Sicily
Monday 30th October 83 miles
I hadn't slept too well, but a beautiful morning with clear blue sky. After breakfast we had a quick walk to the sea, enjoying the beautiful view, but just disregarding the rubbish. We left there at 9.15 and made our way back to the main road SS18 using intuition and cleverness where road signs didn't suffice and then we continued down this last bit of Italian coast before we went across to Sicily, in the stunning scenery, with very steep hills and looking out to sea.
We passed the large town of Gioia Tauro and then Palmi, in this area there were lots of huge olive trees. I took a photo of them with the netting underneath, it was so much an olive area and then soon after that we came to Bagnara - came to it wasn't exactly true, as we were way up in the hills and we could only see it right down at sea level and because we were on the old road and not the motorway we wound and wound our way down there. We passed through a bit of incredibly old houses and old people in black, being a real bit of Italy of another age. We also passed a fountain on the side of the hill and in contemplating whether to try and get water from it, two German motorhomes, one which passed us in one direction and one which was ahead of us, had both also spied it and turned around and got there before we did, so we gave up on that one and we then came down almost to sea level. If we had been on the motorway we would have passed the town on a huge bridge viaduct up in the mountain just behind us, in a couple of seconds whereas it took us quite a long time on our road.
Just before Scilla we stopped, looking to the Rock of Scilla apparently famous - it was mentioned in The Odyssey and had a castle on top of it, and it was a beautiful viewpoint, so we stopped there and had our coffee.
I hadn't slept too well, but a beautiful morning with clear blue sky. After breakfast we had a quick walk to the sea, enjoying the beautiful view, but just disregarding the rubbish. We left there at 9.15 and made our way back to the main road SS18 using intuition and cleverness where road signs didn't suffice and then we continued down this last bit of Italian coast before we went across to Sicily, in the stunning scenery, with very steep hills and looking out to sea.
We passed the large town of Gioia Tauro and then Palmi, in this area there were lots of huge olive trees. I took a photo of them with the netting underneath, it was so much an olive area and then soon after that we came to Bagnara - came to it wasn't exactly true, as we were way up in the hills and we could only see it right down at sea level and because we were on the old road and not the motorway we wound and wound our way down there. We passed through a bit of incredibly old houses and old people in black, being a real bit of Italy of another age. We also passed a fountain on the side of the hill and in contemplating whether to try and get water from it, two German motorhomes, one which passed us in one direction and one which was ahead of us, had both also spied it and turned around and got there before we did, so we gave up on that one and we then came down almost to sea level. If we had been on the motorway we would have passed the town on a huge bridge viaduct up in the mountain just behind us, in a couple of seconds whereas it took us quite a long time on our road.
Just before Scilla we stopped, looking to the Rock of Scilla apparently famous - it was mentioned in The Odyssey and had a castle on top of it, and it was a beautiful viewpoint, so we stopped there and had our coffee.
We had been looking at other places where we might get water and then 100 yards along the road we saw two spouts of water coming out from a wall in the hillside, so there we filled with water. A few yards further on again there was a large pumping lorry taking up most of the narrow road but we did fortunately see a bus come past in the other direction, so when we were waved on, we knew that we could get through.
On the outskirts of San Giovanni where the boat to Sicily goes from, we found a Spa shop which actually was quite good. So we went in there and bought quite a bit and we made our way to the port with difficulty as they'd forgotten to tell you how to get there. Adrian got the tickets and we hopped on a ferry as it were, and there we were in Sicily and Messina looking very busy. Lots and lots of buildings and also lots of traffic as well. It was 1 o'clock, or maybe 12 o'clock, as it would appear that the clocks have gone back here as they have in England this weekend and by the time on the tickets, we think it was now only 12 o'clock although our minds told us it was 1 o’clock. So we were out into the traffic of Messina and into Sicily seeming just very much like anywhere else in Italy. I thought the traffic wasn't quite as hectic as Rome and maybe not quite as prolific as Naples but not much better, it was pretty horrendous.
There wasn’t one road sign, but we'd read in our book yesterday not to expect road signs in towns, so this confirmed what we'd already found. We managed to negotiate ourselves in the right direction, it was stop go, stop go for a long time. We then had a nightmarish journey, because we thought there would be somewhere to stop by the sea, but there was just housing on either side, whether we took the main road south or the side roads, so we just kept going and going. We finally stopped at 2.20 when we found a parking place beside the road overlooking the beach, although it wasn't supposed to be for motorhomes, and the day had clouded over by now.
A plus to mention was that we'd noticed the last few days, in the very southern part of Italy, the hibiscus were absolutely beautiful, along with some other flowers and roses and also that the flower stores and flower shops had the most beautiful flowers, chrysanthemums and gladioli and all sorts. A van pulled in on the other side of the road from us while we were having lunch with a man selling his flowers and there was also a travelling food and vegetable stores of equally good quality and beautifully set out. It seemed so incongruous with everything else here, which is so grubby and substandard as far as we were concerned with the beaches just as littered as in mainland Italy. A short walk on this grubby beach and then we left Ali Marina as it seemed to be called at about 3 o’clock - our time.
By the time we got to Taormina which was a hilltop town, it was raining although the sun was also shining. We wanted to park at the bottom and you could get some sort of lift up. The car parking said ‘no campers’, but we managed to park along the side of the road. We made our way to the cable car and had to wait a while, but having done that we ascended and at the top and just walked straight out into the town.
On the outskirts of San Giovanni where the boat to Sicily goes from, we found a Spa shop which actually was quite good. So we went in there and bought quite a bit and we made our way to the port with difficulty as they'd forgotten to tell you how to get there. Adrian got the tickets and we hopped on a ferry as it were, and there we were in Sicily and Messina looking very busy. Lots and lots of buildings and also lots of traffic as well. It was 1 o'clock, or maybe 12 o'clock, as it would appear that the clocks have gone back here as they have in England this weekend and by the time on the tickets, we think it was now only 12 o'clock although our minds told us it was 1 o’clock. So we were out into the traffic of Messina and into Sicily seeming just very much like anywhere else in Italy. I thought the traffic wasn't quite as hectic as Rome and maybe not quite as prolific as Naples but not much better, it was pretty horrendous.
There wasn’t one road sign, but we'd read in our book yesterday not to expect road signs in towns, so this confirmed what we'd already found. We managed to negotiate ourselves in the right direction, it was stop go, stop go for a long time. We then had a nightmarish journey, because we thought there would be somewhere to stop by the sea, but there was just housing on either side, whether we took the main road south or the side roads, so we just kept going and going. We finally stopped at 2.20 when we found a parking place beside the road overlooking the beach, although it wasn't supposed to be for motorhomes, and the day had clouded over by now.
A plus to mention was that we'd noticed the last few days, in the very southern part of Italy, the hibiscus were absolutely beautiful, along with some other flowers and roses and also that the flower stores and flower shops had the most beautiful flowers, chrysanthemums and gladioli and all sorts. A van pulled in on the other side of the road from us while we were having lunch with a man selling his flowers and there was also a travelling food and vegetable stores of equally good quality and beautifully set out. It seemed so incongruous with everything else here, which is so grubby and substandard as far as we were concerned with the beaches just as littered as in mainland Italy. A short walk on this grubby beach and then we left Ali Marina as it seemed to be called at about 3 o’clock - our time.
By the time we got to Taormina which was a hilltop town, it was raining although the sun was also shining. We wanted to park at the bottom and you could get some sort of lift up. The car parking said ‘no campers’, but we managed to park along the side of the road. We made our way to the cable car and had to wait a while, but having done that we ascended and at the top and just walked straight out into the town.
The Rock of Scillia
Tuesday 31st of October 90 miles
We woke early, deciding to keep Italian summer time as I said, so that it's not dark by five o'clock, which it would be in winter time. We breakfasted looking out to the sun shining over the sea and realised that its a long time since that had happened. We had some horrible things for breakfast called bran flakes on the packet, which looked like puffed wheat, but they weren’t, they were very soggy and insipid. We had a walk across to the sea before leaving and realised that up behind us was Mount Etna, which we hadn't been able to see last night, and thinking how lucky we were to have found this spot in difficult circumstances, and also being amazed how a car was driven between us and a tree which we'd just about parked next to, driven back again and hadn't hit us. We left soon after 8.30 (our time) and stopped soon afterwards to fill up with diesel. Mt. Etna was smoking a bit on top, and we stopped and I took a photo.
We woke early, deciding to keep Italian summer time as I said, so that it's not dark by five o'clock, which it would be in winter time. We breakfasted looking out to the sun shining over the sea and realised that its a long time since that had happened. We had some horrible things for breakfast called bran flakes on the packet, which looked like puffed wheat, but they weren’t, they were very soggy and insipid. We had a walk across to the sea before leaving and realised that up behind us was Mount Etna, which we hadn't been able to see last night, and thinking how lucky we were to have found this spot in difficult circumstances, and also being amazed how a car was driven between us and a tree which we'd just about parked next to, driven back again and hadn't hit us. We left soon after 8.30 (our time) and stopped soon afterwards to fill up with diesel. Mt. Etna was smoking a bit on top, and we stopped and I took a photo.
The weather which had been quite erratic - there was lots of lightning and a storm was coming and a lot of rain was imminent. We walked around this pretty little town, quite a touristy place and there was a Greek amphitheatre there, so we headed for that. On the way we passed a store where the man was selling little trains made out of letters. We thought this would be a lovely thing for Felix, so we bought one for him. Just after that we came to the amphitheatre which cost 8000 lira each to go in, so we said, "no thank you"- we'd spent the money on Felix's little train. We were glad that we thought that because it came on to rain hard just afterwards.
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Adrian on the cable car at Taormina
We thought we'd walk back down rather than take the cable car and this was lovely, despite the weather. It wasn't cold, it just rained and rained - luckily we each had our umbrellas. We went through the prettiest gardens we could imagine. We may have missed the gardens at Ravello but these must have equalled it, really beautiful Italian gardens, the whole place was very pretty, lots of luxurious vegetation and we really did enjoy them despite seeing them in the rain. So we descended to the Tiv, we had really enjoyed Taormina despite the weather and it was then time to find somewhere to stay tonight.
We headed off southwards and the weather deteriorated. We passed several huge dry riverbeds and then we passed some smaller rivers which became raging torrents very quickly, one where there wasn't even the sign of a river, suddenly it rushed down, so a bit scary. The visibility was really bad, but we were very fortunate at 6 o'clock (old time), when we found a place at Marina di Cottone, right by the sea - litter strewn, but we'd got a sanctuary for the night - the rain continued.
We headed off southwards and the weather deteriorated. We passed several huge dry riverbeds and then we passed some smaller rivers which became raging torrents very quickly, one where there wasn't even the sign of a river, suddenly it rushed down, so a bit scary. The visibility was really bad, but we were very fortunate at 6 o'clock (old time), when we found a place at Marina di Cottone, right by the sea - litter strewn, but we'd got a sanctuary for the night - the rain continued.
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Taormina (streetview images 2022)
I put the kettle on and then Adrian managed to phone the dentist in Newbury and made us both appointments to stick back our broken off teeth, when we got home. We then listened to the end of our 1999 Madeira trip. By then it was dark and sounded very wet outside, but we had a phone call from Emma and it sounded even wetter in England. I cooked supper, including some rice and our runner beans. I washed my hair and we did some more of the Thomas Lawson letters. Before bed we stepped outside and it was a fairly clear sky by then with lots of stars and we could see the lights of Taormina in one direction and other lights down the coast in the other direction. We hoped for a fine day tomorrow, because we would like to see something of Mount Etna. We were surprised how warm it had seemed in the evening and also surprised how much traffic was going along this little road which doesn't seem to go anywhere.
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Marina di Cottone (Streetview image 2010)
We passed by a hospital and couldn't believe the number of florists, flower stores and just people selling flowers beside the road and all the flowers, mostly chrysanthemums, were absolutely perfect . We now followed the signs for Mount Etna, went through Zefferana and soon found ourselves ascending the mighty mountain. It wasn't long before we saw big areas of lava flow, which we stopped at to photograph, the cloud was swirling around us now and it felt quite fresh. We enjoyed seeing the vegetation on Mt. Etna, in particular the chestnut trees which were sort of in their autumn colours. Not as beautiful as England, but still lovely to see.
Misty Mount Etna
In fact, later we saw vast areas of autumn colours very yellow and green and these were alternating with these massive areas of lava flow which was so barren, like a moonscape, a very dramatic difference. We really wallowed in the bit of autumn colour, and other things that were nice were huge broom type bushes, yellow flowers, little cyclamen and valerian. We came to the Rif Sapienza on Mt. Etna the nearest point to the top, after that there was a proper path and you can climb over another 4000 feet (1200m), we were already at 6000 feet (1830m). We found out there what it would be like going back to winter, because we then donned all our clothes, jumper, fleece, caggy, hat, gloves, walking boots, and walked around a little crater called San Sylvestri, formed some time ago and it really felt so icy, although Adrian tested the temperature and apparently it was 53°F, so it must have been the windchill factor. I had difficulty in taking a photo standing still long enough to do. So there we were on Mt. Etna.
Autumn colours on Mount Etna
We returned to the Tiv. On the way up we’d passed what Adrian thought was smouldering from Etna further down. So we took the middle of the three roads which went up to San Sylvestri and after some time decending we pulled in and were able to go for a little walk. However this was an 'ever been had' one, because the smoke was from a bonfire being had by a group of people clearing a forested area there. The walk had made us think of going for a walk on say the Yorkshire Moors in October - the temperature and it was quite forested in places, but there is not a lot of volcanic rock on the Yorkshire Moors. When we got back to the van it was time for coffee 11.15 (our time - but 10.15 Italian time). The road we had gone down, although not marked green (as pretty) on the map as the other two were, was equally as interesting and alternated between larva and the chestnut forest which was quite magnificent. There were splendid views down over the coast with many little ‘popped up’ volcanoes, and then the sea beyond and the harbour. Who would have thought that a couple of hours after we'd been bundled up in layers and layers of clothing and gloves and hat, I'd be standing in the sea, but that's just what did happen. We continued on the road we were on, going through Nicolosi and seemed to be back down to near sea level in no time at all.
We made our way towards the motor road past Catania, a town which we'd decided to give a miss after Messina yesterday, as this was an even larger town. So we joined the main road south and headed for Syracuse and having skirted Catania we were on a sort of plain area, whereas most of Sicily is high and we took a little road down to the sea at Vacarizos. This place was a lido in season, but there was no one there then, there were loads of little huts, but we did at the one end of it, find a spare bit of ground with access to the beach, by a horrible pile of rubbish and the German couple in a car who appeared to have set up home there. Nevertheless we made up rolls as ‘open sandwiches’ and sat on the beach for lunch . Afterwards I had my swim.
There was a bumpy little road back to the main road and again I noticed the contrast between the litter on the ground and the beautiful bushes of the huge hibiscus flowers, and carmen coloured bougainvillea. Then it was all change again, we got back onto the fast road towards Syracuse and went past a horrendous, huge industrial area. In the distance was the Gulf of Augusta and we could see the sky as black as black and all sorts of strange colours and it rained torrentially for a while, flooding the road. We thought we'd have to stop, but in fact we kept going and by the time we were approaching Syracuse (where Archimedes had lived and shouted 'Eureka'), the rain was much lighter. We headed for the part of Syracuse called Ortigia which is an island joined by two bridges to the mainland, with a very old part, not the oldest in Syracuse because there was a Greek bit inland.
We parked by a lot of little colourful blue and white fishing boats there, and paid a man few pence to look after the van. We were not sure whether we should have done or not, but he asked for money and we then spent a happy time wandering around this crumbling old part of the town which was being resurrected. We saw so much renovation going on as we walked around, more than we've seen anywhere else. We saw the Cathedral which started its life as a doric temple and had been converted and added to many times since but wasn't open at that time in the afternoon and we also saw the ruins to the Temple of Apollo. Apart from that, it was just a nice wander among all the crumbling old streets. We were very lucky in our walk around because soon after it came on to rain, and it rained rather torrentially again, rather like last night's making rivers down the road.
We made our way towards the motor road past Catania, a town which we'd decided to give a miss after Messina yesterday, as this was an even larger town. So we joined the main road south and headed for Syracuse and having skirted Catania we were on a sort of plain area, whereas most of Sicily is high and we took a little road down to the sea at Vacarizos. This place was a lido in season, but there was no one there then, there were loads of little huts, but we did at the one end of it, find a spare bit of ground with access to the beach, by a horrible pile of rubbish and the German couple in a car who appeared to have set up home there. Nevertheless we made up rolls as ‘open sandwiches’ and sat on the beach for lunch . Afterwards I had my swim.
There was a bumpy little road back to the main road and again I noticed the contrast between the litter on the ground and the beautiful bushes of the huge hibiscus flowers, and carmen coloured bougainvillea. Then it was all change again, we got back onto the fast road towards Syracuse and went past a horrendous, huge industrial area. In the distance was the Gulf of Augusta and we could see the sky as black as black and all sorts of strange colours and it rained torrentially for a while, flooding the road. We thought we'd have to stop, but in fact we kept going and by the time we were approaching Syracuse (where Archimedes had lived and shouted 'Eureka'), the rain was much lighter. We headed for the part of Syracuse called Ortigia which is an island joined by two bridges to the mainland, with a very old part, not the oldest in Syracuse because there was a Greek bit inland.
We parked by a lot of little colourful blue and white fishing boats there, and paid a man few pence to look after the van. We were not sure whether we should have done or not, but he asked for money and we then spent a happy time wandering around this crumbling old part of the town which was being resurrected. We saw so much renovation going on as we walked around, more than we've seen anywhere else. We saw the Cathedral which started its life as a doric temple and had been converted and added to many times since but wasn't open at that time in the afternoon and we also saw the ruins to the Temple of Apollo. Apart from that, it was just a nice wander among all the crumbling old streets. We were very lucky in our walk around because soon after it came on to rain, and it rained rather torrentially again, rather like last night's making rivers down the road.
San Sylvestri crater on Mount Etna and Adrian looking cold
Lava flow on Mount Etna
We left there and wound our way back and found our way to the archaeological sites of Greek and Roman things at Neapolis, but that was soon going to close. We decided it would be a place to stay overnight beside the road and so we made a cup of tea and hoped the decision was a good one and the rain seemed to continue. At one time we thought we'd walk out, but back came the rain, so there we were.
Apollo's Temple Ortigia
Being Halloween I tried to think of something a bit different to do - we hadn't got a pumpkin or even a squash, so we made some pancakes tonight, totally not a Halloween thing to do but I they were absolutely delicious and we really enjoyed them. We finished off with a bit of the bread and butter pudding I had made a couple of days ago, fried in the pan as well - a different and enjoyable meal. We finished up a few walnuts that we'd bought and couldn't remember why and we listened to the first side of our last tape in Italy. We did a marathon transcription of a Thomas Lawson letter. We hoped the traffic would thin out, which it did a bit by bedtime, when we stood outside briefly. It wasn't cold and there were some stars in the sky, so we hoped it would be okay for the next day.
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By the archaeological site at Neapolis (streetview 2020)
Wednesday 1st November 71 miles
And yes it was and we awoke to a beautiful morning with clear blue sky again, what a difference. We had our breakfast and were ready to go into the archaeological site of Neapolis, which we were camped outside. We were really aggravated as we were about to leave asa chap came and parked in front of us and said we had to pay him for parking. Adrian, argued with him for long enough, that we ended up only giving him some change, a total of about 2000 lira [see picture above, they are still there!]. We then had an enjoyable time walking around this archaeological site which contained a Greek amphitheatre and separately a Roman amphitheatre and one or two other things. There were some big quarry areas, some caves, and the 'Ear of Dionysis’. It was already hot at 10 o'clock (our time - 9 o'clock Italian time) so it was beautifully warm, lots of luxurious vegetation all around and rather humid after last night's rain, so pretty good all told.
And yes it was and we awoke to a beautiful morning with clear blue sky again, what a difference. We had our breakfast and were ready to go into the archaeological site of Neapolis, which we were camped outside. We were really aggravated as we were about to leave asa chap came and parked in front of us and said we had to pay him for parking. Adrian, argued with him for long enough, that we ended up only giving him some change, a total of about 2000 lira [see picture above, they are still there!]. We then had an enjoyable time walking around this archaeological site which contained a Greek amphitheatre and separately a Roman amphitheatre and one or two other things. There were some big quarry areas, some caves, and the 'Ear of Dionysis’. It was already hot at 10 o'clock (our time - 9 o'clock Italian time) so it was beautifully warm, lots of luxurious vegetation all around and rather humid after last night's rain, so pretty good all told.
We left there and on the outskirts of Syracuse, we stopped at a little nondescript cash & carry, but at least we brought some rolls for lunch and some more walnuts and then we went round to the south of Syracuse and stopped beside a pretty, but litter strewn beach, looking across the bay of Porto Grande to Syracuse.
The Roman Amphitheatre at Neapolis
Adrian in the Greek Amphitheatre at Neapolis
The little peninsula we were on was called the Madelena Peninsula but this flat peninsula didn't give us anything, it was very agricultural, a lot of plastic greenhouses and a lot of neat rows of what looked like lettuces. The sun shining through the mostly red bougainvillea was quite something. On returning from this peninsula we went down to a little beach at Ognina but this was a fisherman's beach and not for us, so we continued along the road, passing through what was supposedly a lovely place called Fontane Bianche with a wonderful beach. So it might have been but there was no access to it, only through a lido which seemed to be a paid one.
We returned to main road and then south a few miles to Avola, where I made the mistake of saying “no, don't go to the lido there” - so we were then into the town and it was turning out time and all the chaos that means - scooters by the 1000's mixed with cars. In front of us were two people on a scooter talking to two people in a car and travelling at about 2 mph with no feeling that they shouldn't be doing this! We eventually reached the sea at Marina di Avola and stopped in the shade beside the beautiful blue sea and blue sky looking to Syracuse in the distance. Well whether that was a nice little cove or not, there there was a whole pile of seaweed on the beach, so we moved on down first to Calabernardo, which had a harbour but we didn't stop there and on to Lido de Noto, where we finally had our rolls on a lovely sandy beach which looked it like it was made of builders sand and when he came back to the Tiv afterwards we realised it had stuck to us everywhere. The waves were coming in today which looked quite fun, so we went for delightful swim.
We next stopped at Noto, another old town, which on the map had 13 churches. I think we passed most of them, but didn't go into any, a lot of them seemed to be closed and others were not in good renovation. The noticeable thing about the place, apart from there not being any people around, was the lack of traffic - the main road through was a pedestrian road and that made it feel really nice. On the way into Noto I'd noticed a water tap, so we made our way back there and before filling the tank with water, we both had showers and washed our hair and then had a cup of tea, the sun was really warm still.
We returned to main road and then south a few miles to Avola, where I made the mistake of saying “no, don't go to the lido there” - so we were then into the town and it was turning out time and all the chaos that means - scooters by the 1000's mixed with cars. In front of us were two people on a scooter talking to two people in a car and travelling at about 2 mph with no feeling that they shouldn't be doing this! We eventually reached the sea at Marina di Avola and stopped in the shade beside the beautiful blue sea and blue sky looking to Syracuse in the distance. Well whether that was a nice little cove or not, there there was a whole pile of seaweed on the beach, so we moved on down first to Calabernardo, which had a harbour but we didn't stop there and on to Lido de Noto, where we finally had our rolls on a lovely sandy beach which looked it like it was made of builders sand and when he came back to the Tiv afterwards we realised it had stuck to us everywhere. The waves were coming in today which looked quite fun, so we went for delightful swim.
We next stopped at Noto, another old town, which on the map had 13 churches. I think we passed most of them, but didn't go into any, a lot of them seemed to be closed and others were not in good renovation. The noticeable thing about the place, apart from there not being any people around, was the lack of traffic - the main road through was a pedestrian road and that made it feel really nice. On the way into Noto I'd noticed a water tap, so we made our way back there and before filling the tank with water, we both had showers and washed our hair and then had a cup of tea, the sun was really warm still.
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Syracuse (where Archimedes shouted 'Eureka') from the Madalena peninsular
We left there and as we went back past the place we noticed lots and lots of picnic places in there, so we could only think it was the place to go for a Sunday picnic in the summer - it must be hell then. There were lots and lots of stone seats as we drove along. I thought at least we were going to make it a round tour, and we were sent up a road which I hadn't expected and then it would have been a simple road back. But the way we were directed although different at the start, went back onto the same road that we'd gone in on.
Eventually on this winding road through the limestone country we got back past Noto, which we negotiated pretty well and we were heading for the Vendican Nature Reserve just down the coast where we thought there might be somewhere on the outside of it to stop. We made our way down the road to it, but when we got there, the car park was barricaded across - cars were parked in the middle of a road and so we had to reverse again. Adrian was getting pretty weary by now so we went back to the main road, where the old bit of main road was still there, so we thought we'd try that. With the light fading fast, we thought we would easily find a place to stop, but there was just nowhere either side to pull off, it was very much an agricultural area and everywhere that we saw where would might have pulled off was a farmers entrance into a field.
However as luck would have it at about 6.15 (our time), just as this old bit of road was coming back to the main road we pulled into a rather unattractive bit, it was by some tumbled down old relics of houses, but it would do us for the night.
Eventually on this winding road through the limestone country we got back past Noto, which we negotiated pretty well and we were heading for the Vendican Nature Reserve just down the coast where we thought there might be somewhere on the outside of it to stop. We made our way down the road to it, but when we got there, the car park was barricaded across - cars were parked in the middle of a road and so we had to reverse again. Adrian was getting pretty weary by now so we went back to the main road, where the old bit of main road was still there, so we thought we'd try that. With the light fading fast, we thought we would easily find a place to stop, but there was just nowhere either side to pull off, it was very much an agricultural area and everywhere that we saw where would might have pulled off was a farmers entrance into a field.
However as luck would have it at about 6.15 (our time), just as this old bit of road was coming back to the main road we pulled into a rather unattractive bit, it was by some tumbled down old relics of houses, but it would do us for the night.
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Noto Antico (streetview 2020)
This was in fact our 450th night in the Tiv, so we had a bottle of slightly frizzante wine later on with our meal of fried steak, which was actually a nice flavour. I wrote a few postcards and we listened to the last half of our last tape and did a bit more of the Thomas Lawson letters etc. and bedtime we looked out to see the stars and a really clear sky - it was quite dark there, but unfortunately, in the very short time of being outside I got bitten several times by a mossie!
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The 'tumbled down old relics of houses' we stayed by (streetview 2010). In 2000 there was a drive by the side
We then had a difficult time. There was a place called Noto Antico up in the hills, and this was supposed to be the remains of a town which was lost in an earthquake in 1693 and I thought it sounded interesting. Adrian wasn't so keen but we decided to make our way there and we followed the signs, but for some reason they didn't send us there on the most obvious road, but on an obtuse road and this was several kilometres away, up in the hills behind Noto. Having gone quite a distance through the wonderful limestone country, on winding roads, we were then sent on a road, which was really very, very narrow, for several kilometres. But the most difficult thing was that traffic was coming the other way, a great deal of traffic. We manoeuvred most of it and then came to a stretch where it went for quite long distance on a very narrow part with high banks and no possibility of passing. We came to a bend in the road and there was a truck coming the other way and behind it were lots of cars, and so the driver said we would have to reverse. So we did, he was quite a pleasant chap, and spoke to us in fluent German, which I couldn't really understand. At that point, I was happy to turn around and go back, but the chap said if we waited 10 minutes, there'd be no more cars. We could see most of the road to the other end of it, so we waited a bit and then dashed through and made it to the other end.
When we got there it was Noto Antico, it was the right place as there was a sign telling us and all the things that were there. However from the car park it really looked just like a load of rubble in a field, you couldn't tell it apart from the limestone pavement that we're on, but we could see some walls of an ancient city in the distance. So we wandered around, there was another couple there also, and not finding much else to see we actually walked up to the ancient ramparts and walked along them for a bit, but we were not sure if there was anything else we were supposed to see so decided it was time to make our way back, as it was getting late in the afternoon.
When we got there it was Noto Antico, it was the right place as there was a sign telling us and all the things that were there. However from the car park it really looked just like a load of rubble in a field, you couldn't tell it apart from the limestone pavement that we're on, but we could see some walls of an ancient city in the distance. So we wandered around, there was another couple there also, and not finding much else to see we actually walked up to the ancient ramparts and walked along them for a bit, but we were not sure if there was anything else we were supposed to see so decided it was time to make our way back, as it was getting late in the afternoon.
Thursday 2nd November 87 miles
It wasn't noisy in the night despite the road going past just behind us in our little haven. We had our cup of tea, the sky soon became clear blue and we left early to go and have our breakfast elsewhere in prettier surroundings. We passed through an area with lots of plastic greenhouses, they seemed to be growing marrow type plants, courgettes or something and in other ones we saw tomatoes.
There was a huge area of greenhouses in the most south-easterly corner of Sicily. We took the road down to a little place called Marzameni and this was a little harbour with lots of character and beautifully quiet at that hour of the morning, it was still very early and we sat outside on a little harbour wall and had our breakfast in beautifully warm sunshine. There was a harbour with lots of pretty boats and things, nothing posy and Adrian did a bit of video. Afterwards we walked around the adjacent antique part of the town, which had fallen into ruins but where we noticed that they were obviously going on to restore something of it, it looked quite charming in its antiquity and decadence, so that was a lovely breakfast stop. Adrian was impressed to see a man actually sweeping up!
We then drove along the coast to Portopalo, the most south-easterly point of Sicily, looking across to the lighthouse on Capopassero Island and then we went on to Isola delle Correnti, which is the most southerly point of Sicily, where we walked across the lovely sandy beach there, but with lots of seaweed, both the paper type and the more coconut looking type. It was beautiful sand but much further than we thought to the actual Isola delle Correnti, the most southern point. A road had gone across there in the past but there was a gap, so we didn't make it onto the island. Just before it, we stopped and took a couple of photos to commemorate the event, and then went back to the Tiv to have a late coffee and it was very hot.
It wasn't noisy in the night despite the road going past just behind us in our little haven. We had our cup of tea, the sky soon became clear blue and we left early to go and have our breakfast elsewhere in prettier surroundings. We passed through an area with lots of plastic greenhouses, they seemed to be growing marrow type plants, courgettes or something and in other ones we saw tomatoes.
There was a huge area of greenhouses in the most south-easterly corner of Sicily. We took the road down to a little place called Marzameni and this was a little harbour with lots of character and beautifully quiet at that hour of the morning, it was still very early and we sat outside on a little harbour wall and had our breakfast in beautifully warm sunshine. There was a harbour with lots of pretty boats and things, nothing posy and Adrian did a bit of video. Afterwards we walked around the adjacent antique part of the town, which had fallen into ruins but where we noticed that they were obviously going on to restore something of it, it looked quite charming in its antiquity and decadence, so that was a lovely breakfast stop. Adrian was impressed to see a man actually sweeping up!
We then drove along the coast to Portopalo, the most south-easterly point of Sicily, looking across to the lighthouse on Capopassero Island and then we went on to Isola delle Correnti, which is the most southerly point of Sicily, where we walked across the lovely sandy beach there, but with lots of seaweed, both the paper type and the more coconut looking type. It was beautiful sand but much further than we thought to the actual Isola delle Correnti, the most southern point. A road had gone across there in the past but there was a gap, so we didn't make it onto the island. Just before it, we stopped and took a couple of photos to commemorate the event, and then went back to the Tiv to have a late coffee and it was very hot.
We sat on the beach to have our coffee and some of the chocolate swiss rolls which I had bought, which were quite acceptable. A gentleman who'd arrived in another car and had been obviously enjoying the beach also, came up to us and just wanted to tell us, in Italian, which if I understood him correctly, that he was a grocer and none of the people who came into his shop, thought to do anything like walk on the beach and how lovely it was, so that was a nice moment. Also there we'd had a dear little tabby and white cat who either followed us or stayed with us all the while we were by the Tiv and meowed as we left.
On to Pachino through more seas of plastic greenhouses and cloches and then made our way to the south coast to follow along there. We were going on the road quite slowly when Adrian suddenly ground to a halt and it was because there was a little tortoise in the road. I think it was perhaps a pet one - we weren't in Africa. It wasn't long before we came to a delightful beach where there were no parking spaces made, but we stopped beside the road and had a lovely swim. The water was quite shallow but with some nice sized waves that made it just a bit of fun and of course nobody else around.
The beautiful golden beach continued all the way along to Pozzallo, the sea looking a deep turquoise beside it, but there was never anywhere to park, so presumably one just parked on the road to go to the beach. On the outskirts of Pozzallo, we found a so called hypermarket – only really a supermarket, but the good thing was that it was open because several are closed today, the first and second of November seem to be holidays like All Saints Day. We'd seen groups of people having ceremonies at cemeteries, so we were pleased to have been able to shop. We came down to the sea at Marina di Modica but it didn't take our fancy, so a bit further along we came to Sampieri and right at the end of the road, we stopped by the beach and had a delightful stop there for lunch - we had a lovely French loaf we had bought, so we sat on the sand with this deep turquoise coloured sea and clear blue sky and enjoyed another lunchtime and watched a little beetle playing in the sand.
At Donnalucata we stopped for me to go on to the beach, another fine sandy beach. At Marina di Ragusa we saw somebody kite surfing and then we stopped by the lighthouse at Punta Secca a place lost in time really and by a harbour there and beside the beach with clear blue sky still, we had our afternoon cup of tea. Adrian filled a bottle container with water from the nearby fountain and we topped our water tank up. After more oceans and oceans of plastic greenhouses we finally stopped somewhere on the Gulf of Gela, at a place that seemed to be called Marina di Acate and parked ourselves behind a little building.
On to Pachino through more seas of plastic greenhouses and cloches and then made our way to the south coast to follow along there. We were going on the road quite slowly when Adrian suddenly ground to a halt and it was because there was a little tortoise in the road. I think it was perhaps a pet one - we weren't in Africa. It wasn't long before we came to a delightful beach where there were no parking spaces made, but we stopped beside the road and had a lovely swim. The water was quite shallow but with some nice sized waves that made it just a bit of fun and of course nobody else around.
The beautiful golden beach continued all the way along to Pozzallo, the sea looking a deep turquoise beside it, but there was never anywhere to park, so presumably one just parked on the road to go to the beach. On the outskirts of Pozzallo, we found a so called hypermarket – only really a supermarket, but the good thing was that it was open because several are closed today, the first and second of November seem to be holidays like All Saints Day. We'd seen groups of people having ceremonies at cemeteries, so we were pleased to have been able to shop. We came down to the sea at Marina di Modica but it didn't take our fancy, so a bit further along we came to Sampieri and right at the end of the road, we stopped by the beach and had a delightful stop there for lunch - we had a lovely French loaf we had bought, so we sat on the sand with this deep turquoise coloured sea and clear blue sky and enjoyed another lunchtime and watched a little beetle playing in the sand.
At Donnalucata we stopped for me to go on to the beach, another fine sandy beach. At Marina di Ragusa we saw somebody kite surfing and then we stopped by the lighthouse at Punta Secca a place lost in time really and by a harbour there and beside the beach with clear blue sky still, we had our afternoon cup of tea. Adrian filled a bottle container with water from the nearby fountain and we topped our water tank up. After more oceans and oceans of plastic greenhouses we finally stopped somewhere on the Gulf of Gela, at a place that seemed to be called Marina di Acate and parked ourselves behind a little building.
Us at and the Isola delle Correnti
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It was quite windy there, right beside the beach but we had a little walk out on a beautiful sandy beach and closing our eyes to the rubbish in the dunes, sent over by the greenhouses. We sat and watched the sun go down, looked at maps and decided that maybe we'll go inland from there. I cooked supper, rice, chicken, rosemary scallops and we walked out briefly into this ghost town. There were several buildings there, some finished houses, some unfinished. We saw one light on somewhere and we saw one car that we think belonged to the one fisherman on this remote bit of beach - spooky really. We listened in to the world service and got a programme about Aboriginal education and life expectancy in Australia. It gave us quite longing to go back there, all the talk of Australia.
Marina di Acate (Streetview 2009)
Friday 3rd November 122 miles
It was a quiet and peaceful night there. We had our cup of tea looking out over the peaceful sea, it seemed quite cool this morning. After breakfast we briskly walked across the beach. We'd managed to tune in to the World Service, it was bad reception, but we heard of severe flooding in England and send a text message to Emma to ask how things were. We emptied the spare container of water into the tank and left at 08.45 our time. Marina di Acate did really seem like a ghost town with the sand blown up from the beach all across the road and made us think of Kolmanskop in Namibia. With its half built and deserted town, with absolutely nobody and nothing anywhere, it was very eerie. At first we got absolutely lost amongst the sea of greenhouses and market gardening, but it was good to see all the workers out in the fields. Eventually we came out and crossed the main road and headed for Niscemi up in the hills. It was very grubby little town and made me think of Cairo with all its half finished buildings. With difficulty we found our way winding down to the large flat plain below with strips of fields and very agricultural. We ascended into the hills again towards Piazza Armerina, where I'd wanted to see a Roman villa which is meant to have a lot of mosaics. We were surprised on the way that it was a hilly and mountainous area but very productive and on the outskirts of Piazza Armerina, we stopped at a little shop. On returning to the Tiv I went to put our shopping away in the fridge and found that the little bit of evaporated milk had turned over and made a mess in there. We had to go through some of the town of Piazza Armerina before turning off on the road to the Roman Villa at Casale and it looked and felt quite autumnal up there. We stopped for coffee just beforehand and then we visited the Roman villa and what a treat it was, the superb mosaics were just wonderful and it was really really good. I bought a few postcards and a little map of it and I'd put on trousers and even socks, but by the time we left the villa, a lot of which was outside, it felt really warm and I changed back into a skirt.
It was a quiet and peaceful night there. We had our cup of tea looking out over the peaceful sea, it seemed quite cool this morning. After breakfast we briskly walked across the beach. We'd managed to tune in to the World Service, it was bad reception, but we heard of severe flooding in England and send a text message to Emma to ask how things were. We emptied the spare container of water into the tank and left at 08.45 our time. Marina di Acate did really seem like a ghost town with the sand blown up from the beach all across the road and made us think of Kolmanskop in Namibia. With its half built and deserted town, with absolutely nobody and nothing anywhere, it was very eerie. At first we got absolutely lost amongst the sea of greenhouses and market gardening, but it was good to see all the workers out in the fields. Eventually we came out and crossed the main road and headed for Niscemi up in the hills. It was very grubby little town and made me think of Cairo with all its half finished buildings. With difficulty we found our way winding down to the large flat plain below with strips of fields and very agricultural. We ascended into the hills again towards Piazza Armerina, where I'd wanted to see a Roman villa which is meant to have a lot of mosaics. We were surprised on the way that it was a hilly and mountainous area but very productive and on the outskirts of Piazza Armerina, we stopped at a little shop. On returning to the Tiv I went to put our shopping away in the fridge and found that the little bit of evaporated milk had turned over and made a mess in there. We had to go through some of the town of Piazza Armerina before turning off on the road to the Roman Villa at Casale and it looked and felt quite autumnal up there. We stopped for coffee just beforehand and then we visited the Roman villa and what a treat it was, the superb mosaics were just wonderful and it was really really good. I bought a few postcards and a little map of it and I'd put on trousers and even socks, but by the time we left the villa, a lot of which was outside, it felt really warm and I changed back into a skirt.
We drove back to the hilltop town of Piazza Armerina, with its huge cathedral and manoeuvred ourselves through and towards Enna. We took a little winding side road off and stopped in the hills for our lunch. This was beautifully peaceful, not one car passed us and we then headed for Enna going first past a lake, apparently the only natural lake on Sicily, called Pergusa which was almost totally dry. As we just saw it in passing it was not at all impressive. We stopped at the bottom of the hilltop town of Enna and tried to get some diesel but they seem to be closed but I managed to post the last of the postcards. We then climbed up and up a hill and managed to park near the centre of Enna which we weren't impressed with, to me it was just a grubby crumbling old town with nothing much to commend it. As it was afternoon, it wasn't very lively anyway, everything was shut up and apart from beautiful views all around - I did manage to get a picture of Calascibetta another hilltop town - there was nothing that really struck us at all, but there was still traffic was everywhere.
Mosaics in the Roman Villa at Casale
We should have gone back into trousers to walk around Enna as it was quite cool. Another thing which made it not so attractive was the huge amount of building going on particularly in the lower part which was called Enna Bassa. We then progressed towards a town with a similar sounding name to the one that I took the photograph of. It was called Caltanissetta and it was through nice rolling hills and we stopped on the way there for some afternoon tea. We negotiated Caltanissetta, which was a town up in the hills and I found it more attractive than Enna and had some nice buildings which we had plent of time to see as we negotiated the traffic, Adrian expertly as usual, and without any signs to tell us where to go. On the way through I saw one of the two shoeshine men that I'd read about in the book and as we'd stopped beside him, I called out 'Buongiorno'. We continued to the other side of Caltanissetta and then found ourselves travelling in a southwesterly direction on a good to fast road. As we neared a place called Canicatti, which is supposed to be like Timbuktu to Italians, we took a turn off to it but the road didn't quite seem right from the beginning, and it wasn't, and the map didn't tie up at all. We came across a lovely little town called Delia and full marks, it was a really attractive little old Italian town and it was signposted all the way through to Canicatti and on the way out there was a lovely castle on top of the hill looking a bit like Corfe by its position. We finally got to Canicatti which we had thought wasn't going to be a too large a town, but we found it was huge and as ever, whist trying to follow the map through the town, we were suddenly sent a completely different way in amongst the traffic, just so we could experience their double parking and all the funof Italian driving which Adrian did expertly as ever. The only signposts were to Naro and some to Agrigento where we are heading for tomorrow, but then those stopped and it was only signposted to Naro. As we wanted the road out towards Naro initially, I said yes but then we found we were actually on the road to Naro to late and with no other turnings off, so we headed for there and it was another town on top of a hill and with a steep ascent to it. It was beginning to get dark so we took a road off to Diga, not on the map, but we took it anyway. It became obvious that it went to a dam on a reservoir and we ended up going for miles and miles around on all sorts of roads that weren't on the map and came to rest at 6.15 in the last of the light, right down near the San Giovani Dam in a little area, just big enough for us to stop.
Looking to the hilltop town of Calascibetta
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Still cars went by even though we were right down by the dam and the road shouldn't have been going anywhere. We settled down and cooked a very nice pizza for supper. After supper we looked through photos of the trip, and some from home. I finished reading 'the Railway Children' which I'd very much enjoyed and started reading ‘Doctor in the House’. Even though the road didn’t go anywhere, there were one or two cars passed during the evening playing music. We looked out at bed time, when it was partly cloudy with some stars but not really cold at all.
Overnight stop at the San Giovani Dam (streetview 2021)