Blogs from Sicily, Italy, Europe - page 17

Mark and I have been blessed to have had the opportunity to travel a lot but neither one of us had ever been to Sicily. Having never been there, we were not burdened with preconceived notions. WAIT! Scratch. Cross out. Do over. We both had PLENTY of preconceived notions. Like Sicily is dirty. Sicily has brown and scrubby landscape. Sicily is one big blistering volcano. Note to self—visit a place before you become sure you know it. We woke up early (6 a.m.) because our tour met at 8 and we needed to clean up and eat breakfast before we went to the meeting spot. Did all of that—breakfast was the buffet in the Veranda Dining Room, a buffet with all kinds of eggs, breakfast meats, continental breakfast meats, fruit, cereal, yogurt, jams and honey. It ... read more

Well, everyone who was going home should be there by now. Can not believe it is over. It was truly a marvelous trip and there is still so much of Sicily I would love to see. Thought I would kind of give a fun ending to this blog by relating some fun stuff. First of all, I promised Luca I would correct a couple of spellings from an early blog. Luca, if there were more errors, feel free to correct me. I only wrote what I remembered and that can sometimes be way off. The town we saw from the outlook or belvedere in Sicily was Castellammare. The hot ricotta cream pastry was Cassatelli. When one travels in a foreign country, there are always interesting things. First let me introduce you to my fellow travelers, but ... read more

Had no internet at last hotel, so you might find several blogs dated today. On the third last day we learned so much that I thought my head was spinning. We went to Siracusa (Syracuse), birthplace of the famed Mathematician Archimedes, the guy who supposedly yelled "Eureka" when he discovered that objects displace as much water as they weigh, as he was running down the streets naked. Oh well, sounds good, but probably no truth in the naked part. Anyway, he was way ahead of his time in so many educational matters. There is a sculpture standing in between two bridges supposedly of him, since no one knows what he looked like. He is holding a compass in one and and a "burning" mirror in the other. Story is that when Roman ships tried to attack, ... read more

We decided to spend our last three days in Italy on the small volcanic island of Lipari, part of the Aeolian Islands. We found a beautiful apartment in the Sea Rose Villa, right near a small beach, and at the edge of the delightful main town of Lipari. There are about 10,000 residents here year around, but that doubles in summer. While there are quite a few tourists here off season, it's still peaceful. I've been able to run in the hills, swim and look at volcanoes...heaven! I visited the archaeology museum one morning, and was amazed the literal layers of history under my feet. Ancient peoples settled here in about 6000 BCE, and prospered in the obsidian trade, as Lipari has one of the few obsidian deposits in Europe. Mainland tribes took over, the Greeks ... read more

It looked like a clear day and a calm ferry ride fro Calabria to Messina, but the ferry was small and bobbed enough that I got a bit queasy, never happened to me before. Not pleasant! The place we're staying has a balcony looking out on the port and is only a few blocks from the Duomo. Orange trees growing everywhere. Stopping for a little rest before going out to dinner this evening. I added a car photo from yesterday. J Hello All, Now that we have WiFi and I figured out how to post photos from my camera, I am adding photos of some of the starts Julia and I climbed several times a day in Reggio. we did not hesitate partaking in the wonderful foods Reggio had to offer.... read more