Will Monroe

We all woke up this morning around 7:30am or so after staying up quite late.  All of us were up until 10:30pm.

We made arrangements for a trip to Vulcano and Lipari tomorrow. E took the time to mock up boats and volcanoes to prepare us for the trip.

E and I on one of the balconies in our apartment, getting dressed. We have a washer and our clothes are soaked as soon as we leave the house. We dry them on the rack to dry, being careful not to drop them below.


We walked to a small grocery store about 1Km away from our apartment, using the rolling grocery tote left for us. Just one of the many handy things left by the owner of our apartment.

After that, we took to the beach.

Traversing a beach full of Italians (and foreigners) feels tricky at times. While we enjoyed many warm looks (usually due to our children, especially I), we received a few looks that were very territorial. “Are you actually going to place your foot there?”

We are walking several miles a day in the heat. And this wipes out these little bodies and mine too for that matter. We all sleep it off during the early afternoon, like the rest of Cefalù.

The kitchen in our apartment. I made some coffee while everyone slept. K came down from upstairs to enjoy it with me.

We had these sesame-coated cookies that K picked up with our coffee.

This photo does’t capture this well but the apartment has all of these fascinating little views and scenes from the numerous windows looking out on all sides.

After losing power for a few minutes during the hottest part of the afternoon, we set out on a walk. There is always some pleading with the kids to try to be quieter as we leave through the courtyard.

After E mentioned volcanoes and boats again this morning, we decided to go ahead and schedule a tour of nearby islands, Lipari and Vulcana.

The day began with a short (1KM) walk to the Palermo Train Station down Via Maqueda. We ended up in the same cafe we visited yesterday.

E’s little stuffed animal goes with her everywhere.

Getting to Cefalù by train was easier than we thought. We arrived at te train station to find that our scheduled train was leaving later, much later. But K was quick on her feet and found out that we could leave in 10 minutes.

Once we arrived in Cefalù we rolled up to our room and immediately left to get a bite to eat. After that, we got suited up and headed down to the beach.

If you (can) hear a scooter engine, you better step out of the way.

The kitchen in our apartment. E said that he would eat salads if we had orange bowls at home.

One view from our window includes the dramatic rock face of the cliff overlooking Cefalù

The view from our window includes this courtyard with lots of interesting things going on at night.

Nine hours. And E slept pretty well. We took out the big guns for the Ryan Air flight to Palermo. We pretty much fell apart on that flight. Five minutes later, E was out like a light. We still went out to look around. What’s that? Just a boat on cinder blocks.