The Pairing

When we arrived in Sicily, Fabrizio told us the myth of its creation. How three nymphs danced across the earth, gathering the best of everything, the most fertile soil and the most fragrant flora, the ripest fruit and the smoothest stones. They met at the bluest part of the Mediterranean, where the heavens overhead were brightest, and they danced there, casting their treasures into the sea, and so the island was formed.

As I walk with Theo to Palermo Centrale in the light of a warm Sicilian morning, sharing granita di caffè with one spoon, I think it must be true.

It’s the final day of the tour, and we’re finishing with a day trip to Favignana, one of the tiny islands off Sicily’s northwest coast. We meet the group outside the train station, clutching tickets to the port in Trapani, where we’ll catch a boat to the islet. Montana waves when she sees us, sunglasses flashing glamorously in the sun.

“Hey, we lost you guys last night!” she says. “Where’d you go?”