Brigham tried to ask those around us on the bus, and the bus driver, and we figured out we were on the right bus line but headed the wrong direction. We needed to hop off and catch the same bus, but going the opposite way. We hopped off and wandered between a few stops, but the language barrier made it difficult to be really sure we were doing the right thing. We also had a food tour that day that we couldn't be late for and our time was ticking to make it to the catacombs.
Eventually, we decided to play it safe and just hailed a taxi to take us. As I watched the roads and route on the way, I was relieved we hadn't continued to try to figure out the public transportation. I think we would have made it, but it would have taken way too much time.
The catacombs definitely delivered the mummies. Over 8,000 mummies hung/laid/sprawled along the walls and passages. Some completely intact and others in pieces, the mummies were amazing, creepy, and at times overwhelming. When we got our disrespectful Mummy jokes and laughter out of the way "Imhoteeeep", my heart broke at the little children and I had a million questions to ask about many of the other mummies we saw. Unfortunately, pictures aren't allowed in the catacombs, but you can google the catacombs and plenty of images show up.
Outside of the catacombs are burial grounds for other more recent family members. My mom really liked how they bury the families together.
You can see how they put all the pictures of the different family members buried in the plot together.
Hopping on another taxi, we left the catacombs to meet in front of the opera house for a street food tour.
I never watched the TV series, The Godfather, but apparently, this is the opera house that they use when shooting a dramatic death scene.
At 10:30 our food tour began with our delightful tour guide, Marco.
We enjoyed Marco's humor and generous knowledge of Sicily. The tour was four hours long but it flew by as we walked the streets and got a glimpse of insider life as we toured the markets.
We barely walked down the street before we stopped for our first taste of Sicilian street food: veal cartilage/fat. Gross. It tasted exactly like it sounds...like you're eating cartilage. I don't know how anyone finds it appealing, but to each their own. Brigham liked it, of course.
We then began our trek through the markets.
Brimming with people and produce and all sorts of fresh foods, it was exactly what I imagined a street market to be like. We also saw many different, crazy stands of fresh seafood.
Hungry anyone??
Soon we stopped again to talk to a family who makes delicious food and we were able to see the kitchen they make it in, and some of the process. It seems like everything is a family business in Sicily - that's how you survive. They work long, hard hours, but they do it together.
We ate fresh arinchina (fried rice balls with meat and peas inside, delicious!) chickpea bread, and fried potato balls with mint and parsley (good). The arinchina were the best out of all the food we tried by far.
We learned how bakers lower buckets with bread in them to customers who then put money into the bucket in payment before it's pulled back inside the apartments. Another family business where they spend day after day working together to earn a living. If you look at the blue bucket and you see how the rails having a covering behind them, that's to keep people from looking up the women's skirts. Fascinating stuff.
Our next taste of Sicily was a flat-bread type of pizza. It basically consisted of bread with tomato sauce on it that was then warmed up on the grill. Simple and good. We were told that it's a favorite of the high schoolers to pick up as a snack on the way home from school.
We headed into another part of town and journeyed into a local bar. Brigham went with Marco to grab our food to eat and Mom and I watched the local Italian men yell and smoke and argue and drink. We had a good laugh that our two, non-alcoholic, naive selves were sitting in a bar in Italy with all of these burly men. It really was a crack up.
Brigham returned with Marco and we feasted on cheese and focaccia, I tried green olives (DISGUSTING) and an Italian coke (surprisingly decent, but I was pretty thirsty) while others in our group enjoyed trying wine and beer.
Marco informed us that Sicilians often leave bars in search of good comfort food and they end up at one of these stands to enjoy a spleen sandwich.
That's right, you read that correctly. A spleen sandwich. It's made mostly from the lungs and spleen of veal. It looked creepy and tasted somewhat creepy, but not near as bad as I expected. It was kind of a mushroomy-meaty squishy type experience. They compared it to a philly-cheesesteak sandwich.
Brigham devoured his, finished mine, and ate a second one all on his own. He's truly a garbage disposal and would fit right in with the Sicilians who don't like to waste anything.
After we tried the spleen, we finished our tour off with dessert.
This is no simple canollo. It was GIANT. It spanned the entire length of my hand and was stuffed to the brim with sweet ricotta cheese. It was delicious to begin with but very rich, and by the end I was begging for mercy. I think I ate enough canolli to last a lifetime.
After we finished our dessert we heartily thanked Marco and said our goodbyes as we walked back to the cruise ship. What a fascinating, stimulating day! We saw men playing an Italian card game, scopa, in the streets, and Brigham bought me a deck of cards and learned the game once we got home and enjoys playing it with my dad and Ammon. Just like the men on the streets of Sicily.
One last night on the Costa and we prepared for final disembarkation the following morning.
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