We wanted them to book us a table once again at the restaurant Al Vicolo, just a short walk through the back streets behind the B & B. More importantly, we needed to make sure that on Friday morning we got to the airport in time. Our plan was to ask Massimo or Alessandro, whichever we got to talk to, to book us a taxi to take us to the Stazione Centrale where we could catch an airport bus.
Massimo, however, threw up his hands in amazement. A taxi? Why would we want to do that? Why not take the metro? This was the first we had heard of a metro. Neither of our guide books seemed to be aware of its existence. And yet there was apparently a station about 10 minutes up the road, just past the gelateria, off to the left, not far from Piazza dell’Independenza.
So why had our guide books, both of them, said to catch the 109 bus from the Stazione Centrale? We could have caught the metro from there and walked down the road to the B & B on that hot Monday when we arrived. It would have been shorter and simpler than the route we took. Anyway, that was all in the past.
Massimo assured us that there was a metro all the way to the airport and that Alessandro would get us tickets ready for the next day. Not only that but he would get up early to ensure that we could have breakfast before we set off.
It sounded all right but we felt that we wanted to check it out a little for ourselves. We did some research on the Internet and found a timetable. What we couldn’t find on the Internet was a station called Orleans, which was what Massimo said its name was. So we decided that we would investigate the station anyway and try to use the metro to go to the Stazione Centrale to catch the train to Cefalú.
And that’s what we did, but it was not as straight forward as it sounded. Ten minutes walk up the road we found a gelateria and a sign pointing down a long ramp to the station. Yes, there it was and there was what looked like a biglietteria – ticket office. Eventually a man appeared at the window but it turned out that he didn’t sell tickets, nothing so simple. Oh no, he told us, we had to go back up there (very vague) and find a shop near the gelateria, opposite the entrance to the station, where they sold tickets. Off we went in search of the ticket seller. Near the gelateria there was no other shop and the girl selling ice creams told us she had never understood how the system worked. Great!
We asked a passerby who directed us across the street, where there was still no sign of a biglietteria. So we asked again and were sent off to the kiosk where we had bought bus tickets for Monreale the day before. But they only sold bus tickets and sent us back towards the station.
At the tat shop (oops, sorry, souvenir stall) outside the Palazzo Reale, they told us to go along the road to the right of the ramp to the station to find the relevant shop. Another person indicated that we should go along the road to the left. Finally a very patient young man pointed us in exactly the correct direction: to the right but then off to the left. There we would find a shop called Re Guglielmo, opposite the station entrance.
A little puzzled about the mention of a station entrance (had we not found that already?) we followed his instructions and found the Re Guglielmo shop. After buying our tickets we commented to the friendly ticket seller about how “difficile” it had been. She responded by telling us, “È Palermo. Tutto è difficile!” – “It’s Palermo. Everything is difficult!”
Turning around we saw the railway station, the MAIN entrance, not the back entrance where we had been earlier. And the name of the station was “Palazzo Reale – Orleans”. No wonder we couldn’t find it on Google!!! Hot, cross, frustrated, we went and waited for the metro to the Stazione Centrale and travelled into town in style.
There we discovered that it cost you 80 cents to spend a penny. Hmm! We were going off Palermo. However, we also found an information office where we clarified EXACTLY which line to travel on to get to the airport on Friday morning and we got EXACT times of trains and so on.
That done, we bought tickets for Cefalú and went to the seaside for what remained of the day.
At Cefalú the tourist office was just where the guide book said it was. However, it was not open all day as the book said. So, while we waited for it to open, we went and had an ice cream instead of lunch, before going back to get a map. And then the day got better.
First we visited the cathedral, another splendid 12th century building with wonderful Arabic-looking arches and even more wonderful mosaics. 
Behind the cathedral is a huge great cliff, called La Rocca. There is a path winding up the hillside, with great information notices every so far along. Half way up you come to a kind of official gateway to the park with its old fortifications and other ancient remains. 
Just beyond the gateway a tired-looking chap keeps count of how many people go in, asking only your nationality. As we went in he denied that this was so that he could be sure no-one was trapped on La Rocca over night but when we returned, and he had difficulty finding “two English” in his list, he admitted that if anyone was left behind after he locked up he would be in trouble. 
The walk up La Rocca was truly worth the effort, although it was a little slippery on the ancient rock paths. The views of the coast, the cathedral, the town and the beach were most impressive. 
We were amused by the warning notices with their interesting translations. And we were rather disappointed that what looked like a circular path on the map given by the tourist office led in fact to a dead end, so that we had to retrace our footsteps and have further conversation with the tired looking gate keeper.
But it was a good visit. We met a fellow resident of the B&B Porta di Castro at the railway station and travelled back with him, exchanging impressions of Sicily.
And finally we were back at the B&B in time for a shower and then off out to Al Vicolo for a final delicious meal: more fish and seafood with white wine.
Then it was back to the B&B to pack and weigh our suitcases, ready to face Ryanair and the journey to London.
Another adventure almost but not quite over.
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