Mid 80s working for Smiths of Scotter, tipped Turin and got my reload details, ship ex Genoa to Palermo and reload Siracusa for Aberdeen with oil rig equipment.
I was in my late 20s not long out of the army and impressionable, get on the ferry for a 24 hour crossing and put in a cabin with a Sicilian guy who spoke perfect English, told me he lived in the states and was going home to visit family.
The subject of Mafia came up and he assured me it was a Hollywood thing and didn’t exist in reality, why would I disbelieve him?
After loading in Siracusa a couple of days later and heading back to Palermo for the ferry to Livorno I came across a closed Autostrada and blue lights everywhere, after following a couple of Italians along a diversion and making the ferry with about 20 mins to spare I was told they closed the road because the Mafia had blown up the road and a Judges car in the process, it made world headlines at the time.