Day 4 in Sicily

From coast to coast, across an island by car in a day can be challenging at best, frustrating at least-in general for us a day " for the books"! After a continental breakfast, a brief walk up to a church, and a stop to purchase "world renown" chocolates we programmed our beloved GPS system with the Palermo airport car rental, to drop off the car before we start our biker trip.  Driving out of the Modica valley of hillside houses was majestic. Actually I was a bit sad to leave wishing we had more time to explore and especially eat once again at The Osteria, where the night before we bathed our tongues in Sicilan delights! But on to new adventures I thought, little realizing how the day would truly test us!

A day which was to take 5 hours was to stretch into 9 long hours! 

The morning and early afternoon went fairly well, GPS leading us a bit astray twice-once on a narrow road high up in the hills that had guard rails but half the road was missing, thankfully not our half! The second GPS "blunder" led our car onto a road which simply got narrower and narrower until we had to turn around and find a new route or go over the edge-not a hard choice! But these problems paled in comparison to what happened as we got close to the airport. In fact we were actually only about 45 minutes from the car rental, just entering the outskirts of Palermo when it started to rain-not just a light rain but a downpour accompanied by hail, so much we had to get off the road and try and wait it out, which we did. Our GPS seemed a bit confused again so we ventured on our own looking for the autostrada. After driving a short distance we became entangled in a traffic jam compounded by an accident which grounded us to a halt for 1 1/2 hours! Hunter, a bit ADHD, can't tolerate just sitting so when opportunity became available he drove over the median, much to my shock, and we joined oncoming traffic! ( I suddenly had visions of jail time in Sicily!) Now we were going in the opposite direction from our destination! GPS loudly protested but finally "recalculated" and we were in the heart of Palermo driving down little side roads, having to back out of alleys, and drive through rain soaked streets,where the water almost reached the doors! (Later we learned from a local that there are no storm drains in Palermo so when it rains hard the streets literally become rivers!) It took about four hours to get through Palermo to reach the airport rental where we met our contact from the biking company who took us to our hotel. So after such a day what are we doing now? Guess!