CC-Villas - Blog

With friends we visited the most Southern part of Sicily, most Southern part of Europe as well and even more South than Tunis. As we had to state one more time, things are different down there and people follow other ways of thinking and behaving.
In a very little town we were looking for a nice restaurant, couldn’t find one and finally addressed a group of 4 policemen who were standing around somewhat bored. They immediately named us a restaurant, had us follow them to the place, held free a parking lot, and started waving and shouting when we continued our search as the place did not seem to be what we had in mind. So we made another turn round the town and, once back to the restaurant, were “channelled” into the parking with some authority – no way to escape this time. The police had asked the owner to welcome us and the rather dull looking place turned out to be a truly beautiful restaurant with fine tables at the beach and exquisite food.
When paying the bill at the end I was asked by the owner whether I would mind to pay also the coffees for the four policemen “as it is the habit in Southern Sicily”. Of course I did so, with some smiling in my face and theirs– not the least for the reason a blunt refusal might have lead to serious consequences...