Blogs from Catania, Sicily, Italy, Europe - page 3

After our three hectic days in the sometimes chaotic, but always interesting, Palermo, a short one hour train trip along the north coast found us in Cefalu where we spent the night. This pretty and historic seaside resort is a favourite holiday venue for the locals. The narrow beach was 'pay only' entry (10 euro) for your umbrella and sunbed for the day. Everyone and everything was being prepared for the summer to come. The following day a two hour train trip took us to Millazzo from where we caught a hydrofoil to Lipari town, capital of the Aeolian Islands. It was here we spent the next five days. Lipari is the largest and main island of this group of seven volcanic islands. We had really been looking forward to a relaxing time here and weren't ... read more

Didn't have long in Catania - the first day I got here I went straight to Taormini and spent the day there, and I only had that evening and the following morning to see this volcanic city. Went to see Piazza Duomo in the night which has the Fontana dell'Elefante made of lava in its centre, and surrounded by the Duomo and other nice buildings. I then went in the morning to try and get a view of Mount Etna as I didn't get to see it yesterday.... read more

Took a hop on hop of bus , the northern route what took 3 hours without hopping of.Went to Valletta in the afternoon. Went yesterday in the morning to the old capital Mdina and in the afternoon again Valletta Impression of Malta - Their unknown wine is very good and unbelievable cheap - They threat beer as in England - They drive on the leftside of the road but since everybody is doing it its no problem - One of their export products are potatoes - 500 public busses owned by 500 independent drivers somebody told me. Still a working schedule - Valletta another Unesco world heritage site. Real historic looking and people still living in the citadel - In the churches hundreds of tombstones of the Maltezer knights who were living here for centuries - ... read more

By this day we had pretty much exhausted Taormina and had heard good things about Catania, so we decided to take the hour bus ride there. Everyone who said good things about Catanialied. Catania is probably the one place I left in Italy and says that I have absolutely no desire to go back to. Now, i am sure it is probably nice if you live there. but for tourists it is not a good city. especially if the weather isn't nice. It took an hour for us to even find the main duomo, which was pretty, but not necessarily pretty enough that it was worth the trip. There was a food market right around the corner that probably would have been cool except it was a fish market and the smell of fish makes me ... read more

What a beautiful island, we truly enjoyed the 3 hour bus ride from Palermo to Catania, from one side of Sicily to the other. Surprisingly, there were so many rocky peaks, rolling hills, and of course lovely citrus orchards. We arrived to our next destination, La Casa delle Acque, on a particularly warm day, about 85 degrees F. We were welcomed with a spaghetti lunch and several bottles of champagne and local wine. I guess it was a New Years Eve Eve celebration. When we arrived to the house there were already about 15 people there and many more to come. The owner of the property Nirav, was away to Tuscany visiting family for the holidays. The two individuals in charge of the Wwoofers were Philip and Nele, a German couple that has been working ... read more