Buongiorno!

So begins our family "vacation."

Every year around August my sister and her family would fly to the States for a month to spend with the family. This year my mother and I decided to join them - not in Zurich but in Lipari.

Lipari is one of the Aeolian Islands just north and east of Sicily. According to my brother in law the islands were apart of greek mythology along with one of the stories in the Odyssey. But Lipari itself was known for the black pottery and white pumice stone.

So our trip began with a 4am wake up call. My mother had heard there were storms back east so she changed our 11am flight to a 6am flight. Oh yeah! That gave us a 6 hour layover in Newark. Let's just say we did a lot of walking, eating and shopping. When we finally boarded our flight - we sat at the gate for an hour waiting on the pilot and then for another hour on the tarmac waiting to take off (they shut down two runways because of an incoming storm). So - we were two hours late. The beginning of a very LONG trip.

Me and Mom at the airport




Mom crashed out at a diner in Newark Airport




I wish I had really learned these ... gotta love travel books






Me and Mom on the plane ...








I love the flight maps ...




Yeah ... we didnt pull up to a gate ...




We wasted sooo much time having to wait for everyone ...













When we finally arrived in Rome it was 930am - our flight to Palermo took off at 920. When we reached the gate it was clearly gone and so we spoke to an Alitalia rep ...

Side Note: Alitalia sucks. Well not completely. These 4 people did.

The lady first told me I would have to buy two new tickets because we missed our flight. Then later retracted when she saw that Continental booked us on the next "available" flight.

Now most people know that airlines overbook sometimes ... well Alitalia does ALL the time. So if any of you ever fly it ... make sure you get there early and get a seat assignment.

So the next "available" flight was ... 11 ... yes 11 ... hours later. There were 6 other flights before then - all booked and overbooked. So it was a loooooooooooong first day. Eventually I passed out for an hour - out of shear exhaustion.









They are so disorganized there the pilot had to climb out of that window and scream at the ground crew to help out ... (yeah I missed that shot)










We finally get on our flight to Palermo and then a taxi to the hotel and finally in bed by 11pm (Sicily time) - 36 hrs later.

We walked around Palermo for a little bit ....
















... but then made our way to the port to catch the ferry to Lipari.

Mmmmm chocolate ....




There wasnt enough room on the boat for everyone;s luggage ... we were the first people on - so we didnt have a problem. :D









It took 4 hrs to get there. Stopping at some of the other islands first - Alicudi, Filicudi, Salina, Vulcano ...

We were greeted by the family. Our luggage sent with Bartolo to the house while we walked through the town to our "boat" in the older port.