Cefalú

31st August to 4th September

From Mondello it is an afternoon cruise past Palermo Bay (this time we made no detour into the bay, no overnight stop in Palermo for dinner in one of the fine restaurants in Piazza Marina) to reach the anchorage at Zafferano, on the far side of the bay before nightfall... our arrival planned for after the day boats have gone home so that we didn't have to struggle to find a good spot. It worked perfectly and we passed a quiet night at anchor, only the moon, the stars and the lights on shore to keep us company.

Next day we made our way to Cefalú. That morning, finally, we heard from Ron and Sheenagh, a message on our Spanish phone number: they were on their way to Castellammare!

From Zafferano to Cefalú is a distance of some 20 miles, an easy passage, and in no time we were approaching the town. First the huge rock that stands above the old town, then the cathedral and finally the buildings of the town, winding slowly down the hill and almost into the sea.

Now, I know it won't surprise you to learn that we like Cefalú... a lot. It is breathtaking, awesome.

When we first visited Cefalú we always anchored in the bay in front of the town and took the dinghy the short distance to the tiny little harbour. It is a lovely spot but, as the pilot guide warns, there is often a swell, sometimes untenable, and after one particularly bad night we moved round to the new harbour and discovered the wonderful anchorage there. So now, although it is a longer walk into town, that is where we go. We are behind the rock here, although it still dominates. There is the fishing harbour with a marina and, of course, summer pontoons for all the small boats, The scenery is about as good as it gets, the mountains, the villas scattered around, boats at anchor, cliffs and rocks.

The walk into town winds up from the bay and then down into the narrow alleys and streets of the old town. There you are met with an abundance of small shops.. tourists shops selling tea towels and post cards and pottery and... and... and. Then there are the food shops selling wine, and meats, and vegetables, Sicilian delicacies of all types. And the shops selling hats, antiques, clothes, jewellery. Of course, there are also bars, ice-cream parlours and restaurants. There is a terrace where you can sit and look over the small harbour. The main square is in front of the duomo (cathedral) and that is where we often sit and drink a coffee, watching people go by.

This visit we seemed to discover a lot of new parts of the town. For the first time in seven years the duomo was open to visitors. We think it may have been closed for renovations in previous years because there is still evidence of on-going projects. It is so beautiful, even in its current, unfinished state. Light and airy and cool. In summer I like nothing better than to sit in a church for a while, just sit, cool down, and enjoy the peace. Then I am energised, ready to go out and join the world again. I bought a paper that gave an excellent explanation of the symbolism in the various paintings in the cathedral. I must keep it for future visits to Italian churches because I am sure it would serve equally well for any religious painting.

From the cathedral we deviated from our usual route downwards, back through the town and instead headed slightly upwards and above the town following signposts to 'Diana's Temple'... until they ran out. We continued on, in spite of the heat, keeping in the shade, looking down over the town, over the rooftops and on down to the sea. Behind us was the rock and on top, I forgot to mention before, the old castle. Eventually we reached the last part of the road... closed Tuesday said the sign. Of course, it was Tuesday. I think we were relieved. It had been quite a climb and looked like being steeper still and we had already enjoyed some wonderful views of the rooftops and the sea so it was time to head down again.

Back in town, it was lunchtime. There are some lovely restaurants that have terraces overlooking the sea and we repaired to one of them. I had to check a number of menus before we settled (Tony would have gone to the first one...) and happily it was a good choice. We sat at a table on a small balcony off the main restaurant. Just us at our little table. Below was a terrace built out over the rocks and that is where most of the other diners were seated. No-one wanted to eat indoors on such a day.

As we ate I noticed that a number of people were passing by on the seaward side, there seemed to be a small path, but I didn't know how far it went. I asked a waiter as we were leaving and he to said that in one direction it led to the little port in the town, in the other to the fishing port. Hmmm. Could we exit that side instead of going back out into the town? We could and did.

The town is built straight out of the sea. For the most part there is only the smallest area of rock between the sea and the walls of houses, or the town wall. Some time recently a path has been made along the outside of the walls, a path made by filling gaps between rocks with concrete so that it is easy to walk along, steps have been constructed where necessary, there is even a bridge or two. After a long lunch was perhaps not the best time to tackle it, but there was a cooling breeze blowing off the sea and we were in shade almost all the time, so it could have been worse. And it was such a great walk!!! We didn't really believe that it would come out in the fishing port... and it didn't. I may have been quite glad about that as the final part of the path would have taken us along the outside of the town sewage plant...

However, having congratulated ourselves that we hadn't had to climb the long hill that leads out of town before the descent once more to the port, we were suddenly faced with a flight of steps that was, oh, one hundred times worse! Straight up they went. We needed several stops to rest and then, at the top, the bar where we always stop on our way back from town. A long, cool drink was just what the doctor ordered!

Ron and Sheenagh arrived early next morning after a night passage from Castellammare so we enjoyed a second day of exploring. The cathedral was being dressed up with white roses and ribbons... one detail was that three white roses and a trailing white ribbon were placed at the end of each pew...so simple, so effective. A wedding was to take place. It was obviously going to be quite an affair.

We visited the cloisters - another first - the lady on the door explained that it had been allowed to fall into disrepair but that it was now slowly being restored. The plans sounded fantastic, to include, among other things, a new garden. I'm looking forward to next year's visit.

Crowds started to gather outside the cathedral around four o'clock, the time of the wedding. I had forgotten that in Sicily the favourite colour for wedding guests is black. It is rare to see a woman dressed in any other colour and if she is, she certainly stands out. Such elegant outfits the women were wearing. I must mention a brilliant blue dress that was memorable for its oppulance. The wearer looked uncomfortable, perhaps she wasn't Italian... or Sicilian... (after all, the groom was from Rome we had discovered) and hadn't known the unofficial 'dress code'. We tried to guess which man was the groom... but then the guests started heading inside. The bride arrived by horse and carriage, glowing with happiness.

We wandered off, through the narrow streets, window shopping, looking up at cast iron balconies, admiring the architecture, commenting that most of the renovation work seemed to be on religious buildings, stopping for granita, and then, quite without plan, we were back at the duomo. An hour had passed and still people were waiting around. The horse and carriage were still there as was the cutest little 1950 car, bedecked in white roses, of course. People arrived with balloons... but no sign of the bride and groom emerging from the church. 'Who is getting married' asked an old lady of the town. When given an answer she sort of 'hmpphed' - obviously didn't like the family much, but like the rest of us, she waited.

When eventually the bride and groom came out, after almost two hours, two white doves were released. Then the balloons. And the happy couple posed for photos in the old car. The bride went round the guests that were standing around, accepting their congratulations, offering sparkling wine, sharing her happiness. Aren't weddings wonderful?

We wound our way back to the anchorage, back to Ganymede, and eventually shared dinner on board Ganymede with Ron, Sheenagh and Stephen and Alex, their sons. Next day we headed for Vulcano... or at least Tony and I did. The others took a longer route and stopped overnight at Capo Orlando.