scouting camera rental
Hello from Sicily - Exploring Salina, The Island of the Twin Mountains
After our explorations of Lipari and Salina yesterday the weather was going to keep us on the island Salina today. I woke up early around 6 hours and stuck my head out of the boat. A beautiful sunrise was in the making, so I grabbed my camera and took in the pink, orange and peach colored hues of this glorious sunrise in Santa Marina. Dark clouds were hanging on the horizon. A catamaran had just pulled out of the harbor and provided an interesting anchor point for my photos.
Shortly after it started to rain and when we stood for our breakfast skipper Francesco explained that the weather forecast for today is not good enough for us to leave the island, so we have a briefing in the early afternoon. Two additional guests had arrived, Franco, an Italian teacher and the other co-owner of Laboratorio Linguistico, and his friend Agnieszka, a young music student from Poland who was studying music as they learn Italian in Rome. Our familiar four cabin sailboat, the Solitaire II, was now the passengers in each cabin, and there were seven of us now travel.
Herbert German TV travel journalist, was an official location scouting trip for his trip to show intelligence gathering shoot for next year that feature the Italian learning experience aboard a sailboat, each holding Francesco's, Laboratorio Linguistico. Herbert needed here any interesting places, the lighting, the locations and facilities, so that he would be able to plan for the script and the camera crew would be in Germany next year to film the extraordinary experience of learning Italian on a sailboat while sailing through the beautiful Aeolian Islands make.
So to get the better island Herbert asked Francesco know to agree with him a number of local experts to various places on the island. Herbert graciously offered to other people to carry on his island exploration, and Claudia excited and I agreed. Sure enough, Sabina Giuffre, we already had met over dinner last night, local and her friend Giancarlo, came to us to pick up in a rented a vehicle for our tour of the island.
We were nice and comfortable in the small Italian vehicle and after only 10 minutes drive, we arrived at our first stop: the "Gola del Diablo", a gap cut in the black and brown volcanic rock, with an ancient Roman bridge. The rock formations were indeed impressive, and the layers of ancient lava flows were clearly visible.
We also stopped in the village of Lingua, where we visited a local ethnographic museum that featured several exhibitions, illustrate The old way of life on the local island. An old millstone, various agricultural implements, even an original bedroom of a farm were exhibited in this museum. This small museum provides great insight into the traditional lifestyle on these islands. Then walked to the corner and a stone's throw away is the main square of this small town. Here at the Bar "Da Alfredo "We congregated and receive free samples of granitas - the semi-frozen Sicilian dessert consisting of sugar, water and various flavorings such as strawberry, melon, peach, orange, lime, coffee, almonds and many others.
Similar to sorbets, granitas usually have larger crystals, and the locals often eat them together with a brioche. The black sky above the mountains was ominous, but a bright sunbeam illuminates the facades of the houses around the square. A big husky dog was snoozing on the satisfaction floor and I wondered how this poor dog with his thick coat could cope with the hot Sicilian summers. The people were very hospitable and humorous banter flew back and forth.
From here we drove back through Salina, Giancarlo and stopped off at Sabina's house that she has turned into a bed and breakfast. Salina dad came to greet us and I could not help, but a resemblance to the famous actor Kirk Douglas to track. He graciously took some "nespol (Loquat fruits) for us from his fruit trees. These fruits, originally native Southeast China and cultivated in warm climates around the world today, like apricots and his equally sweet and juicy.
We valued these small snack along the way, Sabina's father thanked and continued our journey to the next town on the island: Malfa, a small fishing village town. En route we stopped at the Malvasia vineyards admire and patches of capers, which are major export products to the island of Salina.
Malfa has a large church dedicated to San Lorenzo and was also the birthplace grandparents of our shipmate and Lorenzo's a place he would spend some time in. Sabina has brought us to the fishing port and then back up the hill to a vantage point called "semaforo", a control tower built in the early 20th century, which was also used during the Second World War. Sabina mentioned that UNESCO offered Buy this tower, but it hit the local municipal supply. Today it is abandoned and closed.
Sabina stopped the car and we walked out to a viewpoint with stunning views of the Mediterranean where Sea with a magnificent view of the island Filicudi - the "lying pregrant woman", so named because its shape, with a head and what looks like a big belly, protruding from the sea. To our left was a deeply incised valley that explained Sabina is an old volcanic crater, half of which is broken down and disappeared into the sea. Today is the location for the Pollara village where a major tourist attraction: the house where the film "Il Postino" was filmed has.
Of course we need to check this out so we drove a few narrow roads, parked the car and ran a short piece on a dusty road to a relatively simple and unobtrusive little pink house with a number of vineyards, which one of the most famous places to see on the island. From the outside, there was nothing spectacular about this house, and Sabina indicated that it is available for short term rentals.
The weather began to clear and the view from the northern tip of Salina was gorgeous. The distances on this island are small, but by the narrow and winding road it certainly takes a while to get around. By 1 hours we were back on our boat and had a briefing with our captain: Francesco indicated that due to the weather we were not going sailing today. So we had a comfortable lunch on board and then I head to Santa Marina walk around and make some calls back to Canada. Unfortunately the internet has been closed since the siesta time, which often lasts approximately 1 hour to 4 or 1:30 or 4:30 hours. In Sicily you definitely need to time your shopping experience carefully to ensure that the stores are to open.
Of 4:30 to 6:30 pm Claudia, Agnieszka and I had our first Italian language lesson, provided by Franco on the terrace of a local bar. Now here is a concept: the learning of languages at terrace of a bar - I certainly nice. It made the somewhat painful exercises dealing with the complexity of the Italian "congiuntivo" (the subjunctive) much more palatable. I have studied many languages in different language schools, and Laboratorio Linguistico has certainly created a very unique teaching concept here.
After our intensive class I took a walk around Salina and this time the internet cafe was open. So far I have found reasonably good public Internet access in various parts of Sicily, and it is Always great to be able to connect to home. Our boat crew spent a quiet evening on board, we settled a wonderful home-cooked dinner with potatoes, salad, sweet carrots, cheese and various sweets for dessert. Some of my fellow travelers played cards, while I organized my photos on the laptop that is conveniently connected to the electricity consumed by the port commission in Santa Marina di Salina.
It was nice to one days of rest in Santa Marina, but I'm looking forward to exploring a new island tomorrow: Stromboli!
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