Blogs from Sicily, Italy, Europe

We overnighted at Siracuse and woke up to much warmer weather, although it would be soon be getting cold and windy for Leonie and I as we had opted to go up Mt Etna. The 90 min bus drive was well worth the trip - we were rewarded with amazing views and a walk around one of Etna's many craters - from some angles were could easily be on a different planet. It is hard to believe that people still leave on the volcano. With only 1 day in Sicily we did not have enough time to explore the island, but it was nice to be back in warmer weather - might even go for a swim!!!... read more

One ancient tomb, several ancient temples, one ancient fortress and one not so ancient ghost town This blog entry covers most of the places I visited in the second half of this trip in Sicily. When I look through the pictures I see that there are a lot of historical (ancient) places there. But there is some other stuff in there too so hopefully there is something for people who are not history buffs as well. Scala dei Turchi Scala dei Turchi is a cliff face that is unusual as it is white. The rock is sedimentary and the white colour comes from it being made up mainly of shells from a certain kind of plankton. Sant'Angelo Muxaro Sant'Angelo Muxaro is one of many small hill towns in Sicily. The towns were built on hilltops... read more

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