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.