We wanted to get out into the countryside. As wonderful as Palermo is, and Florence, Barcelona, and Lisbon, there comes a time when the senses need a break. There’s only so much that can be processed effectively. It seems that if one remains too long on the streets and in the museums, you become numb to it all. I suppose, to some degree, that happens to all of us, no matter where we live. A wonderful thing about traveling is the ease with which the scenery can be changed. Today the churches and markets. This evening a quaint restaurant. Tomorrow the mountains.
So that’s just what we did. With a map of Sicily spread before us, and Google within easy reach, we chose Gangi, a hilltop town just a couple of hours from Palermo.
Our destination determined, we rented a car from Hertz and reserved a room with Booking.com. It was that simple.
Wanting to spend most of the day in Palermo, we arranged to pick the car up at 4, early enough to arrive at the B&B IL Galletto by sunset. It was a good plan.
The first hour or so was easy, and the scenery stunning.
But the A19 could only get us so close. Inevitably, we would have to take the off ramp and hope the GPS wouldn’t fail us.
And it didn’t, for the most part. But daylight did. And with its diminishment came uncertainly. Twists and turns easy to maneuver at high noon become challenges that have to be mastered.
And, as time went on, signs of human habitation diminished as well,
giving way to other creatures.
Night arrived too soon but somehow, like the proverbial golden city on the mountain top, Gangi appeared,
and we were nearly home free. Of course rarely are things so easy.
Once we arrived in the town center, our navigational aid blinked and we were left to our own devices in a thousand year old town that never anticipated the arrival of the automobile.
Pa doesn’t know, nor do I, how long it took us to work our way out of that maze in which there was barely an inch on either side of our Jeep and turning around was beyond all possibility. But somehow we got to the other end, arriving two hours later than expected.
I asked Pa how he thought we were able to make it. “Dutch perseverance,” he insisted. I gave full credit to the St. Christopher medal tucked deep in my wallet. If there’s ever a land where such a talisman would be effective, it would be Sicily.
With that, and without further commentary, I’ll share a few other photos from our stay in a very special Village on a Hill.
I wnder how do you arrange these seemingly complex travel plans.
What stunning views from that ancient town! "...and we were left to our own devices in a thousand year old town that never anticipated the arrival of the automobile." I liked that.