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In Search of Montalbano - the ups and downs of 10 days in Eastern Sicily

In Search of Montalbano - the ups and downs of 10 days in Eastern Sicily

Old Sep 26th, 2016, 10:03 PM
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In Search of Montalbano - the ups and downs of 10 days in Eastern Sicily

First of all, a confession. When asked, I have been saying that this is my first trip to Sicily but in the interests of being complete honest [when am I anything else?] I have to let you into a secret - I have been once before. About 40 years ago on an educational cruise, along with 1000 or so other 16-18 year olds, I flew to Venice and then spent no more than a day in half a dozen places, including Taormina, on the west coast of Sicily. However my memory of what I saw is so hazy that saying I had never been before was closer to the truth, which is why I have been somewhat economical with the truth. Sorry!

My vague memories of Sicily were good ones however, so you might well be asking, why take so long to go back? After all I have been back to Venice many times since that first visit, and even managed to work another of our stops, Carthage and Tunis, into a holiday many years ago, but somehow Sicily had never called to me, until I started, along with lots of other people, to fall in love with the hill towns which form the backdrop to the “Inspector Montalbano” detective series. For those who haven’t seen it, the good [and extremely good looking] Commissario Salvatore Montalbano, played by Luca Zingaretti, lives and works in the far south-east corner of Sicily, working in the fictional town of Vitaga, [in fact an amalgam of several different towns] and living on the coast in “Marinella” which in reality is Punto Secco, a nearby coastal town. The opening credits are in effect a bird’s eye view of the tiny streets and superb baroque buildings of the settings of the series, and like many, I fell in love with the idea of going to visit them. Nevertheless it took me several years to get there, but finally, this September, I made it, the trip being a present to me from my lovely [and long-suffering!] DH for my 60th birthday - so tons of thanks to him for his patience both before the trip, and during it!

The baroque towns were not the only places we wanted to see though - originally I had wanted to work the Greek Temples at Agrigento into our itinerary, as well as the Roman villa Casale near Piazza Armerina, Siracuse [which everyone here and in guide books too raved about] and of course Taormina, but with only 10 days, in the end something had to give, and regrettably, because it would have required at least one if not two one-night stands, we jettisoned it. In retrospect, the place which should have gone was Taormina, but to find out why, you’ll have to keep reading!

That then is the why. Now onto the how.

Living in Cornwall in the far southwest of England is both a blessing, because of the lovely scenery and equable climate, and a curse, because it takes us about 3 hours to get to our first major international airport at Bristol. But once there you have access to the vast majority of European airports, including direct flights to Catania, on Sicily's eastern coast. With only 10 days we weren’t going to be able to make it to Palermo anyway, so round trip flights were the obvious choice the only drawback being the early starts - leaving Bristol at 5.50am would mean an overnight near the airport and a return flight of 10.40am would probably involve an early wake up call at the other end too, but those were minor considerations, compared with the advantages of having the rest of the day to spend either on holiday, or getting home in good time. That at least was the theory.

Once there, we would hire a car - despite some of the horror stories I was reading, I was confident that we would manage this with few difficulties, both of us having many times driven on what my dad used to call “the continent”, including in Italy. Deciding which car hire firm to choose was a far harder task, as the reviews for all the car hire companies in Catania were all pretty dire, so we went with the one which offered the best deal, which for us was Firefly, because they included a free extra driver in the price. A potential snag was that they were located off the airport and I agonised about this for quite a long time, but none of the reviews mentioned that as a problem, so in the end we stuck with them.

Last but never least, as part of this introduction thanks must go to the kind [and patient!] fodorites who helped with the planning, particularly [and apologies if I leave anyone out] toledodd, kja, marija, thursdaysd, mimar, bon_voyage, BritishCaicos,gertie, Dayle, sundriedtopepo, EYWandBTV, julie, jamikins, TDudette, Mimar, julia_t, willit, immimi, progol, palatino, huggy, LucyV, sylvester; you were all very kind in giving me the benefit of your experiences, both good and bad - I hope here to return the favour.

So pack your bags, grab your passports, and fasten your seatbelts...we're off!
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Old Sep 26th, 2016, 10:44 PM
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Ok, I'm ready!!
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 12:34 AM
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Good, have been looking forward to this! But didn't we warn you about Taormina?
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 01:21 AM
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I have to track down that series, sounds my kind of show.

Sicily is definitely on my bucket list, have read many TR's that jut whet the appetite.... Lovely gift from hubby.
I gifted myself my first Italy trip for my recent 50th
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 02:07 AM
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Can't wait for more!!
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 03:56 AM
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I'm in!
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 04:17 AM
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Let's go!
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 05:49 AM
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I'm in too! This sounds just like the holiday I want to do - and for the same reasons. Love Montalbano and always drool over the scenery as well
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 07:52 AM
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Truly looking forward to reading your report, annhig! Your descriptions are always the best!
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 09:57 AM
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Good, have been looking forward to this! But didn't we warn you about Taormina?>>

yes, thursdaysd, you did. But foolishly we thought that by staying in Taormina we could avoid the worst of the crush, in which we were successful. What we had not reckoned on was the stress of getting there!
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 11:03 AM
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Looking forward to this especially the foodie bits.
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 03:41 PM
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I hate to display my ignorance, but isn't Taormina on the EAST coast of Sicily? You said it's on the west coast.
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 04:06 PM
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Glad you found the input helpful, annhig!
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 10:16 PM
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annhig- hope you see Lucca swimming !!!!!
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 10:54 PM
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annhig, so looking forward to reading about your experiences, what you loved and also why you didn't like Taormina, where hubby and I had a great relaxing time at the Villa Schuler.
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Old Sep 27th, 2016, 11:23 PM
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I hate to display my ignorance, but isn't Taormina on the EAST coast of Sicily? You said it's on the west coast.>>

I get the impression that you're not in the least bit ignorant of Italian geography, waldo, but you're right, I mistyped west, when of course, Taormina is on the east coast of Sicily. Thank you for pointing that out.

Anyway, thank you and everyone else for your interest. I started the TR proper last night but fell asleep over my laptop [through tiredness, not because I'd bored myself rigid!].
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Old Sep 28th, 2016, 06:06 AM
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I'm an ardent fan of Montalbano, and have been for as long as it has been on TV. The greatest satisfaction I get is being able to completely understand it in the Sicilian dialect, not looking at the captions. I was raised with Sicilian grandparents, and they spoke and acted the same way as much of the people on the show. Lots of the little innuendos in the language and strictly Sicilian gestures are lost in the translation.
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Old Sep 28th, 2016, 06:59 AM
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Hi Waldo - I'm sure you're right about the translation missing the nuances of the language; sadly I think that's probably always true of subtitles.

Sometimes even I with my limited italian spot differences and jokes that don't come across from the english words; I have also read some of the stories in Italian though often I come to the end and realise that I've got everything completely wrong and have to read it all again!

Nevertheless IMO the series manages to capture the atmosphere of these hill towns and their arid surroundings as well as the foibles of the inhabitants, and it was all too easy sitting in the square below the Duomo in Ragusa to picture some of the scenes from the books. They are definitely places to which I would like to return when I have more time [and perhaps when it's not so darned hot!]
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Old Sep 28th, 2016, 08:45 AM
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Like you, annhig, I´m going against all the advice and will start my Sicily visit in Taormina. We've got a lovely hotel, at least based on reviews here (Villa Schuler) and will take a transfer from Catania airport to the hotel. It has some sentimental value for me since my recently deceased mom raved to me about it from her trip back in the 60s (I know, I know, but we will only spend two nights there, just a day to get over jet lag). I have heeded your advice about driving, so we will take a train from Taormina to Siracusa/Ortygia, spend three nights there, and only then pick up our car to head for the Baroque towns and the west. Hopefully this will reduce some of the less pleasant driving moments.

Looking forward to everything you have time to post before we leave in 9 days!!! And thanks for your help in my preparation as well.
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Old Sep 28th, 2016, 12:58 PM
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Settling in for another entertaining and informative annhig trip report.
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