Just a stone’s throw over the Mediterranean from Italy’s “toe,” Sicily is one of the country’s most beautiful regions and enjoys a distinct character. It’s got a bit more of a laid-back vibe than the mainland, in our experience. You’d be hard-pressed to find any business open between the hours of 1 -4 p.m., for example, when Sicilians take a leisurely lunch break. We fell in love with Sicily’s landscape, cuisine, and culture during a month’s stay in October. Here are a few things we noticed about it.
#1 Many small towns and lots of traffic!
Sicily has a population of 5 million, and just 700,000 people live in its largest city, Palermo. So, most of the island is composed of smaller towns. Unfortunately, this seems to mean that everyone owns a car. From Noto to Siracusa, we were surprised at the amount of traffic on the roads. Towns are relatively close together, so driving to one place to get to a hardware store and another to buy garden supplies is part of life. It all makes for a lot of vehicles, down many narrow streets.
#2 But, everyone shares the road
My hometown of Winnipeg is extremely vehicle-centric. Drivers tend to think that roadways are for them exclusively and that pedestrians and cyclists are intruders impeding the speediest way from point A to point B. Heaven forbid the city installs a bike lane taking valuable space away from four-wheelers. In Sicily, narrow and winding roadways mean that you HAVE to drive slowly. You need to stop to let other drivers angle park and come down the street in the opposite direction. On our cycling tour, I initially felt super stressed when riding down a road that did not allow the space for vehicles to pass me. I thought the drivers would be fuming; I was ready for a honk or an angry shout out. It never happened. Delays are expected, everyone has to accommodate everyone else using the road, or the system would fall apart. I never did quite get used to it.
#3 Men congregate on the streets to socialize, but women don’t
I noticed this among mostly older men. We routinely saw groups of 5-6 older men hanging out on a street corner or at a storefront, apparently engaged in discussing the day’s events over an espresso. I didn’t notice this among women. Steve joked that we didn’t see women just “hanging out” because they were too busy “getting sh#t done.” Ha! Maybe that’s true, or perhaps older women hang out together in less public areas.
#4 There are very few multinational chains
Other than McDonald’s and Burger King, we didn’t see many North American chains. We saw a few of the usual suspects on the retail side (Zara, H&M, Aldo), but even those were limited. It was nice because who wants a homogenous world?
#5 The weather is impossible to predict
The accuracy of weather forecasting is obviously not limited to Sicily, but it was terrible during our month’s stay. Our weather apps would predict rain all day, and we’d get sun and vice versa. A couple of local Sicilians we spoke to did say that the weather was abnormal this fall–cooler and less predictable. Maybe climate change is the culprit. Despite having no background in meteorology, we also hypothesized that mountainous areas might make forecasting more difficult. We often saw heavy rain clouds over a mountain that didn’t travel over to where we were.
Have you visited Sicily? Let me know if you noticed any of the same things or others you’d like to share.
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What a great post with such fantastic pictures!!! Laughed out loud at Steve’s comment as to why women don’t hang out. I get your feeling of dread at holding up traffic even though it sounded like people there really did expect it. We drove an RV to BC and along the mountain roads I was very conscious at holding up traffic. I pulled over a lot to let people pass.
Thanks, Andrea. Those women are hanging out somewhere, I’m sure. 😉