11.09.19

Some have asked

“Why do you stay at each location for six weeks?,”

and there are multiple answers, including one that came to mind over the past few days as we took a side trip to several cities in Sicily. I’ll get to that in a moment. Since we’ve stayed in different locations as nomadic travelers, side trips have been wonderful breaks from our home bases. In Valencia, Spain, we took side trips to Madrid, Sevilla, and San Sebastian and in Tivoli, Italy we took just one to the Amalfi Coast. Quality over quantity there. In Croatia we hit the coast from the northern city of Zadar to the western Istrian peninsula, down to Dubrovnik and south into Montenegro and Bosnia. These six weeks stints allow us the time to feel we aren’t rushed, so when we leave our base we can enjoy being away for a few days. As a TOURIST we don’t have the luxury since we have “X” days to arrive, tour and then depart, but as a TRAVELER, we can take time to smell the roses and in many cases, just do nothing.

Sicily is rather small, only 10,000 square miles, and about the size of the State of Maryland, which is pretty darn small. So far we traveled up the eastern coast to Taormina, which was amazing, and over the past few days we went up the southern and western coasts, stopping at cities that were recommended. First stop was Noto, didn’t wow us, then Pozzallo, a port town that I wanted to see in case we did want to take another side trip to Malta, since they depart from there. That didn’t rock our world, either, so we did not stop. Our intention was to stay for the night in Ragusa, which we heard good things about, and it WOWED us AND ROCKED our world, too!

It’s very historic, built on two large hills (very common) with a big valley between them. There is lots of history there, but the rocks that people built their homes into was stunning. How they were able to build cathedrals and castles on such imposing inclines continually confounds me. The following day we went onward to Agrigento and the Valley of the Temples, which was probably the most awe-inspiring historical area we have been to yet. About eight temples, in varying conditions, and to see these massive structures which were built with primitive machines 4,000-6,000 years ago, still boggles my mind. I’ll share more about Agrigento later, but back to the “WHY six weeks question.”

Aside from having and taking the TIME to enjoy each location, there’s the visa issue. In the Schengen area it’s 90 days, as it is in most countries. When we started our journey in February we decided that if we stay in TWO 45-day locations, then we’d have to leave the EU, and that was how it started. Six weeks Spain, six weeks Italy, then depart the EU, so Croatia fit the bill. At the beginning it was easy tracking the ins and outs of Schengen, but it got complicated a few months ago when we bounced back and forth between EU and non-EU countries during the summer. I’ve been using the Schengen calculator, which is great, since we will continue to bounce for a bit longer over the next few months. Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt and Israel: cool on visa. For Italy and Greece we must be mindful to not overstay our welcome.

So there you have it! This blog will be part of “Traveling the World Six Weeks at a Time, Volume II,” in development right now, along with another book called “The Six Tenets of Nomadic Travel.” If you have not purchased part I, please do!

Thanks again for following and sharing, talk soon!