Savouring Sicily

Kaye and I had a delicious time exploring Sicily as you may have already read in my previous blog, and I am not only talking about the scrumptious food. Lonely Planet (LP) told us that Noto was a 'must visit' place but we decided Noto preferred not to have tourists visit as they have so few signposts to  point the way to the historic centre and other highlights.  

On our  first attempt to visit Noto we gave up looking for the raved about centre,  and visited Ispica instead. But as LP really did recommend it we ventured back equipped with a better map and our excellent map reading skills ... and still failed to find our way to the historic centre!  But the old man Kaye chatted up helped. And now we understand why Noto  is Unesco World Heritage listed for the stunning  baroque buildings all built after an earthquake destroyed the original town in 1693.

My favorite building was Palazzo Villadorata where the balconies are each supported by an amazing assortment of carved figures.



These buxom mermaids were my favorite.

The inside of these old Italian palaces are just as interesting and spectacular as the outsides. The fresco strip above those painted curtains had an intriguing variety of items including birds, animals, musical instruments and a spinning wheel.

Inside a little church we found this figure dressed in historical costume. It  had me  wondering whether the Ku Klux Klan had once been active in Noto.

We rounded off a pleasant day with a walk on the beach exclaiming over the amount of rubbish washed up on the shore  and discussing how many unfinished buildings dot this landscape.  That castle-like building below is an example where it appears the money ran out and it was abandoned half built years ago.

We spent another day exploring Syracusa and its beautiful shores. The fish market intrigued me and I wandered by there again stopping to watch some men preparing sea urchins for eating. There is not much inside those spiny balls that makes it to the table no wonder it is expensive. (10 euros for one of those little cups of orange bits)

Sorry...the computer gremlin who won't let me paste photos up the right way has struck again

We walked up to the fascinating papyrus museum and discovered how many items are traditionally made from this fibrous plant. Sicily is the only place it grows outside of North Africa. Paintings on papyrus  'paper' are a unique offering to tourists here. It appears easier to make than Burnie's roo poo paper. 

Then I was drawn back to the marinas to admire the assortment of little boats (and a few burly fishermen mending nets.)

Later we just had to return to savour Syracusa's unique cathedral. Those enormous columns visible both inside and out were built in the 5th century BC by the Greeks and later St Paul came along and had it converted into a  Catholic cathedral.

There was no special event happening in the piazza to draw this crowd. Every Sunday Italians don their designer label clothes and stroll around town. The sea front restaurants where packed and long lines of people waited in the sunshine for  tables.  

We waved farewell to beautiful Syracusa and caught a bus to Catania where over 300,000 people, cars and motos cram into  the seething noisy city. We quickly decided one of the best things there was the FOOD and we wound out way through bustling streets to 'Spinella' having been assured we would find the best arancini there. As there was hardly standing room in the shop we asked for our arancini take away and was surprised when it was so carefully packaged on a silver tray, double wrapped and tied with ribbon. And these stuffed rice balls  cost us less than two euro each.

Fed and watered  we set off to explore the city and it's assorted creations  built from lava and sandstone which include this  black lava elephant and Egyptian obelisk in the main piazza. According to  legend  it keeps  Mount Etna calm, she's the imposing active volcano  towering over the city. 

 

Of course there is also an impressive array of churches, palaces, statues, etc to check out but I confess that we had a touch of 'baroque over load' by the time we arrived at Catania and didn't muster great enthusiasm for sight seeing.  We hopped onto the hop-on-and-off bus and stayed on for a circuit and then headed back to our excellent B&B for a rest before dinner. A slow food feast that you should be envious of -  oh yum!  The best thing I ate  was a dish called 'stinco', despite the odd name it was divine, I need to wipe the drool from my chin just remembering  the flavour of that baked pickled pork shank.

The only reason we stayed in Catania 2 days was to visit majestic Mount Etna, Europe's largest and most active volcano. It can even be seen from the moon - that's really big.

We arranged a tour and climbed aboard a rattly old 'landy' and excitedly headed  off to tour the smoking volcano with an extroverted Italian and 2 cheerful German tourists. 

We trekked across a lava field which is hard yakka on such an uneven unstable surface.  Over time lichen and moss begins to grow on those sharp lava rocks as you can see in the foreground below.

Mt Etna is over 3,000 metres high so always has a snow cap which was XXL sized after a recent 1.5m snow fall.

As you can see not all lava is black, sometimes it is light brown or rust colored. Our self titled legendary guide proved he is not super human after all.

There is a constant stream of smoke and ash from the main crater at the top of Mt Etna which makes it safer than some volcanos by stopping the internal pressure building up to a full scale eruption. The white snow was speckled with black ash giving it a dirty grey appearance.

Along a fault line there is a line of craters left by previous eruptions and we walked around this one.

The tour continued after an incredibly yummy and huge lunch of typical Sicilian food: antipasto of bruscetta and frittata, followed by spaghetti with'norma' sauce, then a large serving of pork chops and horse meat patties and vegetables ... phew .. mandarins for desert, washed down with local red wine of course. I hope a grateful dog  received my abundant left overs.

I was pleased I had not eaten too much of that lunch to manage the 230 plus steps into this gorge to see the swirling basalt walls  towering above a churning river swollen after heavy recent rain.

All that eating and drinking led to other things... including this fabulous example of 'Italian English.'

Mmmm... I am sure some of my Italian attempts cause just as much amusement like when my mispronounced key (chiave) became  f#$%...   Oops.

On that note 'arrivederci' until next blog.