Friday, November 14, 2014

Our month long circle tour of Sicily



We spent a  month (mid-October to mid November) exploring Sicily, starting in Trapani then renting a car and basically circumnavigating the island with occasional forays into the mountains.  October was hot--about 85 degrees--but there was a big change a couple of days into November, with a sirocco and downpours so strong they cancelled school all along the coast.  Since it isn't possible to show everything from a month long trip--especially since Tom took 600 pictures--the following attempts to illustrate the diversity to be found in Sicily.

We stayed in Trapani for several days and used one of them for a trip to Erice, an ancient town about 15 minutes from Trapani via funicular.  Erice is beautiful with the usual complement of views, churches, and piazze.



Erice is a great spot for a fake selfie


portable stations of the cross--carried through
the streets as part of easter week processions. 
Tom enjoys himself at the pasticerria in Erice reputed
to have the best cannoli in Sicily



special parking spot for preggies in Erice (left).  Even
police officers stop to enjoy the view in Erice (above)












Italy's cutest castle--in Erice

After picking up our rental car we stopped at the Trapani salt flats on our way out of town.   Salt is no longer the major industry it was in the past, but the salt flats are still producing.   Below is a picture of piles of salt waiting to be processed and an old windmill, no longer in use, which has been converted to a salt museum.



From Trapani we headed to Selinunte, stopping at Motyia and  Segesta on the way. Sicily was fought over for centuries by invaders wanting its wealth and its strategic position as a naval base.  One of the earliest invaders was Phoenicia.  An island called Motyia is considered to have the best preserved Phoenician ruins in Sicily (and probably the world).  The area was not built over by Greeks, Romans, Normans, Arabs or Spaniards, as was the case in most other areas of Sicily, and the nature of Phoenician cities could thus be explored at Motyia.

View of ritual pool and ruins with Mediterranean in the background
The temple at Segesta is one of the iconic sights of Sicily, frequently appearing in guide books and travel stories.  We visited the temple and other ruins after Motyia.  It didn't disappoint, although we were losing the light by then, so the photo is not very clear.




In Agrigento, home to Val dei Templi (Valley of the Temples) we stayed at the  B&B closest to the ruins, called "Camere con Vista" (Rooms with a view--very E.M. Forster).  We had a great view of the ruins which are lighted up at night.

view from our room

breakfast on the terrace with the wild cat


Atlas (not shrugging)




the only picture of us together from the whole trip.  This is at Cave di Cusa, where they quarried
the rock for the temples.  You can still see the cutting marks and columns that were begun, but
not completed
photo opp at the scale dei turchi, named for turkish pirates who used
to hide out here (and because it looks like steps...)


En route to Piazza Armerina, we stopped at Sciacca, a beautiful little town, thankfully without an archaeological park.



Duomo in Piazza Armerina

Piazza Armerina is close to the famous ruins of the Roman Villa with 40000 square meters of mosaic floors.  The tiles in the mosaics are tiny and the pictures and patterns incredibly detailed.


bikini athletes preparing for the Olympics 2500 years ago
Generally, the roads were surprisingly good and there was little traffic, although occasionally we had to share the road with sheep or the road petered out into a one lane dirt track, and there were a LOT of switchbacks, sharp turns, and scary tunnels that looked hand dug out of the rock.  There are many breathtaking views along the way.

This is one of the 'highways', just wide enough for two cars

sheep meandering down the road--the shepherd eventually got
them all moved to the side of the road so we could pass


Onward to  Ragusa Ibla for three nights, En route we stopped at the ceramics capitol of Italy, Caltagirone, and admired the tile faced steps, stopping to buy several platters and other ceramic pieces which we had shipped to Arezzo.  Hope they arrive in one piece.



part of tile fronted staircase in Caltagirone

the three legged entity above is the trigona,
symbol of sicily.    the origins are obscure but it
may represent the three points on the island of
Sicily, or the three districts of Sicily established under
Arab rule.
 We also did  day trips to Castello Donnafugata (Donnafugata is now known for fine Sicilian wines), Enna and Noto.  The castle has been extensively refurbished and is one of the few  with furniture and decorations, probably still in place because the castle is 'only' from the 18th century.

Tom in the camera dei stemmi (the wall is covered with the stemmi or crests
of the various noble families in the area).




garden gargoyle planter ()left), gazebo
in Donnafugata garden (above)





Castle and old cave dwellings above Noto

former cave house in Noto, now a souvenir shop



Noto
the gelatto here must be made with the freshest ingredients!

Next stop, Ortygia, a small town on an island connected by bridges to the Syracusa, home to another archaeological park with both Greek and Roman  theaters as well as the tomb of Archimedes (the 'eureka in the bathtub' guy who was born in Syracusa which has a math museum in his honor).  Ortygia is a picturesque medieval town which offers a highly touted boat trip--not that exciting but good views of Ortygia from the water.





Marco waves us off on the boat trip around Ortygia.  Note
he is wearing a scarf even though it was 85 degrees out

greek or roman theater?  you decide

On to Taormina where we hoped, among other things, to do a day long guided tour of Mt. Etna and wine tasting with B&B host Davide, who is also a professional guide and a class 2 sommelier (class 3 is the highest in Italy).  Unfortunately, there was a scirocco wind and heavy rain, making the trip impossible.  They even closed school--Rain day!  Not as much fun as snow day since the kids have to stay inside.  Heavy rains make it dangerous to drive because there can be flash flooding and rockslides.  Taormina is pretty but very touristy.  It does have a lovely Greek theater that offers great views and the nearby town of Castelmora is worth a visit as well.

View from Taormina




even in wealthy Taormina they have to do the laundry

Piazza in Taormina
town resident filling his water container
at the ancient fountain
The penultimate stop was Cefalu, a beach town where we had an excellent, if insanely expensive, lunch. It was the right season for funghi di bosci (mushrooms from the forest) and my maiale and funghi dish was fantastic. We did a day trip to  Castelbuono and Caccamo, both beautiful hill towns with well preserved castles.  Castelbuono is one of the "piu bella citta di Italia" (most beautiful cities in Italy) according to a banner in the town square.  I suspect that this is an organization they joined, not an award, but I don't really know.  They claim to have invented almond wine in Castelbuono and it was featured at all the shops and restaurants.




view from castle at Caccamo

Caccamo


Last but hardly least, we returned our car at the Palermo airport and spent the last five days of the trip in Palermo.  Unfortunately, earaches kept me on the DL and Tom had to do a lot of exploring on his own.  Hopefully we will return to Palermo when we visit the south in the spring and see what we missed this time around.

La fontana della vergogna (the fountain of shame, so named because the more conservative 16th century Sicilians didn't like the nudity and semi-nudity of the florentine fountain)

La capella palatina 


Tom (left) tries out to replace the one euro store man

always good to know where the pringles dispenser is in case of emergency

Leaving Palermo at 6 a.m.
Enough traveling for a while, we are going to stay in Arezzo until we leave for the US for our Christmas visit.

Buon giorno di ringrazio a tutti!