Sicilia - Mt Etna area
From van Hessing European trip from Sept 2008 to sometime in 2010 in Villa San Giovanni, Italy on Nov 22 '08
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Sunday, 23rd November
At last! Arrived in Sicily. Only annoying part is the cost of the 20 min ferry from Villa San Giovanni (closer than going 9 kms further to Reggio Calabria). It was 37 Euros (about AUD70) but we got a discount for buying a return valid for 60 days.
The majesty of Etna!
After arriving in Messina and getting lost we finally found the road heading south on the east coast of Sicily travelling thru the longest towns we have ever seen! Very like Altea in Spain (Costa Blanca). The roads were very narrow and we had people backing up to let us thru! Was hard to find a camp site open but finally did so in the shadow of Mt Etna called “Almoetia” which while not operating 100% , would do!
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Hit the jackpot again, this time the site was full of lemon, mandarin and orange trees and we pitched right under pecan nut trees, ALL were in season!
Monday, 24th November
Day dawned with clear blue skies and we just got a glimpse of the snow capped Etna which is literally behind the camp site! Sadly, by about 9 am it was shrouded in cloud which seems to be the case with volcanos (we know that from living in Bougainville and Vanuatu). The camp site have offered a massive discount for staying for a week so have decided to make ourselves at home, only one other camper here!
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So for the first time, we hauled the annex down off the roof where it has been stored for 3 weeks now and after an abortive attempt last night in gusty winds we tried again. Amidst arguments of how to do this and watching and rewatching the DVD that came with the annex, we managed to achieve the impossible! I guess the actual putting up only takes less than an hour but then you need to knock in all the pegs and we omitted to buy a hammer! Wanted to get it right as when we have guests we need the extra room! Need to buy another tarp to put on the floor as the one we have only covers half of it!
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Now we need to explore the surrounding areas by bus……cos we cant bloody move now! So, as no-one seemed to know a damn thing about buses we walked 2.5 kms to the nearest village to find out times etc. So after a 3 kms walk this morning and another 5 kms this afternoon, we truly had our exercise for today!
Tuesday, 25th November
The day dawned with Mt Etna looming over us in her glory, no cloud, just clear blue sky with a whiff of steam coming out at the top. So we thought we’d circumnavigate Mt Etna, in a small diesel train today! It takes about 4 hours but due to lack of info available we caught the bus from the village 2 kms away to the point where you catch the little train to find we’d missed one by 10 mins and not another for 2 hours. So, as you really need the whole day for the trip to allow time to get on and off the train at the various villages on Etna (fools, who’d live there?)…..we caught the bus back to Taormina entitled “the jewel of the Ionian Coast”….and SO IT IS! The book says Liz Taylor and Richard Burton loved the place. It is majestically seated on a ridge between 2 higher points with views 300 degrees to the coastline north and across to the mainland. A medieval city with Greek beginnings as usual features many churches but has a main street running the whole length of the town is completely pedestrian with the central plaza giving us superb views of Etna and beyond. The narrow streets and alleys hide wonderful little scenic corners with bouganvillea colouring the place. It is very up market with haute couture shops all beyond our pocket! The ride up on the bus was a repeat of the Amalfi Coast as we looked over the edge once again to sheer drops with views north and south and to the volcano. It was absolutely beautiful!
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So its Etna tomorrow!
Wednesday, 26th November
Got up early – 6am, a killer! Had a look at whether Etna had the much too often cloud mass covering its peak and it wasn’t so bad so off we set to catch an early bus to Giarre so that we could spend the day getting on and off the “viacircumetnia”. All went well and the little orange carriage trundled along slowly climbing the slopes of Etna – its area extending for 1250 sq kms!
Amazing was the amount of towns and villages that existed amongst the varying amounts of lava that had lain on the slopes after the many eruptions the most recent in 2002. Before that the book says that she erupted in 1669, 1792, 1852, 1886, 1892, 1910, 1911, 1923, 1928, 1950, 1971 (so long that it stopped only 70 kms from the sea) 1979, 1981, 1983, 1985, 1991-3 (471 consecutive days!) 2001 & 2002. Kind of get the feeling that she’s gonna blow again soon! Some pics in brochures show a tourist just sitting there watching the lava flow below them, obviously the inhabitants know what to do and where to go and there now seems to be technology that allows diversion of lava flow.
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The constant eruptions give rise to phenomenally rich soil and allow massive planting of vines, citrus fruits, nuts, Indian fig (cactus fruit or prickly pear). Further, the lava gets “mined” into material for retaining walls, tunnels, roads, pavements and buildings. The black “slabs” are to be seen in every village and town and as the train wends its way upwards you cannot fail to be amazed at the massive areas of lava yet untouched, lying in great channels and piles where it once flowed, now dried up and hard.
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The view of the mountain changed as the little train wound its way around – the plume of steam from the summit to be seen quite clearly from the other side with a tinge of pink at its edge and with a large number of vents spewing more steam from various points on the slopes.
The sky was blue and the snow capped peak stood out just dying to be photographed. We got off at Randazzo the most interesting town on the slopes of Etna and the point at which one can be escorted to the summit if you want!
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There always seems to be a lack of young people in these small towns – and before boarding the train in Giarre we were told that an enormous amount of Sicilians locally went to Australia after the war to work the sugar cane fields and some of these villages were all but deserted still!
It was a lovely day culminating in a couple of hours in the very gracious port and ocean city of Catania, elegant buildings with a more modern culture. Great examples of Sicilian Baroque architecture.
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Saturday 29th November
Dismantled annex having survived the storms on Thursday & Friday and dried it……the water that had surrounded us the night before in the storm had drained away. Moved the van to higher ground in the site and then tried to walk along the beach road to Alcantara but couldn’t cross the river so sat by the beach and watched the massive waves come in! Turned out sunny and quite warm….generally a lazy day.
Sunday, 30th November
THIS time got to Alcantara by walking along the road dodging the traffic, absolutely not one smidgen of pavement for pedestrians! Have walked a lot in small towns with nil pavements and you have to develop a knack of just walking around parked cars, some parked correctly others just “parked” with their noses in and backs sticking out…..you don’t have to look to see whats coming you just walk out into the road and the traffic simply curls its way around you! So this day we just kept on walking and made our way down to the “resort” of Naxos….where a million Italians were having Sunday lunch, good to see some winter activity! An old guy stopped and played the accordian for us and we just HAD to give him a Euro for his efforts. The beaches were mostly private “attached” to various restaurants, cant work out how the Italians put up with this, they’d by a riot in Aus if they tried that!
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Just walked and walked and before we knew it we’d walked around 5 kms and had 2 hours to wait for a bus back to the camp site, they are few and far between on Sundays. So caught the local yellow bus back up to Taormina only 50c…..walked around and caught the second bus of the day back. We were quite weary after the 1 km walk back to the site - a 7 kms day today!
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