Blogs from Sicily, Italy, Europe - page 57

We headed north from Taormina for about 25 minutes to the port town of Messina. The Ustica hydrofoil station and ticket office were easy to find and were just a short distance to the Europcar dropoff point. We arrived in the town of Lipari at the Marina Lunga after a relatively calm 45 minutes crossing of the Straits of Messina. Our hotel, Villa Meligunis was conveniently located near the other marina, Marina Corta. After breakfast we would walk the short distance (150 meters) to the marina where we met Giancarlo and boarded the Alice, a comfortable 8 meter motorboat. For the first two days, we toured Lipari and Salina by boat. On day three we took a break from the water and visited the Duomo and Museo Archeologico. On the fourth day we were back on ... read more

Visit to the Valley of the temples...... read more

We reluctantly left Siracusa and drove north to Taormina. The 45 minute drive skirted Catania through bumper-to-bumper traffic. We thought the worse was over once we exited the highway and began to drive the steep approach to Taormina. After making three failed attempts to penetrate the hilltop (more like cliff top) defenses of Taormina we parked the car and set out by foot to find Grand Hotel Timeo . The problem was that the main porta had been closed off to traffic making it very difficult to navigate to the front entrance of the hotel which was located near the base of the Roman-Greek amphitheatre (with or without the TomTom). At one point we took a wrong turn into a steep descending winding street so narrow that we had to fold back both side view mirrors.....Unfortunately ... read more

This morning we checked out of Gigliotto and backtracked north to Piazza Armerina and then west about 2 or 3 miles to Villa Romana Del Casale. The remains of this roman villa contain over 3,500 square meters of mosaics, many of which were preserved by a landslide that occurred in the 12th century. The villa is of uncertain origin, i.e. the owner has not been identified, but one thing is clear, the owner(s) led the high life of a typical Roman mogul. The mosaics give a glimpse into Roman life in the 2nd to 4th centuries AD, particularly the privileged class. In additions to baths, public latrines, scenes of the hunt and mythological struggles, there were glimpses of Roman erotic art. We completed our tour, and headed back past Piazza Armerina and Gigliotto south about 20 ... read more

We zigzagged back down the mountain from Erice back over to A29 and drove southeast towards Agrigento via SS118. We ate our salami and cheese panini (prepared in Erice), fresh almonds, and cherries . Along the way we watched the cars passing on blind curves (with many near collisions) and many more wildfires. The countryside was similiar to California, golden hills with patches of small farms that included vineyards, olive orchards and a host of other fruit/nut crops. It reminded me of the old California Central Valley i.e. long before the strip malls, roadside motels and surburban sprawl. We traveled out of the Trapani district into the Agrigento region and reached Raffadali in about two hours. From there, we wound our way north into the countryside first passing the small town of Sant'Elisabetta as we headed ... read more