This Italian Summer, Part II
An odyssey, a peculiar "hotel" with incredible views, and a very special hotel on the Aeolian island of Salina.
Today’s Agenda
An essay and hotel review two-in-one, which is a bit of an odyssey. It was all quite out of my comfort zone, but the hotel was highly affordable and incredibly photogenic, with many caveats. People have been very intrigued on Instagram, for good reason. It’s long and some may feel parts are unimportant but they were significant for me.
A review of a very special hotel on the Aeolian island of Salina, La Locanda del Postino.
Coming Soon
The second Favignana hotel review.
All about Salina (not a guide though) and specifically the towns of Pollara and Malfa.
The second, more true luxury hotel stay in Salina.
A guide to Panarea and a review for a very special hotel.
I fell in love with Filicudi and a hotel I wanted to stay at forever.
A guide for which Sicilian islands to visit for different types of travelers.
For Consideration
The perfect sophisticated white summer pant, on sale.
The coolest gift for your gardening friends.
A very chic summer H&M bag.
Two Pucci hats I’m lusting over, big time (one and two). The second was something I was going to start making, but now maybe not because they did it perfectly.
The most beautiful white skirt.
See you on Sunday, and Happy Hoteling!
Getting Out of My Italian Comfort Zone
I woke up the day I was set to leave Favignana not feeling so well. All systems were flaring and usually I’d cancel my day for such a thing, but that was not an option.
I was going to Castellammare Del Golfo, I had my same private driver set to pick me up from the ferry in Trapani and had already paid for the hotel. I had to go and it was also just time for the next stop of the Sicilian sojourn.
Mind you, I have way too much luggage. Never again, but I’ve said that for about a decade. I had a taxi driver pick me up and talked him into stopping in town while I went into an optical store to procure some contacts, while he waited. I felt like I was walking through water getting there, I was on the non-hungover struggle bus and forgot nearly all my Italian upon entry into the store. What a tragedy! But I had one single pair of contacts left and don’t have prescription lenses in my sunglasses and cannot see far without them, so I had to get it done and I did. If you know your strength, you can just walk into an optical shop in Italy and buy contacts, in case you didn’t know and are ever in need.
I procured them for some very affordable price and headed back to find the taxi. But, of course, I have the world’s worst sense of direction, and I walked twice onto the wrong street, in circles towards nowhere I needed to go. Luckily, my luggage all has air tags and the taxi had all of that so I pulled up the FindMy app to find my way. I was so far off from the right direction, it’s actually astonishing.
Homie rescued me and took me to the biglietteria (ticket office) where I got the aliscafo ticket and then got in line to board. The same guy from the inbound boat was scanning tickets and perked me up with a humorous “the American with a good accent and a lot of luggage!” But in Italian. He helped me with said luggage and I got on board. Small miracles.
Smooth sailing, I got off the boat feeling quite unwell as I met the driver — he said I looked relaxed. It wasn’t quite that but I was just grateful that he took care of the luggage and brought me to the ATM so I could pay him in cash.
The autostrada from Trapani to Castellamare Del Golfo is insanely pretty. Lots of vineyards. Windmills! I do love being a passenger, especially when the driver puts on air conditioning without prompting and toes the right conversational line.
We turned off the highway into a seaside residential area. The coast was beautiful but the neighborhood wasn’t particularly picturesque. I did Google Street View where I was going, so I expected this. I was so curious about this damn place.
This whole segment of the trip was a gamble on a view with great value. Actually, views, plural.
It turns out, this summer, I am in the business of seeking a good room with a great view. I’m going for gold and I think I have a running shot at winning.
The driver had the address in his GPS and insisted it was past where it was, but I knew what the place looked like, it’s a tonnara with blue shutters amongst a bunch of other un-notable buildings, after all. So, he turned around and I called the number I had been given, who told the driver to just open the gate. To his credit, it did have a private property sign on it. For once, I knew where I was going!
Here.
