Day 17 – Sicily: Ciao Cefalu!
Today we are leaving Palermo and heading to Cefalu. We woke up and took advantage of the free breakfast voucher that Palazzo Sovrana gave us at the cafe next door. Then we finished packing up our things and drove 1 hour and 15 minutes to Cefalu. We found free street parking (a tip that our airbnb host gave us) and walked with our bags for 8 minutes until we reached our Airbnb. We rented an adorable Seaside apartment with a balcony and ocean view and were able to check in early at 1pm. When I was planning our stay the airbnb options were not only ridiculously cheaper than the hotels, but they were also more spacious compared to even some of the 5 star hotels I looked at. The only catch was that there was no elevator and we’d have to walk up 2 flights of steep stairs. I told Stelios this before booking and he said it was fine. To him, carrying our bags up 2 flights of stairs was light work compared to his day job.
We settled in and set out to explore the town. Cefalu is a small enough town where you can just wander down all of the streets and get lost (without actually getting lost). At first I was a bit overwhelmed by the crowds since it was mid October which is supposed to be the “shoulder season”. Even the beach was pretty crowded, nothing like local summer back home. I can’t imagine how busy and packed it must get in the summertime.
We stopped for a frozen treat and shared a frozen pistachio and hazelnut cannoli (which is basically just gelato inside of a cannoli). We decided to follow the road along the coast away from the main part of town and saw signs for a boat rental. We walked down to the marina to see if they had any jet skis available to rent tomorrow but they said it’s too late in the season and they had stopped doing jet ski rentals. They did however have an option to rent a small boat for the day for 25€ an hour (apparently in Italy you don’t need a boating license to drive small boats with a 40cc engine). I looked at Stelios, turned to him and said, Skipper Stefania is ready – let’s do it! I’ve driven my dad’s boat enough to know how to drive a boat, I should honestly just take the test at some point and get my actually boating license. To me the trickiest part is getting it in and out of the boat slip without hitting other boats, but it wasn’t a busy marina, and I felt confident enough that I’d figure it out. I can’t wait for our boating adventure tomorrow!
We walked back to our Airbnb to shower and get ready for our first night out in Cefalu. We stopped at an enoteca (wine bar) for a pre dinner drink but the wine wasn’t that great and it was very warm inside. So we finished our glasses and continued strolling. We popped into an Italian gourmet store that sold Pistachiocello and bought a small bottle to try, popped it, and continued walking. We are thoroughly enjoying the open container policy here.
We finished the bottle and grabbed a table at an outdoor wine bar on a lively street. I said “Ciao” and the worker thought I was Italian because he responded with a slew of words in fast Italian and I replied “inglesse perforve”. He said “oh sorry you look and sounded Italian”. I was flattered & told him yes I’m Italian but only speak English. We ordered a glass of pistachio crema, passito of pantelleria to try something new, and an espresso martini to share. (We’ve concluded that the espresso martinis are not very good in Sicily, but I can’t tell if it’s because they use cheap vodka or add to much sweetener or both. The waiter asked if we wanted a snack and we told him no thank you, we had dinner plans at Triscele shortly. He told us that was an excellent choice for dinner and told us to enjoy.
Our walk to dinner was further back into town and brought us up a street we hadn’t been down yet. We arrived at Triscele at 9pm and again the waiter assumed I was/spoke Italian again until I said English please. They told us our table wasn’t ready yet and gave us a complimentary round of Prosecco while we waited. I heard a lot of Italian chatter which indicated there were quite a few locals here. By 9:20 we were seated and ready to eat. We ordered the octopus appetizer, prawn ravioli, and a short tubed pasta dish that was a traditional sicilian dish that was the clear winner. the pasta was SO GOOD. We also ordered dessert but I had a small bite because I was so full from the pasta. After dinner we walked down by the water to see if there were any bars playing music but everything seemed to be closing down for the night by midnight. We walked back to our Airbnb for a good nights sleep. Overall an excellent first day in Cefalu.
