After such a nice visit with cousin Francesco and family, it was a sad moment to have to ride on to port at Villa San Giovanni, which is the closest point between the continent of Europe and the island of Sicily, and, as such, one of Europe’s busiest ferry ports. But with our flight leaving Italy in just two days, we had to make it closer to our point of departure in Catania.
For this boy from Missouri, I am used crossing mighty waterways--including the great Missouri and Mississippi rivers. The Strait of Messina is nothing like it--wide, deep and windy--and, oh yeah--very close to one of the worlds largest volcanoes. Notwithstanding, for years, the government has toyed with the idea of building a bridge to connect Sicily to the mainland. If that bridge were to be built, it would connect Villa San Giovanni to the northern edge of Messina in Sicily--and, not to mention, would become one of the most incredible engineering feats of humanity. However, as the Italian economy struggles to pick up pace after a near collapse and deep recession that followed, those plans have been shelved for at least another generation.
As has been the manner since the times of the Greeks and Romans, the way to get to Sicily is to get on a boat. With impressive efficiency, we drove the car onto the boat, and after a visit to the shopping mall-like interior deck of the ferry, drove off about 30 minutes later onto the island of Sicily and the meandering streets of Messina.
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