanied this holiday, we booked a Mount Etna sunset tour. The sunset was beautiful. In fact, the entire excursion was fun. Etna is the highest (10,000 feet) and most active volcano in Europe. Smoke is still streaming from the crater at top; the last major eruption was in 2002 when three ski slopes and associated buildings were buried in a major lava flow.
Etna is huge. Moreover, because the excursion took us to 3000 meters, the temperature dropped significantly as we made our ascent. We hiked through volcanic dust and rocks and admired plants that had already begun to re-establish themselves.
“It’s clear, Nazy,” I said. “You have to be resilient to survive in Sicily.”
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a traditional Sicilian Pizzeria – and the pizza was magnificent. Nazy, not usually a pizza fan, was amazed by the speed of the chefs at the brick oven. She also raved about the quality of the pizza. We made it back to the hotel around midnight.
It was our last day in Sicily and time to check out. At every hotel we paid incidental expenses (phone, minibar, parking) in cash at checkout. Intriguingly, the same thing happened at each hotel. I presented them with a €50 note. They computed the change, opened the cash register and discovered that it was bereft of Euros.
Then the clerk looked at me and shrugged. While I began looking through my wallet to see if I could cover the invoice with smaller bills, he unlocked a different drawer – a drawer full of envelopes. Each envelope contained several papers and an assortment of currency. The clerk eventually got change from one of the envelopes. What, I ask you, are they doing?
We made it to the airport without additional problems. Our local guide met with words of wisdom:
“Be very careful in Naples – it is worse than Sicily. They steal rings off of fingers.”
“Interesting,” I thought. “I was thinking of giving them the finger. They won’t need to steal it.”
On that cheery note, we went through a perfunctory security check (“that is great balsamic vinegar”) and had a smooth flight to Naples. Our hotel overlooked the Bay and Mount Vesuvius.
Amazingly, the passport replacement process was incredibly smooth at the consulate. (It appears that this kind of theft is not completely unusual.) Within a few hours (and without a few hundred dollars), we had temporary, 1-year passports. We took a taxi back to the airport and by late evening, we were back in Zürich. Fortunately, Nazy had asked Erika to water the plants while we were away “having fun”. Erika met us at the airport and drove us back to Casa Carmen.
