Retire Early
Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler
In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age
of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this
financially independent lifestyle, they invite you
to take advantage of their wisdom and experience. |
|
La
Casa di Anita, Cefalu, Sicily
(Pronounced: Shef-ahh-LOO)
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli
Currency Converter
It was an
adventurous night trying to find a hotel in booked-up
Palermo,
and eventually we stayed in
the stunning Hotel Bellevue on the coast.
With the incredibly
challenging evening before, we deserved that luxury.
It was only 5 hours of sleep
before getting up
the next morning, and after a marvelous breakfast, a driver
from the hotel took us directly to the train station in Palermo. Here we
purchased First Class tickets on
TrenItalia to Cefalu, our next stop.
Map of Sicily
This map of Sicily shows you the relatively
short distance we are to travel this morning, just 59 kilometers.
It's early and we get the first train we are
able.
On the train from Palermo to Cefalu
WooHoo!! We're going to Cefalu!
In this case, we are happy to be leaving
Palermo behind and looking forward to our stay on the coast.
Beautiful weather, fine food, some hiking,
and an international beach crowd awaits us.
We are ready!
Modern, clean train
We have found the trains in Italy and Sicily
to be modern, clean, and remarkably (95%) on time.
Relaxing just a bit, we sit back and enjoy
our ride.
Trenitalia First Class ticket
Our First Class tickets cost us $11.50Euro
each, about $12.50USD.
Excellent.
As we arrive in Cefalu station, a man helps
me off the train's steep step and takes my luggage. Having spent so much time in
Matera hiking up and down the hills and slippery stone steps to see
The Stassi,
I am so grateful for the assistance.
My knees thanked him too.
We walk a short distance from the station -
again down lots of steps – and get to our apartment where we will be staying for
7 nights.
The apartment is gorgeous.
The Master
Bedroom
We are located right in the center of town,
and the apartment has 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen, and a bottle of wine is
waiting for us on the dining room table.
This is more like it!
Dining room, living room with kitchen off
to the right
The sunlight is streaming in through sheer
embroidered curtains, and the dining table and chairs are a cheery orange-red.
There's a huge refrigerator with freezer, ice
cubes are made and bottled water is inside.
We’re pretty tired from the unexpected
happenings of the night before, but we decide to go out food shopping and set
our place up.
Second bedroom
This is the second bedroom with cleaning
supplies in the closet to the left.
Outside the photo is a desk and chair.
We take the short walk from our apartment to
get to the grocery store and figure we'll just regroup back here at the
apartment and relax.
Lovely big kitchen
Microwave, kitchen flat top electric stove,
emergency numbers on the pantry wall to the left. A double sink, the wine bottle
and 2 wine glasses ready for us when we want to celebrate.
We are a bit discombobulated from lack of
sleep and it's our first day in a new town.
Coming home from the grocery, we get to where
we think our front door is located… and I can’t seem to get the key to work.
Billy says “let me try” and proceeds to have
the key break off in the lock!!!
We’re in disbelief again.
Are you kidding me?
This kind of stuff generally doesn't happen
to us and I just start to laugh at the absurdity of it all.
You know... What is going on here?
View from apartment
This is the view from our apartment, with the
Rocca di Cefalu to the right.
We are standing outside this building and
right when Billy is WhatsApp-ing the owner to let her know we have a problem
with the key and can't get into the apartment, a young woman named Maria
from the inside opens the door and lets us in.
We tell her our situation and say that we are
staying at Casa Anita. The owner is coming to meet us in 5 minutes.
We go up a couple of flights of stairs…. And
nothing looks familiar.
It's similar... but this isn't the place...
We're not in the right apartment building!!!
Oh no!!!
Bathroom
We had a bidet, a toilet, plenty of hot water
in a tub/shower with a shower curtain.
We let ourselves out of "the wrong apartment
building" and walk down a few more doors where we actually find "Casa Anita"
listed on the outside.
None of our keys work the front door.
Ah Jeeze!
At exactly that moment someone comes and
opens the door from the outside and asks if we are needing to get in.
We say yes, but our key has broken off and I
show her the pieces of the broken key.
Bathroom looking out into the hallway
The view of the bathroom looking the other
way, towards the 2nd bedroom.
I say the landlady is coming in 5 minutes to
give us another key and I mention "Casa Anita" and she recognizes it.
That's a good sign for all of us.
The dining room/ living room looking into
the Master Bedroom
So we get into the apartment building and up
the 50 stairs into the apartment itself.
Mariella, the landlady, and her son come over
and - while not mentioning we had the wrong building to begin with - we
tell her the whole story about the key and how it broke and...
Well, sort of..
That wine is looking pretty good right
about now...
Mariella and her son exchange their key with ours and personally take me through
all the doors, and all the keys.
This is your apartment front door.
This door in the hallway is always open.
Don't ever close this door.
In fact, here. Let me take your key in case
you forget and you lock this door by mistake.
Then we walk back down 50 stairs to the front
door.
From the other side of the living/dining
room into the kitchen
I'm going to show you how to open the front
door, she says. Think
of a medieval building.
Think of a solid wooden door that is
twice the height of a normal person, and most likely weighs 300 pounds.
Maybe more.
Yeah. It's probably solid stone and not wood
at all. She gently slides her key
into the lock from the outside while using the full brute force of her
whole body to turn they key
and - PUUUUSH - to open it.
See? It's easy.
Ok, got it.
Thanks, Mariella.
I think to myself "Maybe I'll never have to
leave. Maybe I'll never have to open this door again. Maybe Billy can simply
bring food up to me in the room, and I can look out the window at the lovely
view." Maybe...
But of course none of that is true.
I'm just tired.
Information about La Casa di Anita
Would we recommend this apartment to stay
while in Cefalu?
Of course!
Perfectly located, very clean, spacious and
bright.
Assistance was quick when we needed it, and
Cefalu's beach, restaurants, castle and hiking are worth seeing, no doubt.
Retire
Early Lifestyle appeals to a different
kind of person – the person who prizes their
independence, values their time, and who doesn’t
want to mindlessly follow the crowd.
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