Just when I thought my day was coming to an end, I found there was a little surprise left for me….
During my summer vacation to an Italian beach town called Tropea, I discovered that I was not to far from Sicily. Sicilia is how it is really pronounced here in Italy. I hopped in the rental car and decided to take a day trip down there. “Even for just a day would be fine,” I told myself, because it was one of my dreams to always go there. The trip was beautiful on the way, taking backroads through the country, passing small towns, and then eventually I was aligned with the sea. Over bridges, through mountains, and then I looked to the right and I got confused.
“Did I miss the exit to Sicilia? No, still 40 minutes to go….well what was that then?”
I remembered the name and when I got to the port (because you have to take a boat to Sicilia), I sat in the car waiting for the boat, and began to research. I found a very interesting history of, to my surprise, women….
Scilla was named after Poseidon’s mistress. When Poseidon’s wife discovered her she became jealous and poisoned his mistress. Scylla became an enraged sea creature with 6 heads that drowns men…..Mwahahahaa **evil laugh
Haha! No seriously all jokes aside, that’s not what interested me. After a long story of Romans, Spartacus’ men, and pirates I found a story of strong women. 😊 Scilla is a fisherman’s town, and the women there were amazing! Not only would they cook, clean, make clothes for the family, take care of the elderly, repair nets for their husbands, and even help their husbands load and unload the boats! (woooo that was a lot **deep breath)
They were businesswomen!
They handled the buying and the selling of land and real estate, some made and sold clothes, and when their husbands came back with a good fishers catch, they sold the fish.
“Welp there ya go,” I said to myself. “I’m stopping in Scilla.”
On the way back later that day, I exited the autostrada (which is their expressway), the streets started off normal, but became smaller and smaller, and actually began to scare me, because there were no sidewalks, and the doors of the houses opened straight out to the street. “Ok, no one come darting out of your house, Ok? Thanks”
I said to help reassure myself that there would be no accidents today…..
”Yea, what was I going to do here?”
I had no idea…I parked the car and looked around. People look normal, there were cute little shops, “ok…seems legit.” I said a small prayer so I wouldn’t get a ticket and walked away from the car over to the railing. I was on a cliff and the sea was in front of me, but “oh, there is a beach? Ok kool…I’m going there.” There was only one way to down, so I took it. I found a staircase and in front of me was this big, beautiful church.
I went down, at the bottom of the staircase I looked left towards where the beach was and I looked right. Honestly, it seemed to me that instead of going left to the beach, the right looks way more interesting. What I found was a tiny alley way, with stairs as far as the eye could see. Stair, stair, flat, stair, stair, flat, stair, stair, flat, stair, stair, flat. I am going down, down, down, thinking to myself, “I wonder what its like to live here, coming outside your door everyday to meet a never ending stair case?” But ok, down, down, left, right, down, down, I slowly creeped my way down. I saw lobsters kept in tanks in the windows of some places, and even found myself in what felt like, people backyards, complete with kids toys, decorative things everywhere, and you know…people staring at me lol. Ok, down, down, left, right, Finally, I arrived at a street that seemed somewhat normal, but not really, at least the stairs were finished, it seemed to me.
Shops and homes on the left, same on the right….but the right was a little different. Every so often, there were these giant holes, covered in wood, and you could see rope inside. These were made to dock boats between the houses.
“Interesting…”
One gap between the houses caught my eye. I took it and I was led to the water and someone’s backyard. Another gap between the houses caught my eye and I took it again, but it was a docking area, completely different from the first, that led to a busier street. Families, friends, couples, people drinking, even and entrance to a restaurant right on the water.
“This is cool.”
I said to myself as I snapped a photo and went back to where I came from. I continued on that street until I came to an opening. It was the docks for the city, boat after boat lined up, with caffe’s all around where people were sitting and talking. I took a closer look at all the boats parked and I had seen these two that were super strange to me. They had these really tall metal bar towers in the center, and these long planks hanging off of the front. “What are those?” I said as I pulled out my and phone and typed what I saw. They were for fishing swordfish. Men would sit at the top of the tower to keep a 360 degree lookout, while a single man waited for the word at the end of the plank, with a harpoon of course. The plank was put in place so that the swordfish could be killed before it noticed the boat. It’s the traditional way to hunt swordfish I guess…
“Neat!”
I continued walking and found my way up the seawall. My attention was then taken over by the sea. The sky was turning orange from pink, the sea was calm, and the air smelled amazing. I took a deep breath and then I climbed out onto the rocks put in place to form the sea wall. I sat there and watched the boats pass in the distance, and I watched guys in kayaks messing with each other. Then there was the fisherman. He had just started to head out in his tiny little boat. “I’ll get a photo of him as he passes the sun.” I said and got my camera ready. I took one photo, two and then he stopped. Right there in front of the sunset he stopped. That’s when I took the photo.
“How perfect was that!”
I said as I looked back to see what I captured. “This is amazing,” I said as I stared out at the sun and then realized where the blessing came from. I let out a whisper and thanked God for bringing me to this little town I never heard from, thank you for this experience, and most of all thank you for letting me see my “Fisherman’s Sunset.”
