A Day at Ena

6 July 

Again Joel picked me up at the little square just down the road from the flat and this time we sat in the car for ten minutes deciding what we were to do. We agreed that we would head to Ena, in the centre of the island and billed as Sicily's highest town.   Again we would take the back route which although slower, gave us a far better feel for the countryside.  Yesterday Joel had got me to record the trip on his iphone video - every few minutes I had to film the road and the surrounding scenery - and he wanted me to do the same again today.  It seemed that once more I would be seeing a lot of the scenery we passed through the lens of a camera....

After paralleling the coast for a while we headed south and the landscape changed quite dramatically.  It was still fairly rugged but was now more rolling hills than jagged mountain and was mostly golden cereal crops; in some ways very much like home.... We stopped for a coffee and gelato in a quiet café in a tiny village to celebrate Joel's birthday (actually today rather than yesterday) and then headed on through what seemed familiar countryside.  After a couple of hours we saw Ena a mile or two off, sitting on a jutting and rocky outcrop, and we eventually worked our way up and into the town. 

First impressions were very favourable: nice market squares and clean tidy streets with a castle at one end of the town.  We decided that it would be silly not to have a beer prior to exploring.....  We chose an open air restaurant by the edge of the city with the most amazing panoramic view of the whole plain set out before us and settled in.  Halfway through our second beer a discussion broke out on the table behind us: 

three Italians arguing with their French friends who wanted to contribute to their meal before they departed while the Italians were refusing to let them.  It was all very amicable so I leaned back and suggested, in my finest Italian, that maybe they would like to pay for our beers too as it was Joel's birthday.  In short time we were on the table with them sharing friendly banter in Italian and a bit of French.  The French couple left soon after while we on the other hand were still there five hours later.... We learned that our new Italian friends were a lawyer, the head of the local Green Party in the Sicilian and European political scene plus his male secretary.  We drank more beer and shared a meal and some grappa, chatting away mostly in Italian but with a smattering of English, on the state of Sicily and the world in general.  Of course lots of stuff had to be repeated and we still didn't understand everything although I think we agreed somewhere along the line that ownership is theft, the landowners are criminal and that the revolution around the corner will be fully justified..... Seriously though, it was an education to realise the pride the Sicilians have in their land, how they view themselves as Sicilian rather than Italian, and the poverty that generally exists in the island.  When it came to our turn to leave we ended up in the same position as the French; we were not going to be allowed to pay for anything we had had from the moment we had set foot in the restaurant.  After some debate we finally accepted the situation after the Head of the Green Party told us 'I do not need your money but the people of Sicily do.  Go and spend it where it will do the most good'.  Quite touching words after the afternoon's conversation..... 

Needless to say that by this time there was no chance of sightseeing as we had to get back to Milazzo and despite opting for the quicker toll roads it was dark and late by the time we got back.  No partying tonight- school tomorrow....