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Published: April 21st 2009
Roaming along the various beaches and coastline of Sicily and southern Italy, sampling the local cuisine all made with the freshest produce and offering endless gelato ice-cream flavours, stopping only to take a swim or take shelter under a tree from the hot sun whilst looking through ancient ruins which have captivated mankind for hundreds of years.
Thinking you could get used to this? Well this was our life for 10 days as James and I travelled through Sicily and up through the southern Italian towns until we reached the mecca of Rome. So come and join me for the first of three instalments of the Italian Adventures of Hannahlina and Jamesone!*
*(Hannah-lea-nah & James-oh-knee)
We started our venture in the Sicilian town of Palermo, where James’ friend Laurel kindly gave us a bed for the next few nights, inclusive of full-scale tour services. However, there was no rest for the wicked, as soon as we had dropped off our bags we were off to meet some of Laurel’s local friends for dinner. James and I tried an Arangina - a local delicacy consisting of some kind of deep fried ball of meat with rice - can’t say I
Ballarò Markets
Random local food + yummy fresh fruit!liked the Arangina that much, although James did. So I was happy when we wandered along the waterfront to meet even more friends at a gelato café to try a brioche: kinda like bread with ice cream - now thats my kind of food! We continued our tour to Piazza Magione, which was bombed down to rubble during WWII, and spent the rest of the evening absorbing in the atmosphere on this busy, warm summer’s evening.
We started each day in Sicilian style: croissants and steamed milked from the local cafe, or fresh food and ice tea from the Ballarò markets. While the rest of the days were either spent travelling between the sea and my beach towel (and vice versa) or on Laurel’s Infamous Palermo City Tour, showing us the highlights of the city, from mosque’s to mafia ground including the Quarto Canti, Old Royal Palazzo, the fountain of shame, and Piazza Bellini to see the ‘3 nipple mosque’ and the Mosaic Church.
One evening Laurel took us up to a villa party high up on one of the hills over looking Palermo. The villa must have been worth a fortune, but what a party! Open bar,
Cefalù
The cutest little town! DJ, heaps of people in the finely landscaped garden and all on a warm summers night. Awesome!
Jamesone and Hannahlina took a day trip along the north coast to the gorgeous fishing village of Cefalù. Tucked away in its own corner of the world, it was a little slice of paradise by the beach. We had a look through the middle of the village, at the town’s Cathedral, then around the coastline following the sea wall back to the beach and of course trying another gelato flavour!
We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming along the coastline, where the old Italian villas literally met the water’s edge: what a magical place to swim!
That evening we headed out again with Laurel’s friends and had my mandatory scooter ride zooming around the streets, weaving our way around cars. It was so much fun and a little scary all at the same time!
And what better destination to take me than a galeteria?! They had so many flavours of ice-cream it was unbelievable! - I’m pretty sure I was physically shaking!
We had to say goodbye to our hostess, Laurel (Thanks hun!!) and caught a train to the
Tempio della Concordia
My favorite temple (so far)
Valley of the Temples, Agrigento south coast of Sicily to Agrigento to see the amazing ‘Valley of The Temples’. We arrived just in time to view the archaeological museum which gave us a great introduction to everything we were about to see. The most impressive of all the thousands of things in the museum has to be the giant Telamone, once one of many lining the exterior of the Temple of Olympian Zeus: a massive structure almost the size of a rugby field and in excess of 10 stories high!
The valley itself had extensive ruins: 11 temples in total, all in varying stages of completeness. My favourite was ‘Tempio della Concordia’ (see photo) a near complete temple high upon a cliff edge looking out towards the sea.
We explored the rest of the valley in the 35°C+ heat, constantly glad to find little pockets of shade, and were even allowed to climb on some of the ruins!
Next up was a 3hour bus ride across Sicily’s scenic landscape to Catania on the west coast, with just enough time to try some local food before catching an overnight train to Naples.
I’d never been on a sleeper train before, so was quite excited.
Cathedral of Palermo
Glowing in the evening lights Our four person room was quite basic, but each had a bed which I guess is all you need. Crossing from Sicily to southern Italy was a bit unnerving as we were stuck inside a train carriage inside the bottom of a boat, but the next thing we knew we were in Naples ready to take on the next part of the adventure! .. stay tuned.
Gelato Tally: 6
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