On the 15th of January I arrived in Palermo. I fell immediately in love with this Island from the first moment I took a look out of the window and could see Palermo from above; the bright blue sky, the mountains and the colorful and rough landscape. I’m ready to start my new life in Sicily: Piacere, Sicilia!
In Palermo I took the bus to Canicatti, the biggest place near Campobello di Licata. It was a ride of 3 hours and I was still astonished by the beautiful, variety, calm and wide landscape. Sometimes I saw some abandoned houses, some sheeps or small rivers, but most of this ride through the center of Sicily was covered by hills, rocks and green landscape. Later I learned and saw that this color change every season and in summer it’s even yellow because of the drought.
In Canicatti two colleagues picked me up and gave me a warm welcome. They showed me the Volunteers’ house which is located in the main street in Campobello di Licata. The house has every equipment we needed, is very cozy and charming. From the kitchen and the bedrooms we had a wide view over the landscape.
Before I arrived in Campobello, I was afraid I would feel stuck in this little town with just 9.000 habitants and a few possibilities to travel from here to other places. But exactly this gave me the chance to learn the real Sicily, the daily life here and to live ‘like a local’ instead of a tourist. To integrate as a local, I should first learn the language and I know that will be a challenge. In the next blog I’ll tell you about my process of learning Italian and I will meet the other volunteers!
