Palermo

For a while we (the housemates) have been planning a trip to Palermo. It is the capital of Sicily and about two and a half hours' drive away on the north coast. There is enough there to explore for a few days but in the end we decided to make a day trip of it, rather than stay overnight.

We somehow all managed to get up and get on the 9.00am bus, which was a miracle, but then had a two hour forty minute journey with the air conditioning not working. It was a lovely sunny day so it was quite warm. As we left Catania there was the most amazing view of Etna - I know I go on about her, but she has a lot of snow at the moment, which comes quite far down the slopes, so the white makes her stand out against the pale blue sky. She looked stunning and somehow you can't take your eyes off her, even when you get a crick in the neck from staring out the window.

I knew from having flown over the island but was still surprised to see how hilly the centre is. We even passed some snowy peaks when we were near the north coast. I saw a few birds of prey flying overhead in the sun.

The north coast looks pretty and my housemate recommends Cefalu, which is a pretty coastal town. She had lived near Palermo so fortunately she knew where to take us and what to see. The streets seemed wider, cleaner and brighter to me, although in a similar style to Catania, so I decided I much prefer Palermo to Catania. There are, according to my guidebook, many churches of note to see, with mosaics and fancy Arabic influence. But I think a return visit to Palermo is a must, to take in particular sights. As it was, we were able to see the main piazzas, the duomo (quite impressive from the outside but not very exciting inside), horse drawn carriages for the tourists (always a winner) and "The Fountain of Shame" which my housemate said had been designed for Rome but rejected on the account that there was too much nudity. Clearly Palermo didn't have a problem with that.

I don't know if it was just being out of Catania but I thought the place was less noisy, less dirty and the people seemed all right too. Maybe it was just having a change!

I liked the seafront, which seemed more open and accessible than the lungomare, and also had a lovely view of Bagheria, between two hills. There were hills all round the city which meant that looking down streets you caught sight of a hill, which was very nice. I also thought there were more green spaces, one where we saw two huge trees with cool trunks. There is also a botanical garden which begs another visit, although I think it was only small.

We finished our day with a trip to a tea shop that had every sort of tea, and the most amazing coconut cake and handmade shortbread. All very nice. I would like to go back to Palermo as there are other places to check out including the very macabre sounding catacombs, where the preserved dead bodies are on display.

Chestnuts and Etna

On Saturday we went to Trecastagni, which is not far away and had some nice winding streets and a church high up with a fantastic view (it was night) across the city and up towards Siracusa (Syracuse). We went to see a festival where there were some traditional singers, one playing the accordion and one singing in Sicilian. There were some huts like you have at German markets, with crafts and fruit and vegetables and other nice things. There were supposed to be some horses with traditional Sicilian carts, but sadly they were not there on that evening. Perhaps another time.

The next day we went on a trip by car to the places on the slopes of Etna - I'm not sure exactly of our route but I think we basically drove a long way around the volcano and took in lots of different places. There are lots of local food festivals taking place at this time, so it was very busy - the Sicilians obviously enjoy celebrating their produce and good for them - we saw some lovely olives growing, citrus fruit, and we have seen lots of lovely sweet chestnuts growing on the slopes of Etna.

Since it rained last week and has gone colder, Etna's peak is covered in snow! It looks so amazing. We went to the valley of the Alcantara river - Gab told me there are very few rivers in Sicily. This was amazing because the rocks there are (of course) volcanic and look exactly like something from a film set - the light grey colour and the "blocks" of them look like they are plastic or manufactured. It was quite distinctive and quite unusual. We clambered about over them, with Whiskey the dog leaping around with the usual agility of someone lucky enough to be on four legs when we are teetering on two. There were also many interesting plants including wild cyclamen, wild artichokes, wild fennel and some things which Jo and Gab had fun sticking to each other's backs. There were some amazing stripy leaves that looked like they had been painted. I also saw some black beetles - and the ants seem larger here.

This was west of Taormina, and north east of Etna. We also went to the the village of Lingua Glossa, where there were some nice paintings on many of the walls, and a nice cake / pastry shop.

Afterwards we drove higher up the side of Etna to a place where there were many sweet chestnut trees - most of the chestnuts had already fallen to the ground and been taken by people or creatures - we had fun trying to get them out without stabbing our hands. I have just been eating some and they are very nice. We saw a massive four hundred year old tree (not a chestnut?)

I finally got to have a prickly pear fruit - they have soft, watery orange flesh with big seeds in. They were okay - an acquired taste maybe - not unpleasant but they would be better without the seeds. They were not unlike watermelon, that is the closest I can think of.

If you squint you can just see the snow on the left...?