Back to Sicily and Italy

We arrived back in Sicily on a very efficient ferry, hoo ra for that and made our way to Ragusa arriving as it got dark. No dramas , as we arrived and saw the garage the owner obviously spotted us on CCTV and opened the gates to our underground parking. 

Happy with that, even better we had a beer before going to bed. We have been to ragusa before and the following day in crazy temperatures we marched across town up and down thousands of stairs to get yet another photo of the Cathedral.  I was officially knackered, at night we eat in the restaurant and had good crack with the boss who we found out had been an extra as a policeman in our favourite sicilian TV show inspector Moltobano 

The symbol of Sicilia and the IOM !

stairs everywhere 

yes we walked ( mostly climbed to the church in the distance)

churches everywhere 

stop for a well deserved beer

After 2 days we left Ragusa and headed to Palermo, it was very hit and I had a bit if a crabbit fit heading through Gela on the coast, it was very busy, stop go traffic and road works everywhere at one point the traffic ground to a halt and it was the police carrying out a raid, the uniformed guys stood around but the plain clothes guys just abandoned their car in the middle of the road while they got out, combed their hair, adjusted their sunglasses. Made sure their guns and landward were straight so I couldn't resist shouting abuse and waving my arms at them, they seemed bemused and checked out our numberplate as we rode by, Fiona was convinced we would get stopped but thankfully it didn't happen.

We stopped for lunch halfway across the island, it was 36 to 38 degrees! Got the crack with some locals who were out for a run on their bikes. One of them had a daughter who had recently opened a tally bakery in Dunblane so I now need to go there and surprise her with a photo of her dad!

As expected the traffic and driving got worse and worse the closer we got to Palermo, we had to activate Vietnamese mode to get through it. Eventually we got to the ferry port where surprise surprise we were kept waiting for hours to get on the ship and it was surprise surprise very late in leaving. 

Shit service for the 22 hours voyage and we managed to miss the restaurant opening so we lived off croissants from the cafe.

We tried to get a late check out which effectively means you don't get thrown out your room until 15 minutes before the ship gets into port but the woman didn't understand us so we decided to blag it. They made the announcement to vacate the cabins and avout 15 mnutes later rattled on our cabin door, we ignore it to start with but they came back, I answered the door in my underpants  and told them we were going nowhere, then they radioed somebody who told me we didn't have late check out and we had to get out, the two guys at the door said  5 minutes I said no, 15, then they threatened me with security, to which I laughed, so 15 minutes later we left.

Of course the ship was late disembarking but Fiona is now the Queen of forcing herself off the Ferry and at 9pm we rolled onto the Autostrada at Genova, At 11pm we stopped in Dolceaqua to grab  a carry out pizza and a vino and at 11.30 we were in Rocchetta where Bruno was waiting for us with the keys to our apartment. A very long 24 hours , time for R&R 

the guy in the middle has a daughter in Dunblane, small world

hot hot hot

watercooling the t-shirt and neckscarf helps

at the port

unusual waiting for a ferry 

The Med

Fi on our cruise 🤣

Dolceaqua 

waiting for a carry oot 

And that's all for now, keep on Keeping on