Claudia - runs Casa Amici hostel in Palermo (Sicily) - great location - right next to Teatro Massimo, which is not only impressive to see, it's a great landmark in a crazy busy big city for the locals to help guide you back. She's an an artist, and very helpful, flexible - helped us figure out the best route to drive (YIKES) our car thru the chaotic streets of Palermo. She also helped us figure out the laundry, and she kept our bags for the afternoon so we could play around Palermo without the extra weight prior to our train heading to Trapani.
Mask guy - Tharros (outside of Oristano, Sardinia) - we stopped and chatted with an artist who had a booth all by himself outside of a Phoenician ruin site. We bought a beautiful leather mask of a deer (or a bull?) Mary kept picking up little objects off his table asking "Conto costo?" and finally he made a gift to her of a hunk of obsidian.
Sandro & Georgina & Johnny - Nicolosi (Sicily) - they picked us up at like 10pm when we couldn't find another B&B available in this bustling town on the slopes of Mt. Etna, in Sicily. Took us back to their brand new, and very comfortable, B&B "Porto d'Etna". They were very concerned that we had everything we needed, and loaded us up with maps and discount cards and fruit juice. The next day, the breakfast was huge. The mom was really funny - she couldn't make change for the cash I gave her to pay for the room, so she was asking some men who were installing some equipment on the roof if they had change, and they were throwing money down to her from the top of the 2nd floor - like money from heaven.
Giovanni - overheard me asking in broken Italian at the ferry counter if I needed an embarkation card, or if the document I had was complete. And then asking if I could walk to the recently-changed launch site (5 km around the spit) or if I had to get a cab. He offered to give me a ride. I told him I was three people, and he said no problem, I have a car, and it's just me. He told me to wait for him on the steps, so I hustled across the street to where Mary & Michael were waiting, and we lugged back our packs and waited on the steps. When Giovanni came out, he said "you're not three people, you're more like 2 and a half!" He had a small Alfa Romeo station wagon, and we luckily got everything in. Then he drove us around the spit and we had a great talk. He is an infectious disease and community health MD who just got back from Haiti. He has a house in Olbia, Sardinia, and also lives some time in Sicily. What a great guy.
Fabrizio Caggiari - runs Centro Escoursioni Sardegna Nascota Supramonte - Flavio booked us for a full-day tour with Fabrizio - he is a great story teller and very passionate about his work. He says he loves touring people around Sardegna because his dad passed down his passion to him. The day we were with him his dad was in the hospital for an operation. He didn't speak English to us, even though he knows some - he said he learns everything by ear - he's an accordion player in a local band - he was planning to have an English teacher friend come stay with him this winter and learn English. He called Mary the mascota di escoursioni.
Angela Farigu - works in Cagliari as a tour operator/waitress/masseuse - she was on the full day Supramonte excursion with us. She is very friendly, charismatic and animated. She doted on Mary, took a lot of photos of us and the rest of the group. Charming.
TSA ladies at JFK Airport in New York - in case you're wondering if security people have a heart, listen to this: Mary has a snowglobe collection, and the one we bought in Pisa ended up broken (sadness!). We were about to leave Italy after 4 weeks with no snowglobe, when as luck would have it, we found one in the Rome airport (for a pretty good price, as well!) and crammed it in our backpack. Well, guess what doesn't pass through security at JFK? You guessed it. So we made it through Immigration with our passports, we claimed our bags, we went through customs, and then as we went back through security, the TSA lady said "You are gonna be SO sad!" I asked why? She pulled out the snowglobe and said "You can't fly with this." Makes sense. Liquid. Glass. Potential broken glass. Mary was very sad, and the lady said "Do you have checked luggage back there? If you go right now, you might be able to pull out your luggage and put this in there." Then, she found me another TSA woman, who walked me back through security, helped me find my funky old green duffle bag, helped me hold the old zipper together to cram in yet one more thing, and then who jumped me to the front of the line back through security. I coulda kissed those women.
No comments:
Post a Comment