EXTENDED TRIP TO ITALY,
THIRD SELECTION
SIRACUSA, 2nd series
IBLEI MOUNTAINS AND ETNA
When we drove past Mt Etna on our way from
Messina to Siracusa, rain and mist disappointingly obscured
it from our sight; we were amazed and thrilled to see this major volcano
conspicuously rise above the Iblei Mountains, a
hundred kilometres to the south, where we stayed at
the Borgo degli Ulivi
Siracusa museum
BORGO DEGLI ULIVI
RAGUSA
BORGO DEGLI ULIVI, specimens of interior
decoration
ON OUR WAY FROM THE BORGO TO RAGUSA
RAGUSA MUSEUM
ON OUR WAY FROM AGRIGENTO TO PALERMO
AGRIGENTO
INGLESIA DE SAN NICOLA, AGRIGENTO
AGRIGENTO MUSEUM
Here again, like at the Volterra
Meseum, the Empedocles-inspired sculptures of Gregg
Wyatt were in evidence
SCOPELLO
Our three weeks in Sicily were
concluded with a blissful stay at the modest seaside resort of Scopello, in the extreme North West of the
island
SCOPELLO TO GENUA VIA PALERMO
From Scopello we
thought to end our long and eventful trip the easy way, by embarking the Genua ferry at Palermo. We should
have known better by then. Our gps, which had already
constantly misguided us at under-digitalised Sicily,
now completely abandoned us, despite repeated e-mail contact with the internet
company that had sold us the electronic tickets we were at a total loss as to
where to exchange these tickets into the ones acceptable for boarding, and when
after two hours through the heavy Palermo traffic we finally had the ferry port
in sight, access to it proved impossible because of road works; a blind 7 km
detour along the harbour edge solved this problem,
and at official directions we left our car at the official car park to find a
restaurant – there was none at the ferry port. When we returned after two
hours, the car park was unattended, the automated barrier out of order, and we
literally had to steal our own car from the parking lot. Boarding the ship was
as stressful as we had anticipated, and although we slept soundly in our cabin, the sea voyage was
totally spoiled by rough weather and the ensuring sea sickness. Welcome to Sicily. However,
we sailed past the famous Isle of Montechristo, saw
the shores of Corsica, saw our fellow-passengers at the promenade deck stage Plato’s
Parable of the Cave, and arrived at Genua, which in
our experience matches Siracusa as a strikingly
beautiful harbour – enhanced by the early work of the
architect Renzo Piano.
O
GENUA AND BACK TO HOLLAND VIA THE
GOTHARDT TUNNEL AND Germany
Before
entering the tunnel we stopped long enough to enjoy the striking pplay of sunlight on the steep mountain slopes, see a
Muslim family (also its female members) perform the salat in public, and wonder at
the special, massive facilities Chinese tourists were treated to
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