Sunday in Sicily

The Ferry to Sicily

          Sunday we decided to cross the channel into Sicily. Sicily is right across the channel from Reggio di Calabria. We look at it everyday, at night it's all lite up and sparkly.  I haven't done a lot of sightseeing there, so off we went. We caught a ferry across. They go back and forth all day and night, since that's the only way to get there, except by plane. They've been talking about  building a bridge for years, it's very controversial here.(Best not to bring it up) The ferry take everything cars, trucks, people, and they even have a special ferry that takes the train cars!
           

All Aboard! Andiamo!

Once off the ferry, we headed south towards Etna, the live volcano. We can see the very top of it from our place so we wanted to get a little closer to check it out. Well, to our surprise Etna was alive and well. We got there just in time to see her shooting off ash and smoke 7 kilometers high! Wow! You don't wanna mess with her!

Mount Etna Blowin off some steam

Candied marzipan fruit display

We took that photo from the highway about halfway there. We kept going. We stopped in a small town in the hills on the way up. It was raining down tiny specks of ash.We stopped in a cafe for a cannoli, Sicily is known for making the best. (They were pretty damn good!) I also took a pic of the marzipan fruit and Easter display they had, it was beautiful. Out in the piazza I wrote my name in the ash.

Suzy b

Cannoli

 

 We went up as far as we could on that side of the mountain. The road was closed at a certain point, too much snow ahead! Huh? (Do they know I'm from the mid-west?) By then Etna had settled down. We stopped and took some pics on the lava rocks. Then we headed back down the mountain to Catania. The "Milan" of Sicily. A beautiful city. We walked around for a couple of hours, had some lunch, and took lots of pics.

The Duomo di Catania

By the time we left Catania, Etna had settled down.

Mt. Etna

        

    Heading back to Messina to catch the ferry, we decided to stop in a little town above Taormina, called Castelmola. It was a gem on top of this hill over looking the channel. So cute!

Small cafe in the piazza

Small store front with goods out front.

Cobblestone walk-ways and stairs

Sicilian puppet

Sleep tight Etna

Arrivaderci Sicilia!

Looking back on Sicily as we head back on the ferry to the mainland. We caught it just in the nick of time! What an awesome day! Thanks to our friends Catarina for planning the route and Fortunato for his expert driving.