Collesano: Ancient Village in the Mountains

Corrie is awesome. I know I'm somewhat biased, but in circumstances like these, crazy foreign trips, shell have some weird idea usually inspired by some innocuous thing---in this case it was the photos supplied by the AirBnB ad for the place we stayed.

She'd tell me, "I don't really care how far from Palermo's center it is, the pictures are awesome and it's cheaper than the place next door."

We have an AirBnB next door to us in downtown Long Beach, the second floor of a late 19th century home, and we've checked the cost from time to time for prospective family visits, especially after Cass was born.

Anyway, instead of a cramped floor in a drafty house in downtown Long Beach, we got a three bedroom, three story hose in the small village of Collesano, about 42 miles west of Palermo. Technically it was a four bedroom, if I remember correctly, but one of the rooms was locked up tight, and technically it was about 35 miles down the coast from Palermo, and then seven miles south into the interior. Also, the first floor was a flight of stairs up above the street, so really it could be considered a four story house.

A few interesting things about Collesano:

1. It was sacked by Hannibal of Carthage around 460 BCE, and already an old place at that time;
2. There are remnants of both the Arab conquerors and their Norman followers in the shapes of their religious structures;
3. It's home to the Targa Florio Museum ("targa" is Italian for race and Florio is a a guy who started a big race that ame to be named after him) and was one of the stops on the famous Sicilian race;
4. The population still hovers around 4000;
5. The residents are friendly and the children bold, always interested in practicing their English.

The top floor had the kitchen and dining room. It wasn't necessarily so wide or long, but it made up for it by being tall. Gotta love the fact you'd need to climb a bunch of stairs just to eat. The top floor also had an open air balcony with a table, washing machine, and drying twine set up. It was also basically fenced in with chicken wire fencing, a precaution for birds.

Here's the picture from the window in the dining room, also on the third floor:

From the balcony off our bedroom, the floor below the kitchen and dining room, looking away from the sun:

Collesano had so much charm in the random designs around all of the tiered levels and corners. Here, a stairwell onnected various levels of the town, only two trees grew through the walkway. Should we alter the trees? Hell no! Just planters around them and tiny stairs between:

Collesano was our home-base for a few days. On one day we went to the beach town to the west called Cefalu', and on aother day we headed east to Palermo. On day-tripping car days, you'd have to start with some caffeine and pastries:

Similar to the daytime picture off the bedroom balcony, the town's cross is visible lit up at night.

That was taken on our last night, after a long day at Palermo and before a long travel day getting to Napoli, our last extended stay on this trip.

Part of me could live in Collesano, it being a hidden mountainous gem fifteen minutes from the ocean.