Blogs from Sicily, Italy, Europe - page 2

Our first day in Palermo was really late arvo and evening so we just got our bearings went to the supermarket and bought water, beer, wine and snacks. So second day we did a big walk around heaps of sites walking around 17klms, they soon mount up when you are on the move. After breaky at our B&B off we went firstly to Teatro Massimo which was a lovely theatre built in the late 1800s, scenes from the Godfather were shot here, then Capo Market, I love markets its like the life of any town or city you visit, The Palmero Cathedral, Palace of the Normans or Royal Palace, onto Ballaro Street Market, which is bigger than Capo, Porta Nuova near the Palace of the Normans its a monumental city gate which is something else, truly ... read more

Did get our ferry at 5.00a.m. Tuesday 13th and it all went very smoothly being off the boat by 7.00a.m. It was a very big ferry with heaps of cars and semi trailers. We hailed a taxi to take us to the Pozzallo Railway Station and then waited for our 9a.m. train and wasn't it a shock when it arrived, reminded me of the Flintstones, an old two carriage affair with an engine in the front of one of the carriages, and it was high off the platform with very steep steps, poor John nearly busted a foofer valve trying to lug the cases up the steps and onto the train! Got into Syracuse about 10.30a.m. and were able to easily walk to our accommodation whilst not on Ortigia Island its only about 400 metres to ... read more

I know we should be used to it by now, but the ear splitting blasts from the fireworks awaken us again on the dot of nine o’clock, followed shortly thereafter by the now seemingly daily ritual of the brass band parading glacially slowly down the street outside our apartment. I decide it’s time to find out a bit more about all of this so it’s off to consult the Google machine about the feast that we appear to have landed here in the middle of. Its official title is the Feast of the Most Holy Saviour of Cefalu. The actual feast day is tomorrow, so if the cannon blasts of the past few days are only a warm up we’d better invest in some ear muffs, and quickly. It celebrates the Transfiguration of Jesus, but legend ... read more

We decide it’s time for a morning on the beach. As we look down from our balcony we spy a shady patch of sand directly below us that doesn’t look to be too heavily occupied. The water’s patchy warm, but Issy seems to be struggling to find the patches. She tells me she doesn’t like that fish keep nibbling away at her feet. Don’t people pay a lot of money to subject themselves to just that in places like Bali, although I suppose it could be a bit different when you’re not expecting it. Giovanni has kindly provided us with a small orange rubber ball and two pink bats with pictures of Minnie Mouse on them. We hope these will contribute to the morning’s entertainment. The idea was for us to entertain each other, but the ... read more

Today we‘ve got a long day of travelling south to the town of Cefalu on the north coast of Sicily. We’re having a bit of trouble getting the GPS on our trusty hire car to work so we decide instead to follow our noses thinking that we can’t go too far wrong if we just hug the coast. Road signs are handy too. Slovenian must be a very efficient language; it’s spelling of Trieste is Trst, yep, you just leave out all the vowels. I’m glad our beloved Emma isn’t Slovenian. Maybe following our noses wasn’t such a great idea. We’re fairly sure our route to the airport isn’t supposed to take us through the middle of downtown Trieste. It’s now morning rush hour so it’s just as well we’ve got a bit of time up ... read more