Cefalo area - N Sicily and farewell!

All the vans parked up at Rais Gerbi campsite - central north coast of Sicily
see all photos »

Wednesday, 7th January

No hurry to leave as we knew we had to negotiate the circonavigazione around Palermo. Turned out to be a piece of piss for once and made the campsite around 3 pm where we met up with various people we’d met before over the past few weeks. Rais Gerbi campsite was always the “one” to stay at in Sicily, it is mid north coast and lies between Palermo the West and Messina to the East. It overlooks the ocean with the group of Aeolian Islands in the distance. It had been very windy all day and it had turned into a cold wind with our first glimpses of Sicilian snow to be seen on the local mountains. However, the news was that northern Europe was experiencing snow and minus temps, so who are we to grumble? Found a magic spot to park between Germans in a million dollar van YES ONE MILLION AUSTRALIAN DOLLARS…..(drove his matching gold coloured smart car into the back of it-bastard!) and Italians somewhat “poorer” – us in the smallest oldest van on the site! Who cares!

Ceramics & Parco delle Madonie - north coast Sicily

German motorhome with Smartcar to match! Only 500,000 Euros (AUD1m!!!)
see all photos »

Friday, 9th January

Drove the van down to San Stefano, the “home” for ceramics in Sicily. Many factories and many styles – modern and traditional. Somehow after looking at all the shops we found the “hidden” ceramics museum tucked around the back of the city. Had a potted history of the trade plus some stunning contemporary work, all this housed in a 17th century Palazzio with mosaic ceramic flooring, a nice discovery in what was otherwise a fairly plain town. Returned via Castel del Tusa – a small fishing port, in the book and overated!

A moonlit night view from our motorhome at Rais Gerbi
see all photos »

Saturday, 12th January

Caught the bus after lunch up to Pollina, a town nestled on the craggy mountain behind us. Lovely little place, narrow winding cobbled streets. Walked up and up until we reached the ruins of the castle at the VERY top of the town and lo and behold there was a Greek theatre. All the old men were sitting around in a sunny windless spot discussing the ways of the world, as old men do in this part of the world. We were dumbstruck as the “book” made no mention of this place let along the theatre. The views down into the valleys of the edge of the Parco di Madonie were fantastic, little like Guadalest in Spain.

A visit to San Stefano - down the road from the camp site
see all photos »

Monday, 12th January

Went to Cefalu even tho the weather was closing in. A delightful medieval town dwarfed by a huge 13th century cathedral which has been rebuilt several times and now boats some lovely contemporary painted glass windows from 1990’s. The small streets of the old town are full of restaurants – a true tourist spot in the summer. The beach was sandy, rare in this area and probably very crowded in the summer.

Left Cefalu and managed to tour the Parc a little as the weather got worse. The Parco di Madonie is very large, maps are hard to come by and the walking areas of it are deep in the park and too hard to reach in the van. However, the area adjacent was undulating, full of olive and prickly pear and being a park very sparsely populated which makes a nice change for Sicily! Leaving Sicily on Wednesday.