Welcome to Palermo where the players.....strangle each other with their belts

The last stop on Jeff and Jessica's excellent adventure was the trip from Rome back to Palermo and then Cefalù.  Of course things are always very exciting and of course there's at least one good story at some public place.  Yesterday's took place at the Palermo Centrale train station.

Jeff and I boarded our flight to Palermo and then got on the bus to take us to the train station.  When we got there, we bought out tickets and realized we had about half an hour to wait.  And then all of a sudden there was a little scuffle (which of course I missed because I'm ALWAYS looking the other way when something important happens) and Jeff goes, "Wow, there's a big fight over there."  Now Jeff, the responsible American, turned to walk the other way.  Guess what Jessica did?  Joined the other Sicilians and went right up to watch.  (In all fairness, you have to keep in mind that Sicilians tend to be watchers not fight breaker-uppers and even though there's a police station in the train station it always takes at least ten minutes for them to get there . . . so more than watching I was just making sure no one died before the police could intervene.)  Ok, so we missed the beginning of the fight so I'm not sure what the problem was, but man #1 was REALLY mad at man #2 (I'm assuming it had to do with petty crime . . . man #2 looked like he might be the type to try and steal someone wallet or man purse or something).  Anyway, man #1 had removed his belt, wrapped it around man #2's neck and was alternating between threatening to and actually trying to strangle him.  At some point two men in pink polo shirts with popped collars stepped in to try and remove the belt and at least make it a fair fight, but not with much success.  So then it settled down for a minute and then man #1 launched himself at man #2 again.  Somehow man #2 got free and took off through a bar (which really pissed off the bar owner) and down the street.  By the time we got outside to see what had happened man #2 was gone and man #1 was being held back by a veggie vendor.

At this point everyone started heading back inside and then we realized that the police were standing there.  Man #1 started screaming, "Now you show up?!  Now?!  I called you ten minutes ago!  Now he's gone!"  The police, in true Sicilian fashion, pointed at their watches explaining, "Sir, you called us and now we're here, that's how it works."  Anyway, then they all started yelling in Sicilian so I didn't get much of it, but they ended up taking man #1 back with them to question him.

You can't really get the true Italian experience without an altercation of some kind I truly believe, and seeing as no one got hurt, this one makes a good story I think.

In other news . . . Maureen and Tim introduced us to the debauchery that is the Jersey Shore filming in Florence this week.  They (we think there are 8 - oh dear lord) are working in a pizza shop (keep in mind they speak no Italian) and wreaking havoc on the lovely city the rest of the time.  By the time I left Florence I managed to walk though their filming three different times . . . whoopsie!  First we saw them working, then another day I was sitting outside the Cappelle Medicee and two of them walked by and then later that day another two or three were getting tattoos at a shop in Via Faenza.  We think we saw Snookie (although I thought she was really short, but Jeff said it was here) working at the pizza shop but some annoying producer yelled at us to keep moving before we could really register what was happening.  The only good thing is that the mayor of Florence made them write into the contract that they couldn't be filmed drinking in public in Florence.  I'm not sure if that means they get drunk at home first and then go out or they just go out and not on camera, but Maureen said she's heard them (she lives on one of the main streets in Florence) late at night trying to make their way home.  Lovely.  Even though Florence is full of Americans I hope they don't think that group is an accurate representation of what the majority of us are like.  That would be a tragedy . . . and this coming from an avid reality tv watcher (although Jersey Shore is one show I have never seen and have no intention of watching).

Now it's back to normal life here in Cefalù.  Oh Cefalù, we are such good friends . . .