Palermo

One thing to know about Sicily is that they have established an excellent bus system. Whether it be inter-city travel or intra-city, the service is highly reliable, inexpensive, and, as a result, it is a very popular choice of transportation for Sicilians. As an example, a bus ticket from Baia del Corallo into Palermo costs 1 euro and is good for 90 minutes after stamping it upon entry in the bus and it is good for the entire transit system which means you can transfer onto connecting buses with the same ticket provided you do so within 90 minutes. This morning, I overheard one old woman remarking with a happy grin that the odour of the hot morning air in the bus reminded her of ripe fromaggio. Palermo is a very large metropolis and there is no way to see half of all the interesting attractions in a few days, so we did what always seems most appropriate under the circumstances in any large city and that is to visit the museum of archaeology. So, after locating the ticket office of Tirrenia at the port and procuring our boarding ticket for the ferry tomorrow, we did that, and what a treasure trove of antiquity! We alo visited the Teatro Massimo, but unfortunately, no shows were scheduled until June (Cosi fan Tutti...would have been nice but we were a couple of weeks too early), and then afterwards a most remarkable fountain at one of the nearby piazzas. The city is punctuated with so many statues and piazzas that it is easy to become insensitive to their presence and beauty. Saw a man on a motorbike with a passenger weaving in and out of pedestrians while talking on his cell phone...whatàs remarkable about this is that he was driving on a pedestrian walkway and no one seemed to give him any notice. One more day to stroll about in town as the ferry departs Palermo at 17:00.

Baia del Corallo

Baia del Corallo

The train departed Giardini station 15 minutes "retardo". Our connection in Messina was also delayed, officially, by 30 minutes, but in actuality it was more like 50 minutes. Such a long delay gave the train station officials in Messina the opportunity to change their mind 3 times on which track to board the train to Palermo. So, all the passengers awaiting the Palermo train got their exercise lugging their baggage back and forth between platforms. Organized confusion. Enroute to Palermo at about the half-way point, the train lost its electrical connection and no one knew how long it would take to repair. We finally pulled into Palermo 3h-45m "retardo". To reach the Baia del Corallo hostel by bus, one must find a ticket vendor, purchase a ticket to Punta Maltese, disembark at Alcide de Gasperi "Square" (actually an enormous round-a-bout) and switch to the #628. After a few minutes of wandering around, in the area, we found the hostel at 19:50, precisely 10 minutes prior to dinner which was included in the 29 euro fee for the private room. So, once again, we find ourselves to be the fortunate recipients of providence. Our room overlooks the bay, and because we arrived in the evening, the light of the setting sun on the rock face on the opposite side of the bay was lit up with breathtaking beauty. Tomorrow, we must head into town to procure a ticket for the ferry from Palermo to Cagliari. I booked it on line, but only have a reference number (no e-ticket). So, we need to get hard copies of the ticket and, also, we'll need to scout around the port side as well to determine where the ferry dock is located so that we know where to go on Saturday evening. Palermo is a bustling city of approximately 1 million people all of whom drive cars with scrathes and dents or motor bikes who probably made a lot of those scratches on the cars considering the maniacal way they swerve fearlessly between moving vehicles (both the young and the old). But the motorbikes clearly have the advantage in heavy traffic which often crawls to a halt while everyone beeps their horns thinking this will somehow speed things up. In these traffic conditions, the motorbikes weave in and out of the stagnant streams of cars and thus maintain a certain momentum of hectic progress.

Castelmola

It's almost impossible to imagine how the big intercity bus made it up the extremely narrow road from Taormina to Castelmola, but a few cars and trucks had to back up and make way on our way up the long and twisting road. I took a picture of a cement truck (not Alcim, Gaetan...competition!!) negotiating entry to one of the main streeets, because it would be hard to believe...he wouldn't make it too far down that street...and then he's have to back up! It's also almost impossible to imagine why anyone would want to build a castel way up this very steep peak when you consider the incredible effort that must have taken. It's even harder to imagine why anyone would consider attacking a castle perched so high up on such a steep slope, but apparently it was indeed attacked twice during its days despite the fact that there are hundreds of other hills the ibvaders could have inhabited. Crazy and mesmerizing. The ancient narrow streets wind up and down the hilly surface of this town twisting in all directions many of which evolved into stairways laid in stone. In some places it would be difficult for two people to run past each other without bumping into each other. This is our last night in Giardini Naxos. Tomorrow morning, we'll the train to Palermo via Messina. When we step on that train, we'll be leaving a beautiful gem behind.

Arrived in Sicily

Rose at 04:00 on Sunday, had a quick breakfast with Fr. Reno and then walked down to the gate at Mount Joseph where we met our taxi met at 05:00. Traffic at that time of day in Malta is almost non-existent, but our driver proceded at a calm speed of about 30 km/hr all the way to the passenger dock talking all the way. The catamaran made the passage from Valletta to Pazzallo in 90 minutes, but it took us about 3 hrs walking up and down the beach side streets with our heavy backpacks to discover a means of getting ourselves up to Giardini Naxos where we had reservations. On Sunday, Pazzallo's tourist bureau is closed and renting a car is, apparently, only possible in Catania (a good 2 hrs drive north). The train station had the appearance of an abandoned building. So, we walked around looking for the bus station only to discover at a very small bar who happens to be the purveyor of the inter-city bus tickets that there is no bus station...you just stand over there across the street, and the bus will pass by at 14:40. So, we had time for lunch at a beachside restaurant, and then waited in the hot afternoon air. The tickets we had purchased, however, were only good to get us to Catania where, the bar owner told us, we should "probably" get tickets for a connecting bus to Giardini Naxos....nothing certain on Sundays. As it turns out, there was a bus going to Taormina (7 km north of Girdini Naxos) but a different carrier leaving from a different terminus which was, fortunately, very close to the one where we disembarked. We were just in time to catch the next bus to Taormina, and the driver was kind enough to drop us off a few meters from the road which would take us up the hill to our hotel (Giardino dei Grechi) perched charmingly above the town overlooking the sea. The next day (ie yesterday), we walked the entire length of the beach (back and forth) about 1 hour in each direction, and then we went with the hotel's afternoon shuttle to Taormina perched very high above Giardini Naxos and then walked back down the hill that night in about 30 minutes arriving back at the hotel around 22:30. Taormina is an ancient town with an old Greek theater which, in it's day held over 10,000 spectators on the hill overlooking the beautiful coastline. Mostly what we see today are the modifications made by the Romans under the rule of Hadrian, a patron of the arts. Will return tomorrow on the hotel's morning shuttle in order to make our way up to the small town of Castelmola, a tiny town perched impossibly high up above Taormina around a pointy little mountainous peak. We asked the lady at the tourist bureau in Giardini Naxos what would be the one thing she would not want to miss on a visit to this fair city, and her first thought was Castelmola. So be it. Today, we joined a couple from Holland on a guided tour of the Mount Etna region. We were only four passengers in the jeep which holds 7, so it was quite a pleasant day. We climbed to 1842 meters of Etna's 3300, but the driver was not permitted to take us any higher by policy of his company, but we did manage to see a couple of dead craters and did a little spelunking in a natural cavity in the lava under the forest floor. We also visited the Gole Alcantara...a beautiful gorge with a waterfall descending to a swift running stream clear as gin. We waded into the water to get our knees wet and the water was cold and invigorating. The gorge was the result of a split in the lava during an earthquake a long time ago...and what's interesting about it is that you can see the myriad layers of lava which cooled sucessively one over the other and after being split apart, the resulting face of the gorge looks like fantastic modern art. In Malta eveything was constructed of lime stone. but in the Mt Etna region everything is made of lava...it is a very hard porous rock which can be shaped into building blocks which are visible in buildings and roadside walls. It's simply everywhere you look. Large boulders to pebbles to dust and because of the variety of elements such a silenium, sulphur, iron, etc,,,the colour of the lava stones varies from dark black to pale yellow. The tour included a lunch at a local farm house owned by an old couple in their late seventies who prepared and served a traditional Sicilian meal of Antipasti (8 different little bites of homemade delicacies) followed by the prima plati of rissotto with fennel and home made macaroni (about 7 inches long) with a tomatoes sauce. Then the secunda plati with cotella di vitella and salad. Topped off with a homemade gelato and cafe ristretto. Oh, and the home made wine and the home made olive oil!...mama mia. What a meal set ion the foothills of Etna on a family run farm. The owners were alone and did all the preparations and the serving with grace and warm hospitality. The Sicilians are really great people, close to each other in a warm neighbourly manner and are very family oriented. I can't say that they are great at giving directions, but they certainly do so with passion and goodwill.