Blogs from Catania, Sicily, Italy, Europe

We all wished we could stay another night in Ibla, Ragusa but unfortunately it was not to be. This morning we were back on our bus and our first stop was the town of Noto. Noto had once been destroyed by an earthquake and when the town was rebuilt, a conscious decision was made to rebuild it all in the baroque style, which made all the buildings fit together really well. The result of this is Noto is now one of the finest baroque towns in Sicily and another UNESCO World Heritage site. We wandered up the main street, marvelling at the grandeur of all the buildings. There was the cathedral Catterdrale dei San Nicolo which has a special story to tell. The Main dome actualky collapsed into the cathedral in 1996 and it took 9 ... read more

We had only a small distance to drive to reach Catania. We wanted to stay there to see mount Etna. On arriving at the B&B in Catania we heard there was no parking and they had no idea where we could park. That was not on the sheet from Book.com. According to that there was parking. We told them and left for we needed parking. We went in the direction of Mount Et na in the hope we would find something. Half way up we had to return there was no fuel anywhere as in Nicolasi. By doing so we found also a place for the night. Checking in they told us we had plenty of time to see Mount Etna. The road to Mount Etna was very good it was winding that slows you down. ... read more

Vanmorgen op tijd opgestaan, want om 9.15 moeten we bij het station van Catania staan voor de pick-up voor de excursie naar de Etna. Gelukkig is de ontbijtzaal 5 minuten eerder open en kunnen we om 7.55 even een bliksembezoek brengen om een yoghurtje, jus d'orange en broodje te verorberen, want op een lege maag kunnen we natuurlijk niet wandelen. Om 8.05 rijden we de poort van Fondo Cipollate uit om via de snelle route naar Catania te rijden. Timemanagement blijkt weer een pluspunt van ons te zijn, want om 9.10 staan we op de afgesproken plek. Gelukkig hebben we ook een punctuele gids, Marco, want hij komt exact 5 minuten later aanrijden. Samen met een Deense vader en zijn twee zoontjes stappen we in de jeep, voor een warme rit naar het bezoekerscentrum op de ... read more

Geo: 37.503, 15.0881We were so glad to wake up and find it was sunny in Sicily after the rain we had in Turkey. We had thought about hiring a taxi and going to Syracuse which has some ancient Roman ruins but in the end we caught the shuttle bus and went into Catania town. There are only so many Roman ruins you can see and after Ephesus none of them are as good.Catania has previously been destroyed by earthquake and volcanic eruption and was mostly rebuilt in the Baroque era. It has loads of lovely old baroque buildings but as the bad economic climate has set in, a lot of the buildings were suffering from neglect which is a real pity. We walked through the town via the usual Duomo and down to the Fish Market ... read more

Geo: 37.503, 15.0882We were leaving France today so spent the morning having a late breakfast at the hotel and checking out. The staff at the Ibis have been really great. At midday we caught the bus into Aix-en-Provence to do some last minute shopping of items we had spotted earlier in the week. I bought THE BEST BOOTS EVER after thinking about them for a few days. Had an excellent lunch of Moules‑frites (mussels with a cream white wine sauce and fries). Yummo. And more Rose of course. The friendly waiter (see photo) plied us with some apple flavored spirit following lunch, nice but strong (the drink). We then picked up the car and drove to Marseille airport for a no frills flight with Ryanair to Catania, Sicily that night. The terminal was very basic however ... read more