Our ferry arrived in Palermo, Sicily at 5 a.m., the perfect time to reach Arco Azzuro for beautiful morning light. But, as Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns wrote, “the best-laid schemes o'mice an' men Gang aft agley.” 

According to a local legend, Arco Azzurro owes its name to the ancient love story between a young shepherd and a beautiful local girl. It is said that the two lovers met secretly under the arch at sunset, exchanging sweet kisses which were illuminated by the golden light of the sun reflecting on the blue sea. Now, only residents ever see the golden light.

It turns out that the arch is surrounded by a private housing development and access to the overlook is only available to the general public on weekends for a fee from 10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and from 4-6:30 p.m. I learned that for many years no access had been allowed. Of course, I find this behavior appalling. This is one of the iconic natural arches in the country and I was expected to pay to see it from an overlook and then only if I happen to be there during the ten hours a week when some HOA allowed it? (And I thought my HOA was absurd.)

The arch was only 12 miles from the ferry terminal, so we had more than four hours to wait. We went for a walk, found an open café and shared a crepe with sorbet, went for another walk, scouted the location and watched as a beautiful sunrise slowly morphed into a cloudy morning by 9:30 a.m. By 10 a.m. lightning and thunder were prevalent and rain began to fall as soon as we caught our first glimpse of the arch. We had a couple hundred miles to drive to see Punte Asparano Arch that evening in Siracusa, so we very reluctantly left the fight for another day.

Punte Asparano Arch in Siracusa was lovely bathed in warm evening light and although some access points were closed, the signage was in Italian, so I could easily ignore it. We stayed on a farm named Addauro Resort. It was lovely but we had to leave before the luxurious buffet breakfast to catch a ferry from Messina to Villa San Giovanni on the mainland. It’s only a 20-minute sail, but you have to be there early. There turned out to be some confusion with my reservation. I thought I had pre-paid, but even though they had my credit card number, I had not. That evening, when I was back online, I had a nasty note from the innkeeper threatening to call the police if I did not call them immediately.