Within 4 hours, I have been in 4 countries. I arrived at Geneva from Gatwick airport at 11:30, and greeted by my friend Paola, with whom I have the following 2 weeks of holiday in Sicily. She is also the one driving me around in this island – a place from where her family came, and left for Switzerland in the 60s. From Geneva, we are driving down to Italy to board the ferry from Genoa to Palermo – a port north of Sicily island. The crossing takes 20 hours. The more direct driving route from Geneva, Switzerland to Genoa, Italy, is to drive across part of France. We drove through the famous Mont Blanc Tunnel, which links between France and Italy. Around 1530, inside this tunnel, I am in Italy. We have also driven through at least 20 other tunnels, before we reached port Genoa, or Genova in Italian. It was 17:30. 9 am in the morning, not much to do on a ferry besides sitting on the deck to soak up some warm sunshine. Still another 9 hours to go. Paola’s family has a holiday house in a little town in the southern coast on the island. – Realmonte- not far from Agrigento where it is a 2 hours’ drive from the port Palermo. However, it took us an hour to drive around in this big city port Palermo to reach the main road to Agrigento. Realmonte is a small town with about 5 thousand inhabitants. The houses are mostly 3 storeys high. I made a comment of the unfinished houses around, I was told that people here are more concerned in the interior sometimes they just left the exterior untouched for years. Not far from where I live, there is this famous Scala dei Turchi - Turkish stairs, better to see it during sunset, for the white sedimentary rocks cliff formed by limestone and clay shine through the golden sunshine and the deep blue sea. Next to this white cliff is the Lido Rossello, a popular beach for the locals, and where we spent most of our mornings and afternoons. According to Paola, it is even better than the nearby more famous one in Siculiana. Although the overall impression of the land is dry and yellow, palm trees, olive trees, and prickly pear cactus- which they called it Figue d’Inde, dotted everywhere in the landscape. High up along the mountain tops, the line of wind turbines has certainly destroyed the romantic panorama of this italian countryside. ( Sicily Part 2 -- Siculiana )