Our port day in Messina was dampened by rain in the morning, but in the afternoon, skies cleared enough for us to settle comfortably into a sidewalk cafe for Sicilian pasta.
We found a small restaurant that looked like an authentic, unassuming neighborhood restaurant where they might serve an Italian grandma's best-loved recipes.
We grabbed seats at an open table but were soon directed to another a few tables away.
In a slight variation of Billy Joel's Scenes from An Italian Restaurant, we ordered a carafe of house white and a carafe of house red.
Perhaps our reputation of starting brawls after a sip of wine had proceeded us in the Mediterranean this time, because as in Malta, we had to wait a long time before any wine arrived.
Upon reminding the waitstaff a couple of times, we did eventually get served.
I remembered all of that clearly, but what did we order besides wine? And what was the restaurant name? Too much has happened since then to remember precisely.
So, Julie and I spent an inordinate amount of time this morning trying to track down the name of that restaurant and then find a menu to try to deduce what we ate.
Our sole picture at the top of this post was our only clue. Nonetheless, we managed to zero in on Osteria Del Campanile by using a mapping program with street views to look for the building in the background of our photo. Bam!
What did we eat?
While Linda's salad was obvious from the photo, I could not remember exactly what the rest of us ordered. It was pasta, definitely.
I remember that after tasting everyone's meals, Julie's had definitely been the best, so the fact that I don't know what Mike ordered is not relevant to advising you of the best dish to order should you find yourself hungry for Sicilian noodles in Messina.
It was disappointing that what I thought would be Grandma's secret recipe was more like Spaghetti-Os without the whimsical flair. Well, maybe slightly spicier than Chef Boyardee's finest, but nothing to write home about.
Julie ordered Maccheroni Alla Norma. When she read that on the online menu that she scoped out this morning, the name rang a bell. An online photo seemed to be a good match to her plate. Boom Shaka Laka!
Servings were plentiful enough where I could skip most of mine and still have enough for Julie and me off her plate.
So, if you happen to go and want pasta, choose Julie's entree.
I should have done so at the time, because in my experience, Julie often chooses the best meals at restaurants, probably honed from decades of ordering business lunches and dinners when she was a high-octane human resources executive.
There is a more extensive dinner menu, for gourmands seeking a more well-rounded feast.
This meal was a nice conclusion to our day in Sicily.
We had gotten off to a slow start that morning because of rain.
Rather than walking the lovely city as Julie and I had on a more standard sunny day three years ago, the ladies hoped to head to another beach, where ideally the clouds would part, and we'd have some Aperol Spritzes on chase lounges in the sunshine.
The Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus promised to take us out to beaches on one end of the route, so Mike secured tickets for us all.
Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but the bus had seen better days. Whoever owns this cash cow abuses the privilege. Nonetheless, the seats were comfortable and the ride kept us out of the sprinkles.
When we reached the beaches, they weren't at all like the welcoming sands of Palma Nova.
What we saw from the bus were at best little triangles of sand without chairs or amenities.
Admittedly we didn't get off the bus to search further, because it was still raining. Had we been more motivated, perhaps we could have walked a mile and found a resort still open in off-season.
The bus took us back to town, and then we took the other loop around the sites of Messina proper, again noting what a lovely town it is.
I'm not sure why we never got off to get closer looks on this day, but we did both routes included with the ticket in their entirety.
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| Photo on the Bus taken by Mike |
For a trip to Messina, I would recommend a shore excursion. Many go to Taormina, a lovely hilltop town well worth the short journey. Messina itself is a lovely city, and there is a lot to see there, and a guide can usually uncover local secrets that can be fascinating.
As a Francis Ford Coppola fan, I was tempted to take the The Godfather Tour, but no one else wanted to take that excursion this time. It was an offer they could refuse.
They told me I should go alone, and after all, when on an excursion, you find yourself among people who share your interests. But then I would have missed spending time with them, gleaning special memories.
One that will stay with me was when we passed two young ladies dressed to the nines posing for each other's photos and Mike jumped into one of the photo setups to strike a pose like a Roman god next to the model. They cracked up.
I wish I had a photo of that, or better yet a video.
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| Either you know why this photo is included, or you don't. |
Select Photos by Mike and Linda
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