Friday Feb 27th - Arrivederci Catania & Sicily

I can’t believe that one month has passed so quickly and we are leaving for the next phase of our trip tomorrow.  Living in an apartment in Catania has been another great life experience. Catania is a very cultured city with many beautiful buildings, piazzas and wide avenues.  We have come to appreciate the uniqueness and warmth of the Sicilian people. They have been so welcoming to us. They are very proud of their culture and are Sicilian first and Italian second.  They love to celebrate with passion. The St Agatha festival was over the top. It was mixture of devotion and folklore that the whole city embraced.

We have loved the food here. It’s been the best we have tasted in all of Italy. The climate allows them to grow fruits and vegetables year round and the volcanic soil from Mt Etna is very rich, which provides a unique taste to everything. The Catania market was amazing and provided us access to an incredible source of fresh foods.  The wine was also excellent and very inexpensive for the quality, whether from a vineyard on the side of Etna or from the wine merchant with his large vats of local wine.

Unfortunately, we had one very bad experience in Sicily. We had a car-jacking episode where Wendy’s purse was snatched out of her hands in the back seat of the car in broad daylight. The thieves had a very organized method of attack, that is apparently a common occurrence in Sicily. We were returning home from our driving trip around the island and coming back into Catania using our GPS to find our apartment, when a motorcycle stopped and blocked the road in front of us. This was the decoy and focused our attention forward. Then suddenly, the back door opened and a guy grabbed Wendy’s purse from the floor. She fought with him to keep it, but he won out and jumped on the back of another motorcycle and they sped away. The guy in front of us also sped off once they had their booty. The good news was that we were not hurt and they didn’t get much as Wendy wasn’t carrying much.  We went to the police, but they shrugged their shoulders and said this happens all the time and there was nothing they could do about it. The lesson learned was that you should keep your car doors locked at all times and be very aware of your surroundings. This is all part of life’s tapestry in Sicily.

Here are a few pictures that summarize our amazing time here in Catania and around Sicily. 

Our apartment was fabulous, across the street from the Castello Ursino

 A fabulous market with amazing food stuff

..... allows for great good

 ... and wine

 Our cooking lessons will help us prepare Sicilian dishes when we get home

Lots of Roman ruins

Fabulous architecture

... parks

...and piazzas

 Incredibly beautiful churches of course

 Mt Etna was amazing

There was lots to see in Sicily - Taormina 

 Noto

 Palermo

Agrigento and the Valley of Temples

The St Agatha Festival was amazing and consumed the city for a week

A special thanks to Massimiliano and his lovely girlfriend Sara for all their help during our stay in Catania. We really appreciated your patience with all our questions and your responsiveness to any issues.

Wednesday Feb 25th - The Party’s Over

Today our good friends, Bryan and Wendy left to return home to Scotland. We had such a good time with them, lots of laughs, lots of good food, lots of wine and lots of wonderful travel experiences. Thanks Bryan and Wendy for spending time with us.  It was a blast!

 Parting is such sweet sorrow

Even Antonio came to say goodbye

Off to the airport

Tuesday Feb 24th - Monastero dei Benedettini

Today we had a lazy day walking around Catania, first to the Theatro Bellini (which, unfortunately, was not open for tours), then to the Benedictine Monastery and finally to our favourite pizza restaurant for lunch (the best wood burning oven pizza in Catania).  The monastery dates back to 1558 and is an example of Sicilian baroque architecture. It is a huge complex that now houses the University.  

 At the Theatro Bellini

 Part of the Monastery, the Church of St Nicolo is the biggest in Catania

 The inner courtyard of the monastery

 The church was all white and very big inside

 Bryan contemplated confessing his many sins, but we didn't have enough time

Beautiful statues everywhere.

 The monastery is now a University and there were students everywhere

 There were two sets of cloisters

 Enjoying pizza at our favourite lunch place.

Monday Feb 23rd - Mount Etna & Winery Tour

Today we took a tour to the top of Mt Etna, the largest and most active volcano in Europe.  Our landlord Massimiliano’s friend, Vincenzo (Byron Guided Excursions -  www.byronge.com), picked us up in his van and drove us along the seaside and up the mountain. We went up as far as the 6000 foot level, where we could see the top of the volcano.  He gave us a lot of history of the volcano & the lava flows, as well as the formation of Sicily. Vincenzo was very knowledgeable and it was very educational.

Lava flows from 1971 showing regrowth started

Volcanic ash from 2012 eruption

This little shrine was wiped out in 1951 lava flow, but spared in the 1971 flow

This farmer`s shed did not survive

The mountain had snow as we went further up

 The top of Etna is 11,000 feet and we got to 6000 feet.

 One of several blow holes where steam is vented

 A section of this forest was completely destroyed by lava flow in 2002

This is what was left

A picture of Etna eruption taken at night

On the way back we stopped at the Gambino family winery (no relation to the NY Gambino family as far as we know) for a combination wine tasting and lunch. We sampled four great Sicilian wines grown in the rich volcanic soil of Mt Etna.  The food was absolutely delicious with lots of Sicilian anti-pasta and the wines were outstanding (so we bought 4 bottles to take home).  The whole day was a very enjoyable experience.

The winery was a beautiful building with a panoramic view (hidden by clouds when we were there)

Enjoying the tasting and lunch

Cheers!