Palermo was so much fun let’s go back!!  Well, let’s just drive through it on our way further west to see more of Sicily.  The plan was to take the back roads on the way west and then return via the autostrade later in the day.  Getting through the craziness of Palermo was interesting for a short stretch.  The flow in the direction we were going was at a standstill for some reason that we never did figure out.  This caused the drivers behind us to drive in the left lanes, going head to head with oncoming traffic.  So the picture is, we are standing still next to the double parked cars.  Oncoming traffic is next to my left side as it passes their own line of double parked cars.  Then the folks behind me decide that since they want to turn left a bit up ahead, they can drive on the far side of the oncoming traffic and then make the turn.  No traffic lights, stop signs, or cops.  Yeah a few horns were honking and there were some hand gestures that had various meanings but amazingly no bent fenders.  We shook our head sat still and eventually got past the hiccup.

On to the “backroads”.  These are two lanes roads that meander up the hills in sharp switchbacks and go through the center of numerous small villages.  Because of the extremely narrow roads, and street parking which is common in most of the small towns, household trash has to be taken and deposited in dumpsters sporadically placed along the roadside.  We had this up at Lake Como and it is the system in Cefalu also.  It seems to work pretty well but is a surprise to see people stop, hop out of their car and deposit their trash bags and recycling.  We were shocked after leaving Palermo that the usual stand of 6 small dumpsters was quite often completely overwhelmed with bags of garbage lying in a heap.  It sometimes stretched beyond the dumpsters for 50 yards or more along the roadside.   This went on for mile after mile.  We were totally confused since we had been told by so many people how beautiful Sicily is and this just did not fit with what we had expected.  It struck us as similar to the images we see when some big city trash hauling union goes on strike and the trash piles up.

We did eventually get through this and I will say that as we proceeded west the country changed to vineyards, olive groves, and plowed fields awaiting planting.  Throw in a sprinkling of thousand foot high rock outcrops, old stone walls defining field outlines and ancient houses, and a much more picturesque landscape surrounded us.  We visited the monochromatic town of Erice and bought a few pieces of wonderful pottery before finally heading back to Cefalu for the evening.

The narrow and uniquely designed roads and pavement in Erice.

We are way up above the valleys through which we traveled. More switchbacks to drive.

The requisite town castle!

Everything in the town, with the exception of the bench slats, was made from the same very pale grey limestone. There was very little variation in color anywhere.

.

.

We did not buy this large vase but there are some items being shipped to Texas.

Wide loads go elsewhere.

There is that cute girl smiling at me again.