Taormina and Mt. Etna

Taormina and Mt. Etna

Taormina, in the province of Messina, is the crown jewel of Sicily.  With spectacular views of Mt. Etna, warm and sunny weather and a lovely balcony room in our hotel, it was easily the highlight of our trip.  Not to shortchange the beautiful Amalfi coast (which is absolutely breathtaking), I think Taormina was even better.

Bob took the included tour UP to the ancient amphitheater still in use today, and took amazing pictures of Mt. Etna from that high ground.

Mt Etna viewed from the Amphitheater

View from our balcony

   while I was still nursing my wounded foot and stayed behind in the hotel and just relaxed on our balcony, enjoying the peace and quiet.

When he got back from the morning tour, Bob took me on a tour of the village.  The village is high up, and since it was off season offered a lot more than the nearly deserted beach.  We had lunch at a lovely little pizzeria and met a German couple sitting next to us.  Bob is fluent in German; Katerina spoke passable English (she was once a nanny for an American couple living in Germany).  I know no German and Gunther knew no English.  It was a lively conversation, with translations galore!  Katerina's English improved by the minute once she got back into it.  You know I had to ask what they thought of Obama, since in 2009 Germany was as besotted with him as the media in America was.   Not so much now.  Everyone over here is concerned about ISIS, and the instability of N. Africa ever since the "Arab Spring" destabilized those governments and led to the chaos that is now enveloping Western Europe.

Sicily and Malta they have to deal with the refugees from N. Africa.  "Boat people" they call them.  They are happy to take them in because to send them back would mean a certain death, but it is creating a strain on their social services.   Unemployment in Sicily is very high, especially among people under 30 or so, but these immigrants are "doing the jobs Italians don't want to do."  Sounds familiar.  In Malta they have the same problem, but Malta's economy is good as opposed to that of Sicily.  Yet even in Malta there is growing concern about the huge influx of refugees because it takes 2 years to process them, and once they have been given legal status they can't send them to other EU countries because Malta is where they landed.  Very chaotic situation all over the Med. and no easy answers or solutions in sight.

But I digress.  Back to Taormina - - -

We went up to Mt. Etna, and it was a remarkably clear day.  We were told that the group there the week before never even saw Mt. Etna because of the clouds.  So we were very lucky to have good weather that day.  We hiked around an old crater from the eruption of 1693, if I remember right.  There is another crater several hundred feet higher that was created in 2001, but the climb was too daunting for all but the young.  We were quite satisfied with the views we saw from our crater, although photos of the crater itself don't show up very well.  Most of the snow at that level has melted, but what remains just isn't very photogenic.

Lava Field on Mt Etna

Bob near the crater's edge

Crateri Silvestri w/people walking on the rim

Me walking the rim on top

Siracusa Boat Tour and a trip to Ragusa

I'm in heaven!  The rain is gone and its supposed to be sunny all week!  I took a boat tour this AM while Bob went to Ragusa.  I still can't walk well enough to handle uneven cobblestones, so I stayed at the hotel.  Several of our group invited me to go on the boat tour so I gladly accepted.  It turns out Siracusa is best seen from the water!

As we left the harbor we came to a very low bridge.  The boatman said in his limited  English, "Down."  We figured it out pretty quick!  Here are the shots.

We putt-putted along the coast to a grotto.  Not as good as the Blue Grotto in Capri, but not bad and a lot cheaper!

 The tour lasted about 75 minutes and was well worth the 15 € we paid.  It was lovely to get out and enjoy a real Spring day.

View of Ragusa

Meanwhile Bob went inland to a town called Ragusa, which was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1600s and rebuilt in the Baroque Style.  At least the Duomo was.

The Duomo

Another church

Someone's actual home, but it looks like a museum

Ragusa

Tomorrow we are off to Taormino for 4 nights.  We're going up Mt. Etna at some point.  Til' then . . .

Palermo, Monreale, Cefalu - Church days Mar 22-2

Obviously, I could not keep up a daily blog.  Or even a weekly one.  In my draft pile are several posts I started but don't finish.  Any posts no would have to be backdated.  So I'm putting the dates in the title.
So, to recap the week so far, we were in Palermo for 3 days, staying the the Grand Hotel Wagner, named after Richard Wagner who spent time in Palermo.  The hotel was a beautiful 18th century building that had been totally renovated but in the same ornate style.  It was certainly a big improvement over the Cesare Augusto in Sorrento, where the toilet didn't flush, the hair dryer didn't work and the bed was lumpy.  The only saving grace was a balcony with a bistro table and chairs where I could write and smoke.  In Palermo I also had a balcony but it was the Juliet style, very narrow so you could only stand.  But it served its purpose.

Palermo Cathedral

 Monday we toured Palermo.  Saw a cathedral, and an "oriatory" which was a church completely done in plaster with polished marble dust buffed in to make it shine.   .

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Palermo Cathedral

Monreale

Monreale Cathedral - walls are decorated entirely in mosaic

All mosaics, each is only ¼ high

The highlight of the day was a short ride up to Monreale (royal mountain) to see its cathedral and walk around, have a cappuccino and people watch







The next day we drove to Cefalu (sef-a-LU)' a fishing village about an hour away.  It was cloudy that day, as it has been almost every day we've been in Sicily.  I'm really trying to keep a positive attitude but it's getting difficult.  Sunshine and blue skies make for such good pictures of some really stunning scenery.  As it is, with gray skies it's kind of yucky.  We had a wonderful lunch of fresh seafood, so filling that we skipped dinner.  Of course lunch here is at 2 and it is the biggest meal of the day for Sicilians.

Cefalu Cathedral

Cefalu

I really do love seeing these old churches.  I am almost always amazed at how stunning and rich the interiors are, even in some of the smaller parish churches.  This trip, like our last trip back in 2000, had a lot of church visits.