NikB

Geo: 37.6905, 15.1051Our final stop, in the foothills of Mt Etna. Luckily for us, no sign of any volcanic activity since the last eruption in March 2017.Our accommodation was just beautiful, completely designed, built and operated by the Petralia family. The delightful and helpful Sara on front of house, her mum and sister cooking and her father organising the garden and further extensions. I certainly could have stayed longer here, so very relaxing.Checked out Mt Etna, 12kms of wonderful switchbacks up to the carpark. Pretty desolate and black... lots of old lava flows and on the cable car that takes you up to 2,500m you can see the craters from previous eruptions.We had planned to do a day trip to the well known coastal town of Taormina.... but the impending G7 summit put a stop to ... read more

Geo: 37.3835, 14.3697In Agrigento we were staying at Hotel Villa Athena, an elegant property with views across to the Temple of Concordia which looks beautiful by day and even more spectacular at night when it is lit up. Superb property in every way... although posh dinner was an extremely entertaining experience!We were greeted by the Head Waiter on arrival and seated on the terrace where only about 5 other tables were occupied. I counted six other waiters hovering around - all looking very dapper in their white jackets but then it seemed that the cloak of invisibility had been thrown over us. After a very lengthy time with no appearance of either menus, water or bread we were rather perplexed. After resorting to asking for menus, it seemed another table hadn't finished with the menus, so ... read more

Geo: 38.1157, 13.3612Late night arrival in Palermo. Unique and quirky accommodation in the old city. Every room decorated differently. Obscure art pieces adorning each room. Old motorbikes, scooters and sculptures feature prominently, as do highly carved doors from India. Allesandro a great host - clearly he has a penchant for collecting unusual artifacts.Chiesa di San Giovanni degli Eremiti, an interesting mix of Arab Norman architecture, built on top of a mosque. Really beautiful columned Norman cloisters surrounded by a garden of citrus trees, palms, cacti, rosemary bushes and ruined walls.The Capella Palatina, the royal chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily in the Palazzo Reale is jaw dropping. Built around 1140 it is has glittering gold mosaics over all the walls, exquisite marble floors and a wooden carved ceiling. It is so ornate it's actually difficult ... read more

Geo: 40.5509, 14.2429A day in Capri. Hydrofoil to the island, funicular from the port up to CaprI town, then the local bus to Anacapri. This was the more attractive side of the island and the views from the top of the chairlift at Mount Solaro back to the Sorrentine peninsula were magnificent.We lunched near the Chiesa Monumentale di San Michele which has the most beautiful hand painted ceramic tiled floor showing the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. It was created in 1761 by Leonardo Chiaiese and is highly detailed and colorful.However the most intriguing sight was the yacht moored offshore. I had seen it sailing along the Amalfi coast a few days before and here it was again, the super yacht belonging to Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko. The A$400 million yacht ... read more

Geo: 40.6263, 14.3757Final day of walking today through varied landscape and terrain and along the narrow paths and streets of small villages. There were so many small plots of cultivated land we became reasonably expert in identifying each crop - peas, broad beans, artichokes, strawberries, potatoes, zucchini, cucumbers and so many more... it seems that every household must have someone with a green thumb - as it all looks so healthy.We detoured to the small fishing port of Punta Lagno and had a very well deserved panini at Angelo's Bar and enjoyed chatting to the delightful Matilda who not only spoke Italian, English, French, German and Spanish but had recently graduated in Chinese! I felt very inadequate.Eventally we arrived in Sorrento and met up with both Murray and Martin who had arrived earlier that day. So ... read more