Regroup

Thank you everyone for your notes, texts, calls. Mike my Hero got us out of Sicily so fast my head is still spinning.

I barely slept Wednesday night and the sun never came out yesterday morning. When I peaked out the curtains onto what should have been a beautiful square overlooking a theatre, it was rainy and dreary like my sullen mood. The hotel clerk had taken the time to walk Mike outside the night before to show him the actual bus stop after hearing about what had just happened. Yet yesterday morning, when I asked the morning clerk if the bus was free, no 6 euros. No problem, do you have tickets? No, and he pointed to a green car. ?? Then he walked Mike to the car, tapped on the window, and a guy sold us 2 bus tickets. It was just weird and confusing.

From the bus we could watch the gridlock morning traffic. Children were trying to get to school and no one stopped. The bus driver blasted his horn at one child. A 12 year old boy had his 7 year old brother’s wrist and guided him across 6 lanes of cars. It just felt like no one cared about anyone.

But we got to the airport fine and waited for our 55 minute flight to Rome. Mike then got us to a high speed train from the airport to Florence. A smooth 150 mph took us across the countryside further away from Sicily. I booked an AirBnb while on the train. A bit of confusion because the hot water was out in the old building, but it worked out. It was so cold but Mike found our place and tricky codes to get in the building. It took about 30 minutes to get it together when we arrived–no WiFi, TV remote was not working, very cold in apartment……our host was amazing and through messaging we got it all worked out.

I was trying so hard not to be a big baby but I was so tired and cold and I didn’t want to go out; if I was here alone I just would have gone to bed without eating. Mike set out and brought back wine and microwave Italian dinners that were as delicious as the food we had in Rome, or so it seemed.

It was one of those crazy moments in life where you rehash it over and over–what happened? where did he come from? why didn’t I see him? why didn’t he leave? what if I wasn’t wearing my thick coat? were the girls who helped ok? why didn’t I keep screaming? should we have left so abruptly? why did I have my purse visible? where were the police? And sadly, would we come back to try to find our Undiemes–No. I would never go back,

Bad luck, but I was ok. My elbow is scraped up and sore, but my throat is better thanks to my amazing coat. I had my purse around my thick hood but under my backpack straps. I’m not sure how he thought it was going to come off or break. Maybe last night over our wine was the last time we will talk about it for a while.

I slept for like 9 hours and was awakened by beautiful church bells. The sun is out and it will be 50 degrees when I finally head out. Mike the Amazing is out in the cold trying to do laundry, which I would feel guilty over but truth be told he loves the cold and loves to do laundry. And now we just saw on the news that SIcily is getting a terrible storm with huge waves slamming over the road. It felt like we escaped.

I feel like I have lost all my toughness that you need to enjoy this type of travel, but maybe I can find it again in Florence with the only Undieme in Italy that matters.