Marsala
Marsala
When I visited France in 2023, I felt a strong impulse to visit Italy. Cannes is only a couple hours from the border of Italy, and a lot of Italians live in the south of France. The impulse didn’t subside after returning home from France, and during my three months in Guatemala in early 2024, I began to plan my return to Italy.
My first visit to Italy was in 2010, and it was the first country I visited outside the US. I was an inexperienced traveler and packed our itinerary full of tourist attractions throughout the country. We saw all the quintessential sites: the Vatican, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Duomo, the statue of David, the canals of Venice, Piazza San Marco, the leaning tower of Piza, and the five towns of the Cinque Terre. We covered a lot of ground during that week, but we were exhausted and overwhelmed by the end. Everywhere we visited was overrun by tourists, which took away from a true cultural experience. Since that trip, I have always felt the desire to return to some of the less touristy areas of Italy to experience more of the culture. Much of my heritage is Italian – my maternal grandmother’s side of the family is Southern Italian, and my maternal grandfather’s side of the family is Sicilian.
I generally travel during the winter to escape the colder months in Denver. Most of western Europe seems to be somewhat warmer than Denver during the winter, but generally not warmer than 50s during the day and 40s at night, often accompanied by wind and/or rain. I learned the hard way from my France visit that central heat is a luxury that most Europeans don’t have. And many homes have marble floors which can resemble walking on ice blocks when it’s cold outside. So naturally, I was a bit hesitant to book a trip to Italy during the winter. I did some research and found that Sicily is one of the warmest places in Italy during the winter. Sicilian culture has always fascinated me as it is known to be a culture of its own, with separate customs from typical Italian culture. I decided to take the plunge and booked a 2-month trip for January and February of 2025 to get closer to my Sicilian heritage.
I finally racked up enough miles to cover a first class ticket to Sicily. It was my first time flying first class on an international flight, and I couldn’t have been more excited. I’ve never been able to sleep on planes and since my fibromyalgia diagnosis, traveling across time zones has become far more challenging. Jet lag sends me into painful flare ups that can last for weeks. So the extra comfort of flying first class sounded particularly appealing. And boy was it. Not only was the seat comfortable and spacious and I had the option to lie flat, but I ate like royalty. In fact, I felt overfull during most of the flight and had to refuse multiple offers of additional snacks. Which is ironic because I’m almost always starving on long flights in economy. The food quality was much higher than that of the food served in economy – not only was it edible, but actually rather tasty! I still couldn’t sleep even lying flat, but I enjoyed multiple movies on my large screen television. That was the first and only flight that I never wanted to end.
I had a long layover in Frankfurt, so by the time I arrived in Sicily I was exhausted. I stayed one night in Palermo so I could rest before venturing to my first destination, a small city on the western coast of Sicily called Marsala. My stay in Palermo was comfortable, and thankfully the hotel attendant spoke English. I was too tired to venture out for food that night, so I dined on protein bars and nuts before showering and crashing.
Feeling refreshed the next morning, I made my way to the bus station in Palermo, which was just a few blocks from my hotel. Navigating the systems in a new country where you don’t speak the language can be tricky to say the least, so I gave myself plenty of time. I spoke with a ticketing agent at the bus stop who spoke English, and she directed me to my bus. When the bus arrived, I boarded and was on my way. The bus ride was about 2 ½ hours with just a couple stops along the way. Once I arrived in Marsala, I mapped my Airbnb which was about a 15-minute walk from the bus stop. My bags were heavy, and I had to stop to give my back a rest a couple times along the way. My Airbnb host didn’t speak any English and I speak very little Italian, so the tour of the apartment felt long and awkward. Eventually she left and I felt a sigh of relief that I had finally arrived.
Tired and hungry, I ventured out to find food. It was late afternoon, and I struggled to find any open restaurants. I finally found a café along a pedestrian street that had pre-cooked tapas and entrees available. I ordered a piece of white lasagna which ended up being incredible. That, or I was just really hungry. After enjoying my lasagna and some fresh bread, I walked around until I found a small shop that sold fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, and eggs. I picked up a few items and headed back to my Airbnb to unpack and settle in.
The apartment was large and spacious and had two stories. The living room, bathroom, and bedroom were on the first floor, and the kitchen, dining room, and laundry room were on the second floor. It ended up being inconvenient having the bathroom and kitchen on different floors, and the constant trips up and down took a toll on my knees. The jet lag was also quite debilitating. It sent me into a painful flare up that lasted most of the first month. I struggled with fatigue and pain in my bones regardless of how much I slept. I felt defeated. Over the past year I had scaled back my work dramatically to focus my time and energy on getting my health back on track, and my symptoms had seemed to be under control for several months. My system was much stronger than it had been when I went to France, so the way my body responded to the jet lag this time was a surprise. I felt particularly defeated since travel is my biggest passion, and it is becoming more difficult to enjoy when it causes so much suffering in my body. I am coming to the sad realization that I may not be able to do as much travel across time zones in the future as I had once hoped.
During my month in Marsala, I came to some other realizations about the way I’ve been traveling for the past four years. My dream has always been to experience different cultures through living in other countries like a local. The reason I started my business was to give me the freedom and flexibility to work remotely from wherever I wanted. I do feel that I have achieved my dream, but it hasn’t quite turned out the way I envisioned it. Firstly, being a digital nomad doesn’t allow for much time to get out and actually experience life in a new location. Working during the week and doing normal “life things” on the weekends like grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning doesn’t leave a lot of room for excursions or day trips. And even though I wasn’t working as much on my last couple trips, my health issues have kept me from getting out and doing much. I have experienced day to day living in the places where I’ve stayed for extended periods which ultimately was my goal, but it’s not as glamourous as it sounds. Language and cultural differences make daily transactions difficult and uncomfortable, and I can’t begin to tell you how many awkward and embarrassing moments I’ve endured. Some days I have a thicker skin than others, but some can be rather challenging to the point where I don’t even want to step foot outside. I have had many days where I wanted to give up and go home. It’s all part of the experience, but sitting in so much discomfort has given me the desire to take a step back and choose an easier, more comfortable path. By no means do I intend to stop traveling, but at least for now I think I will stick to shorter trips, without work, so I can truly be present and soak in the culture and keep my day-to-day lifestyle separate from my travels.
Despite these tough realizations and setbacks with my health, I did my best to settle in and make a home in Marsala. I established my daily routine, which I find to be one of the most crucial elements in feeling grounded while traveling. Each day I cooked myself breakfast, showered, and worked for a couple hours before venturing out for lunch in the early afternoons. Since I was traveling alone and the weather was warmer during the daytime, I cooked my dinners at home and went out for lunches. However, I had a lot of difficulty finding restaurants that were open for lunch. Most were either closed for a few hours in the afternoons or didn’t open at all until dinner. I eventually did find a few full-service restaurants that were open for lunch, but I had the most success with cafes with prepared foods, similar to the cafe I found the day I arrived. I enjoyed some incredible food, and the service was amazing in almost every place I dined. The desserts were the highlight – gelato, cannoli, tiramisu. Pistachio is a popular flavor not just in desserts – they even put it in salamis, cheeses, and pasta dishes. The food was more affordable and better quality than in Denver, both at restaurants and in the grocery store. Eating in other countries always makes me realize just how much we are missing out on clean, pure foods in the United States. It’s not a surprise we are one of the unhealthiest countries in the world.
One of my biggest hurdles was the language barrier. Marsala is not a tourist destination so most of the locals speak little to no English. I did a couple months of Italian lessons on Duo Lingo before my trip but barely learned enough to get around. The first couple weeks were full of awkward moments, but little by little I gained confidence and started speaking more. By the third and fourth week I was having short conversations and feeling more empowerment than embarrassment. I am thankful for my strong foundation in the Spanish language, because although Spanish and Italian are different languages, there are many similarities, and my Spanish studies helped me to at least have some understanding of what was going on around me. And I was pleasantly surprised at how kind and patient most of the Sicilians I encountered were. I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I can understand why Marsala is not a tourist destination; there wasn’t a lot to experience. Most days I would take a long walk after lunch either along the shoreline or around the city. However, the shoreline is rocky and completely covered with seaweed. The water was stinky and there were no real beaches where you could swim or even get close to the water. Luckily the weather was usually comfortable for a walk and there were many sunny days, although there were a handful of cold, rainy, and windy days that kept me indoors. Thankfully I wasn’t looking for a lot of excursions during my time in Marsala, I was mainly there to recover from the travel and jet lag, adjust to life in a new country, and wrap up my work for the year before moving on to explore the east side of the island. Unfortunately, though, I struggled to stay warm inside the Airbnb because there was just one small heater mounted on the wall of the living room, which was only strong enough to keep the inside temperature around 65 degrees.
My biggest challenge of this trip, though, had nothing to do with Sicily. My partner Kara and I started dating last May and we had only been together for seven months at the time that I left the US. The distance put a strain on our relationship which ultimately persuaded me to cut my trip short and return home at the end of January. It was a tough decision because the majority of my experiences were planned for February. I had planned to spend a week in Syracuse, a week in Catania (where my Sicilian ancestors are from), a week in Palermo (where I would attend an ancestral healing course), and three days in Rome. But as a friend so eloquently put it, sometimes the people in our lives are more important than the experiences.
My Sicilian ancestors did have their say in my decision though. When I initially started entertaining the idea of cutting my trip short, my sister recommended that I take three days to feel into it before making a decision. She suggested I gather some items from the land to make an altar and call on our ancestors by name to ask for guidance. So, the next day I found some flowers, sticks, and rocks and built an altar along with some of my own belongings. I lit a candle and prayed to my ancestors for guidance. The first day I got a couple signs that urged me closer toward the decision to go home. Kara and I have a song that is special to us, and I heard it twice that day while I was walking around the city. I also walked past a couple speaking English and sounded American, which was the first time in the entire three weeks I’d been there that I heard native English speakers. Still, I questioned whether these were actual signs or my imagination.
The second day was an ordinary day, and I didn’t notice any signs that stood out. So, on the third day I asked again, more emphatically, for clear signs that I could not miss. That day was one of the worst days of my visit. I seemed failed at everything I attempted to do. I ventured out to get pizza for lunch at a restaurant I had walked by a few days prior that had the word “pizzeria” on the outside. I had been looking for pizza restaurants the whole time I was in Marsala but only could find it at restaurants that were only open for dinner. Not only was there no pizza on the “pizzeria’s” menu, but the food was terrible, and the service even worse. After my failure of a lunch, I ventured out to a few shops I’d walked by previously to buy gifts for friends and family, but every place I attempted to go to was closed. Feeling defeated, I headed back to my Airbnb to work. When I turned on my computer, my portable second monitor went on the fritz. I’d had some issues with it in the past, but nothing like this. The screen was so scrambled I couldn’t even use it. I attempted to fix it but didn’t have any luck, so I finished my work for the day using just my laptop screen.
Later that night, I got some bad news about my car. A few days prior, a 16-year-old driver lost control of his car on a snowy day and rear-ended my parked car. Thankfully he was honest and knocked on Kara’s door and she happened to be home (talking to me on the phone at the time). I had been dealing with his insurance company for a few days, and the agent I spoke with that night told me she was concerned about my car being totaled because of its age. That was the final straw for me. I made the call to end my trip early and head back home at the end of the week.
The next day I felt as if a curse had been lifted off me. My portable monitor suddenly started working again with no issues. I decided to do my shopping before lunch because it finally dawned on me that maybe the reason the stores were closed was because the owners were on their lunch breaks. My hunch was correct and nearly every store in town was open. I successfully completed my shopping and headed to a restaurant for lunch. To my surprise, the menu was full of pizza options! I ordered a delicious pizza with bresaola, grana, and arugula. The server suggested a bruschetta appetizer that had three different styles of bruschetta. The service was incredible, and the meal was by far the best I’d had during the entire trip. I ordered a tiramisu to take home for good measure, and headed back to my Airbnb. I felt reassured that I made the right decision, with the support of my ancestors’ nudging.
I don’t regret coming home early, but I do feel like I missed out on much of the experience. However, I am excited to share that I will be leading a wellness and adventure retreat in Sicily in May of 2026! This will be my chance to have a redo of what I missed this time around. The retreat will be held at a five-star resort in Syracuse, one of the cities on the east side of the island that I had planned to visit. I’m planning arrive a week early so I can visit Catania and Palermo as well. Rome will have to wait, but I have a feeling I’ll be returning to Italy again in the future.
