Hello From Sicily - Goodbye Vulcano, Dolphins, Tunas, And Hello Milazzo

The days on this sailing trip are so compressedadventures in store for us.
and amazingly full of diverse experiences: wakingWe were all in the back of the boat when
yesterday in beautiful Lipari, followed by a drivingHerbert, our experienced TV travel journalist,
tour of this, the largest Eolian island. Then ourcalled us excitedly and said "Dolphins! Come on,
journey continued to Vulcano, where we had ansee the dolphins". Sure enough, we all scrambled
intense Italian lesson, followed by a nourishingto the front of the boat and there were four
on-board dinner and candlelit evening of soulfuldolphins, swimming beside our boat, swimming
music, provided by two of our shipmates. Thereahead of us left and right, jumping out of the
are hardly words to describe the intensewater, and generally playing with us. Herbert
sensations that one experiences on a trip soexplained that they hear our voices, and being the
outside of the norm.curious, playful creatures that they are, they
Today was going to be our last day at sea, timecome say hello to accompany us for a while.
was passing just so quickly. We got an early startThese four graceful grey creatures were
this morning at about 8:30 am, and using thebeautiful, and all of us were in awe at this
dingy, our trusted skipper Francesco ferried us onunexpected display. The dolphins swam and
land from our location in the bay in front of Portojumped alongside our boat for about 5, 7 minutes
di Levante. The plan was to hike up the mountainuntil they had enough and swam off in a westerly
of Vulcano to the "Gran Cratere" (the Greatdirection. I had caught everything on my camera
Crater) to see an active volcanco up close.and made several video clips and was still tickled
After a brief morning granita, the crushed icepink about this experience. For some reason,
drink that I had gotten so fond of, we alldolphins always seem like they are smiling to me,
gathered and started our ascent to Vulcano. Weand these four sleek water animals certainly
started to climb along a pathway covered byappeared to be in a great mood.
black volcanic sand that turned into a hard brownI already thought the excitement was over, but
rock closer to the top. The total ascent took onlyno, the Mediterranean had even more surprises in
about an hour and was not extremely strenuous.store for us. We had been trailing fishing lines
The view got progressively better the higher webehind our boat and with all the excitement
climbed, and from the top of Vulcano, all of thesurrounding the dolphins we had basically
seven Eolian Islands can be seen.forgotten about the fishing lines until our skipper
This was my first exposure to a volcanic crater.shouted that we had made a catch. Sure enough,
Although over the last 6 months I had visited twowe saw him reeling in the line and a beautiful silver
other volcanoes: Mount Teide on the Spanishfish about 15 inches long was pulled on board.
island of Tenerife, and Mount Etna, during myFrancesco explained it was a tuna, cut the line and
current trip to Sicily, I had not seen the crater ofplaced it on the floor at the rear of our boat.
either one of these volcanic mountains. Vulcano'sI was fascinated by this, until the fish started
Gran Cratere is indeed an interesting sight: aflopping around in a panic and blood started
perfectly round indentation with a higher wall onspraying from its gills. That's when my tender
the south side, surrounding the crater like avegetarian soul said it had enough and I retreated
natural amphitheatre. Sulphur fumes emanateto the front of the boat. I just couldn't watch this
from fissures in the yellow-orange rock. Warningsfish flop around, spraying the whole back of the
advise you to stay away from the noxiousboat with its blood, trying to fight for its life. Our
fumes. I just caught a whiff of a sulphur cloudcaptain put it out of its misery, cut off its head
and it was so strong it almost took my breathand gutted it right there. I just caught a quick
away.glimpse, but the dripping red innards of this poor
One of our travel mates, our shirtless Catholictuna had me completely grossed out.
priest Lorenzo, trekked up all the way to theYou might think that the excitement might be
back wall of the crater and waved to us from aover now, what with the dolphins and the tuna
couple of hundred meters away. Tourists of allcapture, but no - the ritual repeated itself two
shapes and sizes were starting to congregate atmore times: we caught two more tunas and I
the top of Vulcano and we enjoyed the viewwisely stayed away from the decapitation and
from the top for about 20 minutes. Of course theevisceration scene. At any rate, Francesco had
descent was much faster than the ascent, it onlycaught three nice-size fish and said that he was
took us about 20 minutes to get back down intogoing to bring them home as a special treat for
the village of Porto di Levante.his two year old son Davide.
We arranged to meet for an Italian lesson justA short while later at about 7:30 pm we arrived
shortly after noon and had about half an hour toat the harbour of Portorosa, and Francesca and
explore the waterfront around Porto di Levante.Davide, our skipper's wife and son, were already
The main feature in the area is a big volcanic rockwaiting to welcome us. Davide's excited two-year
right next to some sulphurous mud baths that areold calls "papa - papa" indicated that he had
supposed to have healing properties, particularlydefinitely missed his daddy. Francesca herself said
for ailments such as rheumatism and arthritis. Forthat "papa" was indeed the first word that her
about 2.50 Euro you can get access to the mudson ever spoke. Our usually quiet captain himself
baths, and for about 1 Euro more you'll even getwas visibly elated to see his family almost after a
a chance to use the shower in this fenced offweek at sea.
area. We saw various tourists frolicking in theNow it was time to get organized and unload.
rather foul-smelling mud while for me personallyFrancesco gave us a choice: we could either
the smell was a bit too much.spend one more night on the boat, or we could
While our colleagues Lorenzo and Herbert wereunload the boat, drive back to the apartment
going to have their lesson on the sailboat inwhich is located conveniently right above the
another location, us three ladies were going toLaboratorio Linguistico School, and go for dinner in
study Italian with our teacher Franco on theMilazzo.
outdoor terrace of a bar overlooking another bayWell, this was a no-brainer. After almost a week
on the island of Vulcano. I have really started toon a nice, but rather crammed sailboat with a tiny
get into this outdoor language learning experiencecabinet that served as a toilet / shower facility,
provided by Laboratorio Linguistico. It's relaxed,there was no question that all of us preferred
yet intense and effective. We spent a couple ofgoing on land. Our first priority as a matter of
hours forming conditional sentences and abstractfact, was to take a land-based shower, and
nouns from common verbs and adjectives.Claudia, Herbert and I headed to the comfort
Overall I mused that two weeks ago I spoke nostation at the Portorosa Harbour to take a
Italian, I had only been reading an Italian grammarwell-deserved, long awaited shower on terra
book for the two months prior to coming to Sicily.firma. Strange, but after a week on a sailboat
Now I was speaking Italian semi-competently atyou start appreciating the little things in life, and a
intermediate level. I have become a huge fan ofreal shower and a toilet separate from the
language study travel and of immersing myself inshower rank pretty high on the list ...
a foreign culture and language. And learning ItalianFrancesco and the rest of the gang had already
on a sailboat so far ranks at the very top of mystarted to unload the boat, and we quickly packed
language learning adventures.our stuff and help load all our luggage and the
During our studies Claudia and I grabbed someremaining food into Francesco's car. By the time
fast food from the bar, some type of calzonewe had everything organized back at the
and other quick Sicilian snacks and I could notapartment it was already about 10:30 pm, but
resist the temptation of buying a cone of deliciousthat did not deter us from having one last joint
ice cream. Along the way I admired the colourfuldinner together.
works of art made of marzipan that wereFrancesco and Franco packed us into their
appetizingly displayed in their glass cases. Nowrespective vehicles and drove us out to a
there's a another great concept: studying Italianrestaurant at the tip of Capo Milazzo, the
with a delicious cone of nocciola e limone (hazelnutpeninsula that protrudes about 6 km into the
and lemon) gelato in your hand. Just make sureTyrrhenian Sea from Milazzo. We had this entire
you don't splatter the gelato all over theestablishment to ourselves, and another Sicilian
dictionary...feast was unfolding. Fish, wine and pasta arrived in
Well, all good things must come to an end, and bylarge quantities while I enjoyed a vegetarian Sicilian
about 3:30 pm we met at the beach to getpasta with pistachios. In addition, it was
whisked back on the boat by our trusted skipperAgnieszka's 23rd birthday today, so all of us got
Francesco. Before we hopped into the dingy, ourto celebrate, and a big hazelnut ice cream cake
entire group performed a final rendition of "ummcapped off the feast.
dari dari", a song that music student AgnieszkaWe all said goodbye at the end of the evening.
had taught us a few days earlier. The men of ourSince Herbert was going to fly out tomorrow in
group provided the percussive background,the wee hours of the morning we would not have
producing sounds such as "ummm pffff psshh,a chance to say our goodbyes in the morning any
ummm pfffff pssshh", while Claudia and I providedmore. Seven days of adventures in the Eolian
a chorus of "umm dari dari dari, umm dari dari"Islands had come to an end, and I think all of us
that sounded like it would be appropriateexperienced just a tinge of melancholy. The
somewhere in Saudi Arabia, in the company of aseven of us had made a great team on board:
herd of camels. Agnieszka provided the leadingClaudia, the Lufthansa flight attendant from
melody with her brilliant soprano voice. What a funGermany & my wonderful cabin mate;
and humorous ending to seven days at sea in theHerbert, the knowledgeable TV travel journalist,
Eolian Islands. Our travel group certainly had comealso from Germany; Lorenzo from the US of
together very nicely...Italian background and the coolest Catholic priest
Our last few hours on the boat had begun, wethat I have ever met; our talented singer
embarked on our voyage from Vulcano to theAgnieszka; and our two experts and teachers
town of Milazzo located at the northeastern tip offrom Laboratorio Linguistico: Franco and
Sicily, about 30 kilometers from the Straight ofFrancesco, our skipper.
Messina. I thought our week long adventure wouldMy first sailing trip had come to an end, but I still
just peter out and come to an anti-climacticfour days of discoveries left in Sicily. Tomorrow's
ending, but no, the goddess of travel had moreagenda will include Milazzo.