[Dec. 2023] We spent the end of the year in Italy.
However, from the 23rd, I started to develop a fever, which is unusual for me.
I couldn’t attend the planned Christmas party with our family, and I just stayed in bed, but my fever went down by the morning of the 25th.
So, as planned, we went to Palermo in Sicily.
However, since it was Christmas day, transportation was limited and there was a long queue at the taxi stand.
In the meantime, it got very cold and I felt sick again.
We managed to get to the Airbnb we had booked, but I didn’t have the energy to listen to the host’s explanation in English.
My fever rose rapidly during the night, so my husband contacted the emergency hospital which gave him instructions on what medicine I needed.
I spent a few days in bed, and I don’t even know how the day went by.
It’s been about 20 years since I’ve had such a bad flu.
My husband, who had had a flu vaccination, was completely fine.
Vaccinations should not be underestimated.
It could have been worse, but since we were in my husband’s home country, he could speak the language and buy the things we needed even though we were in an unfamiliar town.
The second blessing was that we stayed at an Airbnb, not a hotel, so it was not much different from sleeping at home.
And it was a good Airbnb and had everything we needed except for a washing machine.
It was called Casa Ambra and was near the Church of San Domenico.
The Airbnb in Syracuse, where we stayed the previous year, also did not have a washing machine, so I guess that’s just how things are in Sicily.
I love Italian food, but for a while I had no appetite, and the only thing I wanted to eat was Japanese udon.
I told that to my husband, and he bought me a cup noodle from the supermarket, which I was grateful for, but unfortunately it was not tasty.
It was on the 28th that my fever went down, I got up, and I was finally able to go outside and take a short walk around the neighbourhood.
My husband showed me the places he experienced while I was sleeping, such as the bakery where everything was €1, the ham shop that brought out old ham from the back when he tried to buy some ham (my husband got a new one), and the cafe where a well dressed man who looked like a lawyer or something had a long conversation with the shopkeeper in a tone of a dock worker and then left as a lawyer again.
As expected (this was my second time in Palermo), it was a messy town.
The next day, my energy had returned a little more and we walked to the newly developed area of the port.
Although it had some stylish and modern buildings, I somehow got the impression that it had not yet reached the peak of sophistication.
On this day, the food finally tasted good.
And the next day, the 30th, was Resurrection Day.
The holiday had finally begun.
