Well, what a trip that was!
It all started last week when we found out everyone had a 4 day weekend. We wanted to leave on Friday but there was so much drama going on that it didn't happen. After lots and lots and lots of searching, I found Baglio Pocoroba Segesta on www.agriturismo.it. This is a pretty neat website in finding agriturismo's around us. For those of you who've never heard of this, it's basically like a bed & breakfast but much more, depending on where you go. Here it Italy it is usually a farm and the place you're staying has a story behind it as well as interactive things you can do. Ours, I have no idea except it said educational. At the time, going here sounding great. It looked pretty and was a decent price.
Getting there was probably the most interesting part. We were emailing back and forth with Giuseppe Pizzitola, the owner, about staying there. We were going through the website which was translating everything for us. Then he emailed us directions without the website. Cool. This dude speaks a little English and it won't be too bad. We book the place for 3 days, 2 nights and start packing.
Here's the thing about me and packing. I pack everything AND the kitchen sink. This trip, probably cause I was in a bad mood and being rushed all at the same time, I failed to do so. Because of this, it cost us over an hour of driving in the city Alcamo and 60 euro. I'll come back to this.
Another snafu BEFORE we left was that Chris didn't realize we were staying as long as we were. So when he found out, we had to stop and buy him new clothes. Which probably isn't a bad thing because I can't remember the last time I switched out his underwear.
Finally we're off.
"You know where we're going?" he says. "Sure," I say, "I have it right here from the website. I just copy and pasted it in your "maps" on your iPad. We're good." ....right?? I mean, I got it FROM THE WEBSITE. How hard can that be??
Along the way we stopped at a "rest area" on the highway and took some pictures of the Tirreno Sea. We're looking towards Santa Flavia, Sicily. It's soooo beautiful out there. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to seeing such blue water.
It's pretty chilly out. This is the first time we realized the girls had no jackets, or sweatshirts, or even a long sleeved shirt for Matti. Oh well. Moving along.
We're driving along and the navigation tells us to exit left. We exit left. We drive through this cute little town called Castellammare del Golfo. Water is gorgeous. Mountains are beautiful. We're feeling really good about this! "Turn left" it says. "Follow here" it says. I really hate that I didn't take pictures of the next thing that happened. I don't think we'll ever be put in that situation again. When we went to Taormina we went through alleyways that you could barely fit a piece of paper between our car and the wall.
This time we pushed our poor little car to the limits. Do you wanna know what "Mazda Protege" means in Italian??? It means "ONE BAD MAMMA JAMMA!" This car can go ANYWHERE and this trip it went four-wheeling up the side of a friggin mountain. At first, it seemed OK. We turned left like it said. The road looked like a rocky driveway. We could see this yellowish house up at the top. "Maybe this is it??" So up we go. And we keep going. AND going. AND going. Chugging along, there's no stopping and no end in sight. As we're going we see a tiny "pull off" so Chris pulls over and stops. Unfortunately, if we want to go back down we have to go ALL the way down in reverse because it wasn't big enough to turn around. He attempted it. OK, keep going up. Please. Go. What??? Why can't we go. Oh, duh, switch it over to 4x4. Oh yeah, that's right. We're in a stinkin MAZDA PROTEGE!!!!!! So with a little love, my amazing husband four-wheeled our car up more. We finally reach the top only to find out there's actually a paved road that we could have taken. "DOH!!" Thanks map App! Appreciate that one!
After checking to make sure we didn't have any blown out tires or holes in our car, we keep following the app. The road it's taking us on now isn't much better. But at least it's not rock climbing like the other road we were on. I think the best thing I've ever heard from the navigation came next: "You've reached the farthest you can go in your car on your destination. Find a place to park and walk the rest of the way." WHAT?!?!!? ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDING ME?!?!?! WALK?!?!?! We're literally stopped on the side of this mountain on a road that does NOT lead to our destination. At this point I just want to cry. I pull up the website and call the man. His English is OK. He tells me "ah yes, your about 25 more minutes from my house. Keep coming till you see Segesta. I see you then. Ciao, Ciao!!" .....please don't cry, please don't cry... After some deep breathing, I pull up the last email he sent which didn't make a lick of sense. I started looking for Bruca via Segesta on the map. After putting in Bruca, I realize it's the name of the town where we need to be, which is NOT what the website says. They don't use addresses over here like we do. It's different. I can't explain it. It just is. So off we go.
Finally we're heading in the right direction. His broken email makes more sense. Ok. Here we are. Crap, which way do we go now??? He said "you see my yellow sign. Follow it. That will take you to my house." I guess he didn't know there were about 7 different yellow signs, none of which say "Baglio Pocoroba Segesta." Or at least I didn't see it. I found out later Chris saw it. So we follow a yellow sign that said "Baglio Segesta." I mean, how can this be wrong. The only word missing is "Pocoroba." How many Baglio Segesta's can their be? This is what we found...
That can't be right. Please God, don't let this be right.... I didn't take any pictures of it, but the cows that were right beside the house were covered in muck from all the rain and clay. The house looked very very old (most of them are) and it definitely was NOT the beautiful yellow that was recently renovated, like it said on the website. But hey, what do I know? The website directions had us rock-climbing in our car and hiking 10 miles to our final destination. So I pull out my phone and call Giuseppe again. He decides he's going to get in his "crappy white Land Rover" (his words, not mine) and come find us. We head back down to the autostrada and find him. I guess he's never seen what a crappy white Mazda Protege is, cause his definitely wasn't crappy. And I can tell you, I was extremely excited to see him and that he didn't come from the scary little house we thought was his. Luckily what I prayed was his house when we were scanning the area was, in fact, his house. Not only that, it was on the other side of the mountain from where started. Hahahaha. That would have been a very long and dangerous hike.
So,
Lesson number 1: Don't pack when you're pissy. You'll forget stuff and that'll cost you in the end.
Lesson number 2: COMMUNICATE to your loved one how long you're staying to not only save you money but save you time from not having to go clothes shopping.
Lesson number 3: If it looks scary, it IS. Turn around and don't go there.
This all brings us to Lesson number 4: When traveling in the colder, winter season check for HEATER in the description. I saw AC and assumed it meant AC/Heat. Well, we all know what happens when you assume something.
Everything was great. We were greeted by the cutest dogs and a great staff. We immediately had espresso's and biscotti's. The girls started warming up to the people and started smiling. (Chrissy had been crying and throwing a fit about halfway down the 4x4 mountain and had just fallen asleep about 5 minutes before we made it to the place.) They take us into our apartment and we start to get settled. I think because everything over here is tile and concrete, everything will always be freezing. We keep the heaters on at the house FULL BLAST all the time. I have it set on 76 here and it stays chilly once the sun goes down. Chris bought me an electric blanket because he felt bad. Unfortunately, it's set for 110v and in Europe everything is 220v. Which actually is another lesson. We'll call it Lesson number 1 point 5: Everything that you own (IE: Blow dryer, curling iron, anything electronic) will not work when you travel unless you have an adapter or it's 220v. Of course, we didn't have either.
So as we're unpacking we notice they have 1 "heater" mounted up on the wall in the main room. I think it would keep the size of ... a hall closet... warm. Then they have a space heater going in the master bedroom. Mom, this space heater makes your "baby fireplace" seem like our nice big wood burning fireplace at home. I think you could put your hand on the blub and never get burned. This won't even keep a hall closet warm. Thank the good Lord Chris said before we left "Why don't we pack your big leopard blanket in case it's cold there." The girls slept fully clothed wrapped in a blanket and their blankets from home, a sheet, another blanket and a comforter on them. I'm not sure what Chris slept in. I slept in my thick tights (I bought them at the Catania market for 3 euro and the BEST 3 euros I have ever spent), long sleeved shirt and my thick sweater coat. PLUS a sheet, blanket, leopard blanket and comforter. I can't remember the nightmares I had (I had 2 last night) but I'm pretty sure it was because my body thought we were in Antarctica and wanted to die. Since I was so layered in clothes and blankets it knew it wouldn't happen so it was attempting to kill me via heart attack from scary dreams.
Before any of the "death by freezing" happened, we decided the girls couldn't go without coats and set off to find a store. We talked to Giuseppe and after many different hand signs and broken Italian on my part, and broken English on his part, we each pulled out our iPhones and resorted to the translate apps we had. He thought we wanted bathrobes for the kids. Ha! No. So he gives us directions. Very simple. Go here, turn here, there it is.No. Not simple. At least not for me. I always thought I was GREAT at this stuff. Chris drove, I navigated. It worked out at home. Here, not so much. He was sending us to a place that "great coat for small price." Nope. Not there. Let me google it. Nope, not there either. We stopped at a place and I found 1 man who could speak a little English. Unfortunately he wasn't from around Alcamo so he had no idea where anything is. He finally told me to just start driving around Alcamo until I found a shop that sold what we needed.
When we started it was around 5:15 pm. It was now after 6pm and dark. We're driving and driving and found one place that looked like it had kids clothes. Bimbus. Yay for Bimbus!!! Bimbus is the most expensive place on the planet Earth. We spend 60 euro on 2 outfits. That's about $80. All for jackets and sweatpants. And the sweatpants are too big. And the crazy thing, they gave them to us on sale. I'm not sure why they were so expensive but the quality seems like it something you'd buy at Walmart. Seriously. $20/outfit at Walmart would have got us the same thing.
Lesson number 5: NEVER leave home without a jacket for your kids. NEVER.
When we finally got back (7:15pm) we were starving. We all changed into nice clothes and headed to the restaurant. This Agriturismo is an educational farm and only uses what they can get from themselves. They make everything from scratch. So, we started with an Antipasto (appetizer) that had 13 different things.
Here we go:
Big Square: Pizza. Just like a big fluffy cheese pizza.
Small rectangles: Chickpeas smushed up and made into little cakes and then deep fried. Loved it! It tasted almost like hashbrowns but with a really good peppery breading.
Long Skinny Thing: He said it's the stalk from an artichoke that they cut and deep fried. I don't know. But it was good too.
Ball Thing at the end of the Long Skinny Thing: That's a deep fried cauliflower. I love that. I've made those before. They taste like tater tots!
Starting off at the bottom is slices of pumpkin. I have no idea how this was made but it was good. It's served cold with some other stuff, almost like it's pickled. It topped with salt and pepper.
Going up to the left, this is a mixture of onions, eggplant, bell peppers and carrots. This was almost pickled too and served cold. I've had this before at another agriturismo and really like it.
Now at the top is almost like the relish you get at a Mexican restaurant at home. Except, this is made with celery, onion, carrots and green UNpitted olives. Now this, take out the olives and add some jalapenos and I'm set. I vowed I'd try everything here at least ONCE and so far, it hasn't been bad. Until now. I remember why I don't like green olives. YuCk!!
Next is an orange marmalade. This was amazing as well. It's orange marmalade made from their oranges! Yummy!
Finally we end this one with cheese. He told me, it's cheese. And cheese with "whatchamacallit" in it. I have no idea what he said, but it was green and it was yummy as well.
Now for our last two:
Finally the last of the antipasto was Trippa. It was round and chewy. Not too bad. Not sure what the sauce it was in, tho. I do know it has a tomato base, just like every other sauce made in the place. It tasted a lot like calamari. I wish I would have eaten more of it before he told me what it was. Once I knew, I couldn't mind over matter it anymore. I had already eaten a yucky green olive so my stomach wasn't doing great. Trippa is.....cow stomach.
After that, the girls went back to the room and Chris and I finished our meal. I had a pasta with a carrot, garlic and some other stuff sauce. It was their "house" sauce. I had about 3 bites. Not my thing. I couldn't put my finger on what I didn't like, but it was enough that I couldn't eat it. Chris had beefsteak that was brought out sizzling like fajitas. It was cooked in rosemary and something else. He loved it. I .... eh... could take it or leave it. It was nice a fresh tho. That was nice. We ended the meal with some amazing something that had an almond crust , ice cream like filling, and phenomenal chocolate on top. The girls showed back up just in time for us to share (dang). Luckily Matti didn't like it and Chrissy bounced back and forth between us. This is the second time I've had something like this. I WILL find out what it is and learn how to make it. It's right up there with tiramisu for me.
We went to bed after dinner and froze. Because we don't have any adapters, my phone died during the night. The cigarette lighter only works when the car is turned on, so we can only charge stuff when we're in the car driving around.
Breakfast was great, but no pictures because so far I just refuse to take my nice camera into a restaurant and take pictures. I always sneak around with my phone camera. Oh yeah, another thing... I forgot a brush. So the girls and I didn't wash our hair because we couldn't brush it out. THAT was great. Let me tell ya. We're raggity-haired Americans. After breakfast we went to the Temple of Segesta (Tempio Greco) and a small theater which is around the corner. The man taking the tickets for the temple fell in love with the "blonde hair Americano bellas" and begged to take a picture with them. He said "souvenir for your blonde bellas with Antonio. That's me, Antonio." He then took our picture for us. He was so nice as was very excited when realized we lived north of Texas! He knew New York, California and Texas. Then when we left, he kissed both of my cheeks.
The temple was pretty. The views were amazing, like always. This temple was very BIG. Everything seemed oversized. I read where some say it's like it was built for giants, not people. This temple was started sometime in the 5th century BC. Several things point to that the temple was never actually finished.
The above picture of the temple is taken from up where the theater is. It's a good mile or so up there.
Lesson number 6: When they say "we leave in 30 minutes" it's 30 minutes exactly. Because of this, we got to walk over a mile down the mountain. We paid 3 euro to take a bus up the hill. It said, leave to go down in 30 minutes. We just missed the bus :( But at least we were walking down, not up.
Each temple and theater we've gone to have their own "awe" to them. You can't compare them either. The one in Taromina was just beautiful. So was this one. I didn't take as many pictures, due to the time restraint (which didn't matter anyway) but the views were just as breathtaking. Looking out with this one made me sing "The hiiilllllsss are alllivvvveee with the sound of muuuusssiiiicccc" because of the views were just beautiful rolling green hills (or mountains, whatever.). I haven't edited any of the pictures from the trip so I'm just posting a couple. Look for an album on Facebook soon. :)
I think this is the longest thing I've ever written. If you're still here, thanks for reading to the end. We went back to the agriturismo after that. The girls started feeling bad. Luckily it was only about 5 minutes from where we were staying. We had lunch (pizza, french fries, cheese and ham for the other three, I had risotto with mushrooms, asparagus, onions and carrots. AMAZING) and then the girls got sick. Which leads me to a big one...
Lesson number 7: Don't go on a trip when you're kids still aren't 100% over the stomach stuff. We thought they'd be OK, but they weren't :(
After they each had accidents, we decided it was time to go home. I couldn't stay in the ice box of a room for a day and we couldn't risk going out sightseeing with kids who couldn't make it to the bathroom when it was the next room over. So we apologetically told Giuseppe and his mother goodbye and assured them we'd be back.
The ride home wasn't bad. Chris and Matti napped but Chrissy and I chugged along. It's a good thing we decided to come home. The girls aren't much better off than they were before. At least now we're in the comfort of our own home :)
I hope you enjoyed this. This is what you get when I blog as soon as I get home. A very long, detailed description of our journey. I know the grammar isn't right and some of the spelling is off... but hey, that's me. I hope when you read it you can hear my voice and it's like I'm there telling it.
I can tell you this, we learned a lot on this trip. The girls are having a hard time finding food they like. Lesson number 8: Pack emergency food. It's even hard finding things at some of the grocery stores when we don't really know what we're buying. You wouldn't think so, but you'd be surprised.
And the last lesson: Never be afraid to call it quits and come home. Not that you should be a quitter, but we would have been miserable staying there in not only the condition of the freezing room but from the condition of our children!!
Until next time.... Ciao!!
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