Thursday (2/18/2010)
Today, nothing at all went as we had planned, but we still had an excellent day. First, we had our typical hotel breakfast, and then we drove off to Mt. Etna where we were going to have an excursion to the crater. We noticed that throughout this trip, we experienced all 4 seasons of the year. Winter in Rome the day it snowed, spring in Rome and Naples, summer in Palermo and Sicily, and fall on the slopes of Mt. Etna. It was quite amazing. When we arrived at the excursion center near the top of Etna, it was buried in at least 3 feet of snow. When we went inside the info center, it turned out they would be closed for weeks, due to the recent snowfall and wind. We were disappointed, but we took amazing pictures from the incredible views on our position in Etna. There was even a world cup for skiing occurring on the mountain at the time. We descended down the mountain and set our GPS for a river gorge that we would walk through. On our way, we stopped at a sleepy little town called Zafferani. It was very small, but had a nice, cozy feel to it. We stopped by a pastry shop and had the best pastries and coffee in the entire trip, and we stopped by a little grocery store, and purchased the cheapest water we’ve ever gotten in Europe, €0.25 per bottle (from the typical €1-2).
We followed our GPS for a while, and got some excellent views of the Sicilian landscape, but we felt like we were going away from all cities, and we just saw farmland and real Sicilian towns. When our GPS said we arrived, we were on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. Our GPS got us lost. What happened was we accidentally reset the GPS to the wrong address, and it took us to the end of a paved road. We were 10 miles from our real destination. We drove back to the gorges we wanted to visit, and it turned out it was closed, due to too high waters. What a bummer, the second thing that was closed contrary to our plan. We still had some excellent views of the river gorge, and took some great pictures. We were then going to drive to Taormina, to visit the ruins of an Ancient Greek amphitheatre. We joked that they would be closed for some ridiculous reason, like “out of paper tickets” or “suspected earthquake”, but we knew that it would be one thing that would go according to our plan. When we arrived in Taormina, the very troubling thing to find was parking. We looked everywhere, we drove through the entire city twice, taking little curving streets with 360 degree turns, but we still failed to find public parking. Very few people, even young people, speak English so even getting directions is a puzzle. When we finally found a parking garage, we were relieved, and rolled in to pick up a ticket. The machine said “Garage Full”. We were flabbergasted, as it was February, but it turns out that public parking was closed for the winter, even though there was summer weather. We finally found another parking area right outside of the city limits, but had an elevator to the city center. We took it and finally arrived on Taormina’s main street.
It was a nice, cozy little town with astonishing views of the surrounding landscape. When we arrived at the ruins, it was 4:35PM. They were closing the gate that was adorned with a sign that read a 4:30PM closing time. Our plan was once again ruined. We still enjoyed a wonderful view of the landscape and a stroll through the nice old town. The buildings there were all very neat and unique. We finally drove back to our hotel in Giardini Naxos where we relaxed for a couple of hours before going out for dinner. We ate at a pizzeria/pasta place, and since we were the first to dine (most Italians start dinner at 8:30ish), the owner let us take my pizza out of the oven for pictures. The pizza was some of the best I’ve ever had, preceded only by the pizza in Monaco last year. We then walked back to our hotel and pretty much immediately went to sleep.
Friday (2/19/2010)
Today was a long, but successful day. It started with a large breakfast. I had 5 croissants, yet still managed to be hungry later in the day. We checked out of our hotel in Giardini Naxos, and then drove back to Taormina to visit the ruins that we failed to see yesterday. Since we knew exactly where it was, we weren’t lost, and got there just in time. We took another stroll through Taormina’s nice main street, and arrived at the Ancient Greek amphitheater. Even with Mt. Etna covered with clouds, it was still an enlightening experience, learning about the origins of the theater, and also seeing the breathtaking views of Giardini Naxos, Taormina, and Scylla. If it weren’t a little foggy, we could’ve seen mainland Italy from the theater. After that, we left Taormina, and had a non-stop ride through the Sicilian inland to Palermo. It was about 2-and-a-half hours long, and the views were decent, besides the clouds. We passed through the city of Enna, in the geometrical center of the island, at over 3,000 feet in altitude. When we arrived in Palermo, it was sunny and quite hot, so we were quite lucky. I can’t imagine how hot it must be in the summer. We parked in the port, and started to walk through Palermo towards the opera house. My brother and I had a quick, late lunch at a McDonalds, and we then walked down another street. A man with a horse carriage stopped us and offered us a ride through the sights of Palermo for “trenta euro” which we thought meant €30. We accepted the ride. It was interesting to ride in a horse carriage with crazy Italian drivers swerving around us, including a bus which was trying to trample our horse. We stopped at the famous buildings in Palermo: the cathedral, fountains, opera house, theater, and a mosque that was converted to a church. When we finished the tour, the man showed us the brochure with a price tag of €80. We were confused, because we thought he meant €30, but after negotiation, we were able to pay €40. We spent the rest of our time eating at a nice Italian pizzeria/pasticeria, and then drove to the port where we embarked on our ferry, departed, and slept.
Now, we're going back to Rome, spending a few days there before returning to the U.S. on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment