Susanna's Musings

Marbles steps, huge archways, and the sun eminating onto the piazza. It was love. I knew I wanted to be there.

That’s what happens when you just look at AirBnB photos. The owners only show you the good stuff and sometimes you’re just so enamored by the place that you forget the essential details, like: what’s the bathroom like or is the bed comfy and not facing any doorway? And can I cook my own meals?

Other things to consider is: will there be neighbors? And what’s the neighborhood like?

Once my plane landed in Palermo, Sicily, back in early January, I took a shared taxi and I was dropped off at an alleyway. I don’t know where you come from but when I hear “alleyway” I’m running in the opposite direction.

Anyway, once I walked through the dimly lit way, the host greeted me at the door.

“Susanna?” his voiced echoed and I was not even ten feet from him.

We shook hands and he opened a wooden doorway with just two keys. Then as I walked in, that was when the mágic happened.

There was a marbled like stairway leading up to a balcony as sounds of our footsteps echoed.

I was so excited to be staying inside a stucture like this.

Soon, he led me towards a narrow hallway and through a wooden-hard to close and open door and into my loft.

It was definitely modern to say the least. It had a cute stairway and a comfy couch and a wooden map of the world on the wall. A kitchen door faced the other side.

From there, he showed me the stairway loft. The steps were made of wood and the handle bars made of metal were painted in black and I was greeted to a king size bed and a blue tiled bathroom behind it.

Overall, as I look back on this now, walking through that “alleyway” was the only downside yet everything inside was immaculate, something coming straight from a dream home.