Monday 26 May 2008

Sicily

Just back from a cultural package tour of Sicily and feel I should still be on the bus listening to Franco the Guide saying ‘Alora, I am not Italian. I am Sicilian…..’ It was curiously refreshing having no responsibility, like being on a school trip. All we had to do was get up at dawn and be at the bus stop on time. Not as easy as you think as in Lettojani we had to go up in the lift five floors, down in the funicular and then down in another tiny lift. (See second photo) Then we had to be sure to use the ‘Comfort Break’ when it was available, photograph the sites when advised to do so, eat lots of pasta, pork and swordfish, and generally do what we were told. As all 40 of us were well behaved, the tour was a great success.

What did we see? Taormina above, plus wonderfully preserved Greek temples at Agrigento (below), a huge Roman villa with mosaic floors (one depicting girls in bikinis), beautiful churches and macabre Palermo catacombs. Most amazing of all was Mt Etna. The black lava fields of this high and dangerous volcano were strange and impressive. I’m so glad I saw it – I probably would have given that part of the tour a miss if it had been possible. If they are any good, I’ll post a photo or two when I’ve had them developed. I decided to take my non-digi camera because it can take panoramic views and anyway sometimes one can become too preoccupied with photography and fail to absorb the atmosphere.

5 comments:

monix said...

Welcome back. I'm sorry the weather is typically British Bank Holiday, bearing no resemblance to those blue skies in your photos. I hope you will tell us more about the places you visited.

Ms Mac said...

How wonderful. I would love to visit Sicily one day. The view in the top photo is stunning.

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

What bliss. I've always wanted to visit Sicily and really must get on and do so at some point.

Loved your photos.

Susie Vereker said...

Thanks for visiting, all of you. I do recommend Sicily but don't want to bore people with too many holiday snaps. It was very crowded but I guess May is a popular month - it may be better in winter except then you wouldn't see the flowers which were stunning and abundant. I've posted some of my own photos now after a quick visit to Boots.

Cornflower said...

Would love to hear more about your trip as your "snapshot in words" was so tantalising!