Kathleen Ennen
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   November 18, 2024

We departed Catania today on the bus to Pozallo.

To explain the transit gremlins mentioned in the FB post: We decided to walk the 8 minutes down to Borsolini Sq to catch the bus to the bus/train station. We had been here before; we had gotten off the LEX bus from the station to the flat the other day, and then when unsuccessfully looking for the loop bus we walked here to catch the Sunday one-way looper. All good.

Only now we are on a time schedule to get to the station and find the AST bus to Pozzallo. We see a bus with a number not indicated by google maps, but says Stazione Centrale. On we get. ONLY it’s going the wrong way!!! We have no idea how soon the first stop is going to be and we hope we can hoof it back to Borsolini in time to find another bus going in the correct direction.

It’s not too bad, probably a 5–7-minute walk. And there before us is the LEX now going to the station. Phew….  Of course, when we get to where there are several AST buses finding the correct one isn’t easy. As we ask several drivers, who keep giving vague or incorrect details, a woman points to one of the buses and indicates it’s the one to Pozzallo.  She gets on too.

It’s a pretty ride, though the traffic in the first 20 minutes is slow going. Once we make the stop at the airport we make our way. The countryside is rolling, lumpy and there’s a massive oil refinery operation near the sea about halfway and there seems to be a very high ridge, or rift, to the west of the highway. It wouldn’t surprise me with the history of Etna, that there is more earthquake related evidence in areas of Sicily, such as rifts and faults.

We walk to a large plaza to wait for our host to let us in and hand over the keys. I thought we had a view of the plaza but “city view” in the booking details is looking out onto a very small street behind the plaza. Oh well. We’re here a short time.

We settle in a bit and go for a walk for our main meal. Lots of restaurants are closed for the season or closed until later in the day. We find Moka Bistro and a terrific group of servers. The glass of wine was one of the best we’ve seen here. We admired the enormous pomegranates on display for juice. We had a main meal with either veal steak and salad for Thom and a spaghetti/meat/mushroom dish and salad for me.

We then walked. Found the beach areas – some were just rock and others had some sand. We got about half way to the ferry which is over a mile from the flat.  We found a market that was open and got more nespresso pods as we were only provided 4. Not nearly enough!!  Also got some biscotti cookies.

We walked back along one of the main streets and encountered the Maritime Society. Thom wandered in and the collection of gentlemen outside smoking started asking us questions. We talked about boats, and I showed a picture of mine. They said very nice. Then I got a picture of boats of the others. One of them, the most proficient in English, drives a tug. He also has a blue boat very similar to mine and I complimented it. Most of the men there were vessel captains – tankers, freighters, and one drove a Exxon tanker. Others worked on the engines. We went inside and had our photo taken with everyone. It was suggested we go to the bridge of the ferry and show the captain the photo as he frequents the MS often.

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   November 19, 2024

Writing while on the ferry to Malta.

Today turned out to be a fun day. I had thought when I learned that the ferry didn’t go to Malta at 2pm, as it does during the regular season, that departing at 7pm would be annoying. I last checked on the ferry schedule when booking the flat and didn’t look again until I needed to by the tickets.  Late departure and late arrival in Malta.

As it turned out we had a nice slow day in Pozzallo and enjoyed good food and a nice walk along the waterfront and beaches.  It’s a pretty, quiet, and fairly clean big town, small city. We had a late checkout at 11 and went to the bistro we ate at yesterday. The food was great, and we really liked the servers. Especially Frederica, or Freddy. We had a good sturdy breakfast of eggs, bacon, focaccia toast with squirty cheese and salad. I requested the fresh squeezed pomegranate juice that was wonderful.  I don’t know if we’ll see it in Malta, and if not, I’ll miss it.

I went in search of gelati after a suitable 45-minute wait after breakfast. I hadn’t had it yet and we are now leaving Italy so I better get some. The artisanal shop was closed so I had to settle for a shop across the street from the Moka Bistro. It was a rich dark chocolate and pretty tasty!

We started the walk to the ferry port area around 12:30. The ferry departs at 7 and people can start boarding at 5. We got there around 2:30-3pm. It was a 40 minute walk that we broke up into 10-15 minute segments. We sat to observe the windsurfers for a while. There was a spot where some old boats were near the sidewalk and tied down to hooks in the concrete surface.

Once at the port, we sat near the little café that didn’t seem to offer much. Finally, around 4 pm passengers and ferry “officials” started showing up. We were able to start boarding a little before 5 and were the first to get onto the ship. We stowed our luggage on a luggage wagon before climbing the stairs up.

The snack bar at the back looked comfortable so we parked there for a while. I was hungry and got a beer and a Caesar turkey roll up sandwich and a beer. Thom got a roast beef and cheese baguette sandwich and some split pea soup, along with some red wine. It was surprisingly decent!!! Good picnic food. We then decided to move to the bow area where there was a similar snack bar. 

Thom learned they are carrying about 170 passengers tonight. There’s another ferry at 8:30. Can’t imagine too many people on that sailing!

We’ll arrive about 8:40 and fortunately our host has self check-in so no one has to wait for us. Hoping to get an uber to the flat and maybe even find some groceries on the way. If not we have coffee pods for the morning and can go out for other stuff – yogurt, fruit, and cereal later.

We’ll be in Malta for 4 nights, 3 days, then off to London for 10 days. I’m really looking forward to staying in one spot for more than 4 nights!!!