Ramona and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary today by 'having lunch' with one of our favourite fictional detectives, Inspector Salvo Montalbano of the Vigata police force in Sicily.
Montalbano is the invention of writer Andrea Camilleri. Camilleri spends part of his year in Porto Empedocle, the small Sicilian port town which serves as the model for Montalbano's Vigata. Porto Empedocle also happens to be the birthplace of my mother's mother! Here we are with a bronze representation of the Inspettore, who will put any of his cases on hold while he satisfies his appetite, usually with seafood.
Since the Montalbano series has become more popular the town has adopted the name of Vigata and although we tried to find the Ristorante San Calogero that apparently is a real restaurant that Camilleri eats at in Porto Empedocle we had no luck. But a kind gentleman who saw us wandering the streets pointed us in the direction of the 'Montalbano restaurant', La Grotta di Vigatta Trattoria, where we both enjoyed the Montalbano menu until our guts were bursting at the seams. Thus fortified, we carried on to the town of Sciacca, where we are looking forward to the Saturday market which will apparently be taking place just down the street from our hotel. (where you have to pay for internet by the hour 🙁 )
Oh, and 'Get the Hell out of Gela' refers to town we had to drive through twice on our journey. It is a very industrial town that has a huge refinery as its main feature, and odorous pollution as a secondary surprise. We got stuck in a traffic jam for about half an hour as the Sicilians couldn't figure out how to create an alternating pattern around a single paving machine laying new asphalt on a bridge. But when we stopped for coffee and pastry we were treated to a guy who looked exactly like a miniature civilian version of Patrick Stewart. He came into the coffee shop and had a very animated and loud discussion/argument/discourse with the owner while we tried and failed to not look like stupid tourists. All in a day's holiday, I say.
Pic of the day: A glass of very nice rose wine from the bottle we enjoyed a couple of days ago at a nice restaurant in Ragusa Ibla. (with Ramona's new hat in the bg) Somehow polishing off a bottle of wine at lunch + a beer for me, makes us want to have long afternoon naps. We just keep blaming it on the jet lag.
