The Boys in Sicily Part I

After the success of Operation Siderno, we three boys left Calabria and headed to Sicily for some sun and relaxation.  But isn't Sicily an island?  Yes, to get across, the Straits of Messina, seen above, you first arrive in Villa San Giovanni...

And hop on a ferry for a 30 minute crossing to Messina.  Round trip price with an automobile, 75 Euro.

About a 40 minute drive west of Messina, on the northeastern coast of Sicily, Gunny found us a week long rental from the wonders of AirBnB.  Just east of the town of Brolo, high up in the hills of a beautiful cliffside development, we had a three bedroom condo to ourselves.  Here it is at sunset!

Everywhere we looked, the flowers were in bloom and the colors were as vivid as you could imagine!!

This pretty much sums of many of our days.  Sitting out in the sun, reading a book, chatting, getting on the internet.  Heading down the hill for coffee and food.  It was vacation at its most glorious!

One evening, we left our hilltop perch, and drove to Taormina.  Instead of taking the Superstrada, we took the back roads through the hills of Sicily.  We saw this abandoned villa.  Brian being Brian stopped the car and we explored.

By the time we were done, the three of us were dreaming of finding the owner, making a pitch to buy the place, fix it up and make it our own.  Dreams....

The drive took us right by the famed Mt. Etna.  Europe's highest active volcano!

After spending some time in the tourist town of Taormina (no pictures here) we headed up to Castelmola which was literally at the top of one of those rock outcrops.  We went there to go to Bar Turrisi.

The view from the bar into the town square.  You ask why the effort to go all the way up to this specific bar??

It's a phallus themed bar.  EVERYWHERE you look from the tables to the bathroom fixtures, is a male appendage.  It was hilarious!

And the view is pretty good too.  Here we are looking south, the eastern shore of northeastern Sicily down towards the city of Catania.

Operation Siderno

My friend Gunny has had this picture on his living room wall in suburban Philadelphia since he was a kid.  The well dressed men are his grandfather Antonio's two brothers, Celestino and Silvio in front of Silvio's store in the town of Siderno, in the region of Calabria right near the toe of Italy.  Gunny has always dreamed of heading back to Siderno and finding family.  Brian and I were along to make sure it happened.

Step 1, we successfully arrived in Siderno.  Not by train, but by car.

After eating at a bar, I simply asked the waitress to look at the first photo and ask her if she recognizes the building.  Lo and behold, she points us to the building.  It's now a music store.

We go inside and the owner is no longer anyone related to the Scarfo (Gunny's surname) family but he knows of Antonio and starts looking in the phone book for the people he knows who can help us out. He tells us to come back in an hour after he closes.

But we step outside and see, across the street, Scarfo Jewelry.  This is a step in the right direction.

We go inside and talk to the owner and his family, he's a Scarfo, but not the right branch of the family  He immediately gets on the phone to call someone he knows must be related to Gunny.

15 minutes later....BINGO.  Gunny's grandfather Antonio's brother, Silvio's grandson, also named Silvio (is a dead ringer for George Clooney) comes in.  Within two hours of arriving, we have exceeded all of Gunny's expectations.

We go back across the street and learn that the store the older Silvio ran was a store that sold wedding presents and other reception items.  We learn that the older Silvio was the first person in Siderno to drive a car and the first person to have a telephone and he made money off of it.

We learn that the older Silvio was quite a business man, always dressed with a coat and tie and was not a man to be messed with!!!

We go get coffee and the younger Silvio gets on the phone and makes some calls and then says...."you want to go see the older Silvio's house?"

"Of course!"  And then we're in the car and arrive five minutes later at the house.  The house was, in its time, the largest in Siderno.

All of a sudden all kinds of relatives are pouring out of the house.  Gunny is trying his best to keep them straight.  Who's related to whom.  It's fun to watch.

Gunny speaks no Italian, so they are trying their best to speak English and I am trying to translate.

This woman is one of the elder Silvio's daughters.  She is the younger Silvio's aunt.  The younger Silvio's mother passed away suddenly last year.

Gunny!  So happy in front of the family compound.

Our luck CONTINUES.  Turns out the younger Silvio's sister, Ketty, is in town from New York City, which is also where Gunny lives.  We have dinner together and not only does Gunny find family here in Siderno but one of his family members also lives in NYC.  The connections continue.

The next day, we come back to Siderno and spend some time at the beach.

Gunny holding the family tree that we've finally managed to create!

Another relative!!  Not blood though.  This man is Ketty and young Silvio's father, who married the older Silvio's daughter.

That evening, Silvio and his family took us out to dinner.

Toasts were made and plans were hatched for young Silvio's family to visit Gunny in NYC next year.  Brian, Gunny and I were invited back to Siderno anytime.  It was an unbelievable trip for Gunny and I'm glad to have helped make him make the family connections he's always wanted.

Lastly, Operation Siderno allowed me to officially visit and set foot in the only region of Italy I had yet to visit, Calabria.  I've been to all the regions of Italy before I've hit all 50 states in The United States!

The Bay of Kotor

Back into Montenegro (I have a soft spot for it in my heart) and the Bay of Kotor.  The bay is this amazing body of water that looks like a Norwegian fjord with the sheer walls shooting directly up from the water.

The crazy thing is that from where I am standing to the other side, which is less than a half mile, is the neck that is the opening into the bay.

Looking out towards the ocean from the "top of the bay".  The bay makes a "T" shape and we're looking down the stem of the T.

Ships come into the Bay of Kotor.  They seem out of scale.

I've now swum in the Bay of Kotor.  So beautiful, clear and refreshing.

The town of Kotor and its walls which go UP the hill around the city.

So this was the last stop in Brian and my trip through the former provinces of Yugoslavia.  I never thought that this part of the world was SO BEAUTIFUL.  And so charged with crazy history and that patchwork of both ethnicity and religion and how the two are often times overlapping with others.  Nothing in this part of the world is clear cut, everything has two sides to the story.  I have a special place in my heart for these countries.  I hope in my heart of hearts they manage to keep on this path of economic development and political freedoms.  I hope that they stay out of war, but in speaking with many residents, they say that even though things are at peace here, grudges are held and most believe that fighting will return. Travel is about learning and understanding and putting a face to what can be just names on a map.  When I hear Sarajevo or Podgorica or Belgrade, I have a little understanding of their recent histories.  My travels here were so eye opening.  There is still so much I want to see in this part of the world.  I hope to go back.