I sat on the balcony and had my muesli and coffee. It was amazing, looking across the Mediterranean and south to the beaches. It was so nice I lingered, made another coffee and spent more time in the sun on that balcony.
I made checkout time by a minute, not that it mattered.
My first issue was carrying This Moment and my bags down a few flights of stairs to the main pedestrian street. The second was the route that Komoot suggested down to the coastal road looked weird. It involved more stairs and it should have simply followed the regular secondary road. I have no idea why it did that. Regardless, I followed my instincts and enjoyed the many switchbacks and the changing vistas as I descended.
It was over too soon. I think that all descents should have a level of fun commensurate with the level of pain on the way up.
And that was it for the day really. Once on the coast, the road pretty much followed it all the way to Messina. There were plenty of nice parts, plenty of mediocre parts and some that weren’t great at all.
While navigating the busy streets of Messina, I met Ralf from Germany. He’s been cycling through Europe for two years. We swapped stories and had a great chat. He’s an interesting guy too – he’s shunned social media and doesn’t have a phone, preferring to get online using only a laptop. He doesn’t have a tent either but uses a tarp. We swapped emails and I’ll look forward to following the rest of his trip. Have a great time Ralf !
I booked a really nice and quirky BnB filled with artwork and over the road from the ferry terminal. Strangely, I was the only occupant. It’s a stretch to call it a BnB, even though that’s part of its name. It’s missing the second B – no breakfast here.
For dinner, I walked down the road to Pizza Optimus which is a super friendly restaurant a few hundred metres away. The pizza was the best I’d ever had in Italy. Marcelo, the waiter and I struggled through conversations in each other’s languages. He’s a cyclist and was really interested in my trip. He and a customer had asked what I was doing in Sicily.
He was definitely the new guy here. His boss did all of the important stuff and I spoke to her later about the pizza. It’s one of the few places that prepares it in the traditional way, and I loved it.
Then it was back to the very quiet BnB for a noisy nights sleep – it’s a major road three floors below me.
And that was the end of the Sicily portion of this trip. Tomorrow, I head to the mainland.
