Are you a right-brained traveler?

To Michelangelo, the left hand meant life.

I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about being lefthanded while growing up. Raised in a house full of righthanders, I simply adapted to  unfriendly can openers and blister-causing scissors and got on with life.
Life as a lefty, though, meant drawing a certain amount of flack. And flack is fuel for stubborn individualism.
For 1 in 10 people (a number consistent through history and all cultures), being lefthanded (and thus predominantly right-brained) has generally meant being chided for daydreaming, considered clumsy, nonconformist, possibly criminal, definitely different.

Right-brainers live in the vivid moment.

Reading Rik Smits' book The Puzzle of Lefthandedness (2011) makes me glad I wasn't born to a tribe that crippled lefty children's dominant hands with fire to force them to use their right, or live in a time that deemed lefthandedness "sinister" and equated it with magic and witchcraft. Who wouldn't be a recluse or rebel if everyone you met made the sign of the cross?

The book's a great romp through history, superstition and science. Smits concludes that swimming against the tide of  90% of humanity in fundamental ways of thinking makes lefthanders self-reliant and independent, attributes that made me a determined solo traveler while still in my teens.
Work - much of it secretarial (the QWERTY keyboard is one of the rare tools that favors lefthanded users) - had one purpose: to fund missions to see my personal grails. Wide-eyed and strangely unworried, I pursued my obsessions like Super Mario, full blast, leaping obstacles as they rose in an era before the safety net of cellphones, internet access, ATMs or easy overseas dialing for a parental bailout.

Exercising your left brain is definitely a good idea, too.

These days, I plan more but still often find trip inspiration in a single painting, building, artist bio, old photo, film, fairytale illustration, myth, legend, even the occasional nursery rhyme.
But when it comes to travel, left-brainers may be better at making it happen. Logic, time management, finance and planning skills go a long way towards turning an idea into reality. And coming up with ways to turn costly "vacations" into viable travel-related businesses.
But do right-brainers (and you don't have to be lefthanded to be predominantly right-brained) get more out of it? 

I believe travel is addictive because it stirs and satisfies the creative, emotional, sensation-seeking right brain in all of us. Every step we take frames new pictures. New smells, tastes, even atmospheric conditions, rivet our attention in the moment. The rocking of a train, even the disorienting twilight of an overnight flight through multiple time zones, eases us into a meditative state that quiets our thoughts, makes our minds more receptive, allows us to feel, not just observe.
Travel is a direct ticket past your corpus collosum into the vivid, dreamy realm of your right brain. Whether you maintain permanent residence there or just visit from time to time, it's a groovy place to find yourself.

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Sicily's seductive beaches & strange symbol

Castellamare del Golfo, Sicily.

The trinacria, symbol of Sicily, Italy.

More than 2,000 years ago, Greek sailors sailing the Mediterranean around Sicily gazed upon its golden shores and likened them to the alluring legs of a woman. They called the island Trinakria, or three pointed, identifying it with the Thrinacia mentioned in Homer's Odyssey.
I love to wander Sicily's beaches in the off season when it's easy to imagine ancient scenes on deserted shores.
The trinacria is still the symbol of Sicily, appearing on everything including the region's flag, though in that case the snakes coming from gorgon Medusa's head have been updated to less-threatening wheat sheaves.
I don't mind the snakes.  To me, they perfectly represent all the old mountain roads that wind all over this beautiful island.

Paradiso nature preserve is on Sicily's south coast, not far from the Greek temples at Selinunte.

Scarab beetles scurry over the dunes at Paradiso nature preserve.

Alcamo Marina, in Western Sicily.

The old tonnara (tuna fishery) at Scopello.

The popular beach town of San Vito lo Capo, Sicily, hosts an annual Cous Cous Festival.

Strait of Messina, Italy: myth, magic & a much-needed bridge

Hello, Sicily.

When Odysseus sailed the Strait of Messina he had a tough decision to make.  Sailing too close to Calabria would mean passing Scylla, a sailor-snatching sea-nymph with a body composed of ravening dogs.  Too close to Sicily and the huge whirlpool mouth of Charybdis could suck down the entire ship.

Ultramarine.

Navigating the water between mainland Italy and Sicily has always meant being caught between a rock and a hard place.  The water is turbulent here where the Ionian Sea (to the south) meets the Tyrrhenian Sea (to the north).  Also making trouble for mariners of old, a rare atmospheric phenomenon called the Fata Morgana after Morgan Le Fay of Arthurian legend (you know, Camelot).  The sorceress was said to lure sailors to their death here by producing a mirage of land, castles and all. Though no longer attributed to witchcraft, the optical illusion is still occasionally observed today.

Waiting for the ferry.

Causing much more trouble for travellers these days is 21st-century traffic.  Cars jockey for position to get onto the ferry that crosses the Strait, then pour off like racing pigs at a state fair.  On the Messina side this year, frustration reigned as we found all ferry signage on the highways approaching Messina had been removed.
In Calabria, the A3 highway - a major route at high elevation through the mountains - was reduced at points to one narrow lane clogged by heavy equipment, hurtling trucks and construction preparing for the new bridge across the Strait.  For Pat and I, a familiar route had become nerve wracking and confusing.  Drivers who've never been down this way could find current conditions paralyzing and dangerous.

The idea of a bridge over the Strait of Messina has been around since Roman times and revived many times since.  Under Silvio Berlusconi, completion was projected for 2016.  Now that he's resigned?  Who knows.
Personally, I'm not happy to see an ancient vista altered forever but look forward to a new wonder of the world.  Until the bridge is built, I'll be approaching the Strait in a train, not a rental car.

Myth and water around Lamezia Terme, Calabria, Italy

Dense forests harbor wild boar.

Free bathing at roadside spring at Caronte.

We've been using Calabria as a back door to Sicily for a few years, preferring direct flights to Lamezia Terme to non-direct flights to Palermo.  Car rental is a lot easier at Lamezia, too.
This time we stayed in the area for a few days to decompress and explore.  Our first stop is always the quiet train station mensa to eat, then La Mimosa on the Caronte mountain just outside town.  La Mimosa's rooms are modest but everything works, the staff are accommodating and the food a favorite with locals including the police.

La Mimosa hotel, ristorante & pizzeria.

 This time we took a short walk up the hill to get our flight kinks blissfully pummelled out with scented hydromassage at Terme Caronte.  Now a big modern spa authorized by the government to provide health services, Terme Caronte has been offering water cures since 1716.

The spa's symbol is Caronte (or Charon) himself, the boatman of Greek myth who ferries the dead across the Styx.  There are free spots to soak alongside the road just opposite the spa and here, near the source, it is easy to imagine Charon poling his way across the Hades-hot, underground river.

Unofficial soaking spot closer to the source.

If you'd like to jump in the ocean, the big bay of the Golfo di S. Eufemia is not far. Hotels and restaurants adorn the Gizzeria and Falerna lidos but clues to the area's hardscrabble past are not hard to find.

Between Calabria and Sicily.  Between a rock and a hard place.  The Straits of Messina have an ancient myth of their own but that's a tale for my next post.

Scilla, Calabria, with the Straits and Sicily beyond.