5:15 AM, Friday, November 4. Island, State or Country? Sicily is somewhat of a conundrum, at least in my mind, and Pam and I are here to straighten it out. Obviously, it is an island and a state but it seems islands should be countries, at least in my mind. Forgive me it’s early.
Anthony,
our B&B host, picked us up at the apartment and drove us to the Bari airport. RyanAir agents were on duty, 5:20AM, and pleasant. Observation. The mindset in Italy is much different than in Hungary.
Pam just showed me the cost of our RyanAir tickets, 45€ each and that included priority boarding fees, that’s a Euro/minute @ 400 or so miles an hour; not bad, and we’re here.
Windy and cloudy weather greeted us in Palermo but no rain, which was forecast. Other than one drizzly day our weather has treated us well. The days on the river were cloudy and cool but other than being cloudy and cool, it was very nice.
The airport is thirty minutes west of Palermo and we chose to take the bus into the city. Good choice. The road winds around the coast and gave us first views of the huge sharp edged boulders that piled up at the waterline. The terrain is mountainous with towering sheer cliffs that you know deposited the jagged rocks along the shore. 
The water is Mediterranean blue but not quite the depth of color as Amalfi. The rugged terrain surprised me; I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it is a striking landscape, and I’m glad to be here.
Stefano,
our landlord for the next couple of days, gave us email instructions a few weeks ago to get off the bus on Via Roma, cross the road to the pharmacia and look for the pharmacist, me. We did, he was, and all is good. He gave us keys, directions and sent us on our way.
Directions in far away places and further away languages, especially those that end with, “you can’t miss it”, are sure sigh, “you gonna miss it.” It is, we did, but got reoriented and found Ai Mori, 
our residence while in Palermo.
We deposited our baggage and headed out to the Palermo Central train station to get tickets for the hour ride to Cefalu. Great few hours in the steep, rocky hills 
and beautiful shoreline 
of the family home of my long-time friend John Correro.
PS: Think about it, Mississippi is an island also.
More pics:
Cefalu
Cefalu