Blogs from Sicily, Italy, Europe - page 63

The Giardino Garibaldi in the center of Piazza Marina is a small garden square around the corner from where I was staying on Via Bottai. I discovered it the first day I was in Palermo, and from then forward stopped there once or twice a day to rest my feet or simply to watch the activities of the city around me. The first time I visited the piazza I observed a small wedding party posing for professional photographs. Several hours later, I returned to sit and eat my gelato and noticed that the same group was still busy posing, pointing, and clicking away! The garden of the piazza is home to several massive ficus magnolioides trees. The roots are exposed above the ground, and new starts dangle from the existing branches resembling rope-like tendrils waiting to ... read more

Motorhome News from Europe 17. Italy/ Sicily. February 2005 A week in Sicily visiting the land of wine, lemons and the Godfather Delayed by an unfortunate accident shortly after leaving Paestum on the coast where we had spent the previous night, we didn’t get to Sicily on Monday as previously planned, but camped few miles short to await the morning ferry. Stopped in traffic in the main street of Agropoli, a lady in the car behind fell asleep (or was she on the telephone which most of them are, most of the time?) and drove straight into the back of us. A local policeman helped with the exchange of details. ‘Buon giorno, buon giorno, buon giorno’, he said, rocking gently back and forth on his heels. ‘Wassa goin on ere-a eh?’ We later discovered he had ... read more

Chapter 26 An amphitheatre, a cable cart and a kind of magic They arose at a reasonable time and headed for the Greek amphitheatre in Toarmina. A huge theatre appeared around the corner, half the size of the one in Syracuse with Mount Etna and the Naxos sea providing the backdrop to the stage; truly stunning. The only negative was that there were no stairs, they had placed wooden seats enforced by metal to complete the semicircle, taking away the genuineness of the place, unlike Syracuse which maintained its original charm. Toarmina’s amphitheatre easily outweighed the other on beauty grounds, Athens shall have to wait for judgement time. The Theatre in Taormina is the second-largest in Sicily after the one in Siracusa. All the Romans did later, in accordance with their well-known ostentatious nature, was enlarge ... read more

Chapter 24 A Greek tragedy and the mines of Moria They arose at a reasonable time and headed for the archaeology park about twenty minutes walk from the town (having bought another map and consumed breakfast). A section of the park, right next to the athletics track, was a Greek amphitheatre. Set in well-kept grounds, the theatre lay in front of them. A cosy well-preserved theatre dug from the rock arose from the stage, with steps rising up onto a hill. At the top of the hill, small caves and a natural spring provided the backdrop. An excellent place to visit, though not quite on the scale of the Coliseum, more a second division kind of ground. Around the theatre, the Greeks must have had an incredible view of the Naxos sea. Unfortunately nowadays, the view ... read more

Chapter 22 Cefalu - On top of the world (and some very dead people) The receptionist had recommended Cefalu as a good place for a day trip, but Maya first wanted to see the Capuchin monks’ catacombs just off the Piazza Indipendenzia. Three buses later, they reached the house of the dead. Martin had been a little reserved about seeing dead people on display, not so much because they were dead but the fact that they were on display. A monk in traditional attire let them into the crypt. The tombs were originally for the Capuchin monks, the first of whom was entombed in 1599. Over the years they were joined by professionals, women, nobility and children until the last person to be placed there was in 1920; a young girl called Rosalia. The doctor who ... read more