Day 15 - Lipari, Sicily & The Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean Diet; much has been written about it's benefits. It is touted as the elixir to good health, organ cleansing, managing cholesterol, blood pressure, world peace and weight loss. Well I call BS on the Mediterranean diet! Gina and I have followed it diligently. In Malta it was pastizzi, bragioli and other bakery delicacies. In Sicily it has been seafood, pasta, with bread to soak the oil, olives with bread to soak the oil, Sicilian Cannoli, panini, salumi and cheese plates with beautiful bread, gelato....so as you can see we are giving the Mediterranean diet a fair shake, but weight loss...nothing, niente, nyet, a big fat donut!!!!! Italian donuts with Nutella...but I digress.

 

The Italians do a few things really well; food, women, fashion, Supercars, millionaire Prime Ministers and Bunga Bunga parties. There is a lot to love about this place and we are really embracing the culture.  On the other hand there are a few things they don't really excel at; customer service, schedules and timetables, maintaining their environment, adhering to road rules and maintaining patience, suppose we can't have it all. Tourists from all destinations still flock here so they win!

So we've overnighted at the Aeolian island of Lipari on the north east coast. True to expectation, the water is beautiful and clear, the seafood plentiful and cobble stone streets charming. The Italians think it is too cold to go to the beach, many already in their warmer clothes. In our short time here we've seen variable whether from deluge, thunderstorms to 27 degrees and humidity!

Today we start the long haul from the island of Lipari to Napoli. We are on an overnight ferry which will take some 15 hours. So we won't get a great night's sleep but the end result, arriving in Positano for the next six days makes it all worthwhile.