Southern Italy and Sicily – 16 Days – Cosmos Tour – A Journal of the Tour – Part Two
Capri to Palermo via Messina then Rome
“……The latte macchiato arrived in a tall glass and was, as usual, fabulous. Hot, smooth and silky…..”
17th. September
Wake up is at 6:45 am for an 8:20 am departure from Capri. Another beautiful day, cool start but warm later with a light breeze. The best of autumn weather. The trip down the mountain this morning was hilarious. Heavy braking coming into the hairpin bends then a sort of muscle in, bluff tactic between drivers to see who has gone past the point of no return and gets the right of way. And in the middle of this our bus drives completely on the opposite side of the road, swings hard, misses the car or bus that’s pulled up well into the bend by a few inches and swings past as a scooter weaves between the two of us defying death by a hairs breath. And the same is repeated on the next bend, the next roundabout and the next street. Most of the streets in Capri are wide enough for one vehicle with places two can squeeze past with only a couple of inches to spare. The drivers are very skilled and quite fearless. Very few buses have scratches down the sides but it’s alarming when you see scooters with scratches as the rider’s legs must have copped a bruising when that happened.
Yes another day in paradise. Capri is probably one of the most beautiful, safe and classy places on earth. Such an atmosphere, such decadence and beauty, such style. I loved the walkways and alleys with their stunning shops full of designer fare. Such a unique town.
We were to catch a ferry at 8:55 am for Sorrento and made it on board with five minutes to spare. The ferry took us to Sorrento, the real Sorrento, unlike the one south of Melbourne, in about twenty minutes, but I can see why Australia’s Sorrento was named thus. Cliffs and villas, stunning coastline, playground to high end real estate moguls and the rich with glamorous lifestyles. Italy’s Sorrento is picture postcard perfect, and our tour guide Gianpaolo’s (JP’s) home town.
We checked into the Ascot Hotel, our home for the next three nights shortly after we arrived in Sorrento, dropped our hand luggage which had been left with us after porters had taken our larger bags earlier this morning, then boarded two buses for the trip to Amalfi, via the Almalfitan Coast.
Almost right away the built up housing areas fell away to wild and dramatic coastline, the Almalfitan coast. We drove for about half an hour then stopped just short of Positano at a parking area, where photos of the town would do Positano justice. Also at the parking area were some market stalls and a caravan selling granita, the delicious sweet ice lemon drink sold to Italians and tourists alike as a refreshing reviver. I bought a small cup for 3€ and it was mouth watering.
Positano is exactly like Under The Tuscan Sun fame, an idyllic Italian resort on one of Italy’s most stunning coastlines nestled in a nook of land that has a tiny beach. Luxury yachts and watercraft are anchored just offshore on the crystal clear blue waters of the Mediterranean, Italian villas and rectangular shaped houses packed tightly next to each other form a step up step up step up pattern up the side of the steep landfall in every direction and roads that climb the cliffs on dramatic angles, a hairpin bend at every turn are all part of Positano’s beautiful landscape. Gianpaolo referenced movie stars like Sophia Loren and Gina Lollibridgida who have/had houses here and it’s not hard to believe. The real estate location is stunning. It is a very old area, and the streets are narrow and quite hard to negotiate in a large bus. Stop, start and braking heavily we twisted and turned climbing up hundreds of meters to gain purchase in the town. Photography was a challenge out a bus window most of the time often in full swing on hairpin bends but I managed to do a decent job of it as we didn’t stop again for photographs until we arrived in Amalfi. If I hadn’t taken the opportunity to try I’d have few captures to remind me of this gorgeous seaside resort.
Amalfi was bustling with tourists when we arrived around 1:00 pm and we were told we could fossik through the town markets, eat lunch or do a short boat trip. We were to return by 3:00 pm. Most of Italy’s shops close between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm for the siesta, then the shops stay open til 8:00 or 9:00 pm and restaurants start to open by 8:30 pm and stay open late. We found a small Italian restaurant and Terry ordered bruschetta, I had spaghetti with mussels. It was delicious and cost Terry 6€, my meal cost 14€. We went wandering after that and I saw many market type shops and street stalls. Many of the Italian men were all too happy to pose and smile and join in on the exercise. We ran into Jeanette and Liz and they had cone cups of freshly cooked seafood including shrimp, squid and prawns. It was tasty, fresh and very hot having been coated in a light savoury Tempura-like batter. We headed back to the bus before 3:00 pm but I stopped and bought a single huge peach for 1€ at the fruit stall next to the restaurant where we had eaten lunch. I wasn’t sure if it would be what I hoped but it was soft, juicy and very sweet, unlike many peaches we get in Australia in summer, early picked and packed for a market that demands fruit year round and often out of season. It surpassed my expectations.
The trip back to Sorrento was through the higher regions above Positano, across hills over a thousand metres high and sign posts with snow flakes were dotted here and there. The region gets snow in winter.
Everyone was starting to flag a bit by day’s end today. The tour so far has been full on, and some of us were dozing by the time we got back. I hooked up the iPad for recharging and will also charge my camera batteries. It is nice to have power as Capri didn’t have power points in the rooms and the iPad was down to 7% by two days end. I wasn’t sure if I’d get to take many more pics for facebook with it.
Tomorrow is a day tour of Naples. It’s supposed to be a pick pocket’s paradise so I’m thinking of bowing out. I’ve paid 30€ to do the tour but am not sure. I don’t know how I can safely leave my camera behind nor safely take it. I might stay in Sorrento, shop, FaceTime my girls and do some laundry.
11:00 pm 18th. September
Decided to stay in Sorrento and skip the optional tour to Naples today, disappointed but glad as the day was spent leisurely shopping and Terry and I enjoyed a lovely lunch in an outdoor street side cafe. Breakfast this morning had been typically European again with a large selection of pastries including croissants and sweet tarts, ham and cheese, breads including Turkish bread, fresh tomatoes, watermelon, apples and oranges, cereals, yogurt and about ten different types of coffee including the fabulous caffe latte.
We were told Naples would be risky regarding pick pockets and theft so rather than visit ten beautiful places and be frustrated with no photos having not taken the camera, I stayed in Sorrento and took the camera with me whilst I enjoyed looking around the local streets and shops. It will be interesting to see if the group comes back unscathed. Ken was pick pocketed on the Metro in Rome the first day there and managed have 120€ stolen.
Some of the travelers when they got back said the highlight of their tour today was the Naples Museum which houses a fantastic collection of priceless relics from Pompeii and was well worth seeing. It’s ironic really that relics dug up and salvaged from a site covered in ash from a volcanic eruption are now housed in Naples at the foot of the same volcano. We were told Naples wasn’t obliterated during the Pompeii eruption because of two things; one the explosion which led to the lava flow out the side of the volcano being directed at Herculean not Naples, and the wind direction that day blew the ash from lava shot high into the sky toward Pompeii not Naples. So there you go, Naples is obviously a safe place to live today as it was lucky enough to miss out on being totally destroyed in 79AD.
So my not going, I think, was a good decision for me, but I was disappointed, again this is Italy I remind myself, not safe haven Australia.
I tried to face time my kids this morning but it was frustrating. The hotels have free Wifi but the excessively low speeds mean that email is often the only charge to their system. Free FaceTime and Skype is often impossible.
Today was a catchup day and I did laundry in a laundromat with very few instructions in English. Wow what an experience that was. Barely were my clothes washed and an Italian older man came in wanting to know whose laundry was in THAT machine and to get it out, because it had just finished, like NOW, and I did, then he demanded whose washing was in the next machine, just finished also, and to get that out NOW. Mamma Mia! Couldn’t get the clothes out quick enough for him either. Mamma Mia! As Gianpaolo would say. Italians!
Whilst washing my clothes I had spoken to an Australian woman who had came to Sorrento on the train. She and her husband were lucky she said and they had had no incidents, but another couple they know was under threat and had a difficult time of it. Yet another woman had a gold necklace snatched from her neck. So a fun place at times is the large Italian city and public transport where the economy is in trouble, unemployment is high and petty crime rapidly increasing.
Back to the motel by 4:00 pm when most of the shops closed for the siesta were starting to reopen. Some of us sat out in the courtyard having an early happy hour.
Dinner tonight was optional and held at a typical Sorrento restaurant. We had five courses starting with a mixed meat, cheese and antipasto platter, followed by salad with an olive oil dressing, then pizza (which was the best I have ever eaten) followed by two types of pasta, a tomato based hand made pasta, and a tube style pasta with spinach. Lemon sponge cake and cream, then Limoncello to follow. Not my favorite drink as it’s very strong but different and 30% proof but Alan, who had bought a bottle to take home to Cairns very much appreciated me passing it along to him to enjoy. Wine was included in the extra cost tonight.
On the walk back around 9:00 pm the street was closed to traffic and hundreds of people were out and about on the balmy evening all heading out to dinner or having dinner. Street musicians, performers, artists, young and old, locals and tourists. I walked back with some of the group whilst others in the group went onto a musicale. The streets were alive with activity and I asked a couple that we ran into from our tour if I could go with them into a bar so I could do some night photos of a vibrantly alive Sorrento, unwilling to call the night quits earlier than midnight.
Tom and Terry (a different Terry) from New York State, were heading to a wine bar for a glass of a fairly expensive wine that they’d seen advertised at a reasonable 9€ per glass. Back to the room now to write my journal. Tomorrow is the all day cruise around Capri and swim in the Mediterranean for those who are up for it. If I don’t write tomorrow I was eaten by an Italian shark.
9:30 pm 19th. September
Rise and shine at 7:30 am this morning for a 9:00 am departure for the Mediterranean cruise on the Tyrrhenian Sea sailing past Capri and Positano and headed for Almalfi. I had heard the wake up call for the Americans and others who were departing our tour this morning at 5:30 am so I was glad to not have to rise that early, however my internal clock has me well awake before 7:00 am every morning now. It was also goodbye to several others whom I never really got to meet as although we traveled together the Americans tended to stick with their own and the Australians did the same also. We did have some other nationalities but the Aussies and Yanks had the greater numbers.
The cruise headed for Capri first up and dropped anchor just short of the idyllic port area so the passengers could have a twenty minute swim. The waters were amazingly clear and blue and everyone who swam was having a genuinely good time. (Yes, Jaws, yet another movie, has sort of ruined me for swimming in the sea.) On the way we passed many sea caves and apparently the Blue, Green and White Grottos’s. From there we followed the Amalfitan coast past Positano to Almalfi. The cliffs and coastline were rugged with sheer rock faces and the homes of the rich were dotted here and there perched high above the waterline. We had hoped to have lunch in Positano this time but the sea was choppy today and the captain decided not to chance it, so we simply sailed onto Amalfi. Once or twice people were actually thrown out of their chairs with the roll of the boat, but I had taken a travel tablet and consequently I had felt great all day.
A few of us had lunch again at the same restaurant as Terry and I had visited the other day upon my recommendation as we were looking for good food and a nice bathroom as soon as we arrived. I had a seafood linguine today and it was amazing. The Italians do amazing pasta.
I shoot a lot of weddings in Australia so I was amused to photograph my third Italian wedding, in a week, today in Amalfi. It’s such a pity that it simply wasn’t my wedding to shoot.
The trek back to Sorrento was leisurely and nearly everyone nodded off on their deck chairs. It was quite warm today and the humidity was such that I was glad to hit the shower tonight. I didn’t really doze on the boat so kept the camera handy and got some great photos on the trip back as it was overcast and the sea and sky sort of blended. No harsh shadows. There were dramatic cliff formations, majestic towering islands of rock, rugged coastline. I sort of think I would have made a great sailor if I’d been born two hundred years ago. I do enjoy the sea.
Gianpaolo met us at the Port of Sorrento and we headed back into town to our hotel. He had been busy today whilst we were sailing getting the Americans to transfers to Naples for the next part of their journeys, and organizing to pick up the five new members that were to join our tour.
We saw Gianpaolo’s wife on the trip back getting on a scooter. We had met her and their two children the evening before at the five course dinner. Gianpaolo said he also managed to squeeze a couple of hours visit with his kids today as it was a free day for us, with some of our tour going shopping whist the rest had gone on the cruise.
Dinner tonight was included, and was gnocchi, followed by salad in an olive oil dressing, herbed fish and potatoes, then pineapple ice-cream and syrup. The included meals are simple fare, smallish servings and always served quickly, with minimal time spent dining. Tomorrow is the longest journey on the bus as we head to the toe of Italy’s boot shaped land formation and onto Sicily and our first night on Sicilian soil. I’m very much looking forward to seeing more of Italy’s countryside.
11:15 am 20th. September
Departed Sorrento at 7:20 am this morning for our journey of 535 kilometers today. Claudio our new driver is with us for the next leg of our journey which will take us through Sicily then back to Naples then Rome. Our bus drivers are only allowed to drive for two hours without a break so we regularly stop for coffee at large Autostrada / Roadhouse stops which also double at times as fuel stops and hotels. Restroom facilities are generous and the coffee today, as is often the case, was a standup affair. Order at the counter as you walk in, beautiful fresh pastries and sweet cakes are displayed temptingly, but this stop also had American style donuts. I wanted a latte macchiato and a sweet croissant I was told to say “en dolce uno latte macchiato grazie”. The language is gorgeous. And having successfully gotten that far then I stood at the counter waiting for the baristas to make up my order. Something quite incomprehensible was asked of me several times, then the female barista said “ehh hottt orrrr collllddee?” Suddenly we were underway with the order as she had gathered my Italian was pretty basic and I had quickly realized what was required. Hot of course. The latte macchiato arrived in a tall glass and was, as usual, fabulous. Hot, smooth and silky.
The tour resumed and we have been driving through very hilly, even mountainous country, but the road way is somehow following a flatter area as the hills and mountains are to the east and west of the road. Like we are in and following a river valley, the roads are often elevated now and built sort of on bridged lengths of roadway slightly above the ground. And often we travel through man made tunnels with dirt fill tipped on top. It all seems to be purposeful, to try and keep the roads as level, direct and straight as possible. There are simply no twisting turning hilly roads between Sorrento and the ferry point at the bottom of Italy which takes you to Messina, like in Australia when you drive through similar landscapes in our more mountainous regions.
The tunnels seem to be made on site using moulds shaped like a large C, one facing one direction the other reversed so it makes a circle. They are put in place then filled with concrete. It forms a ring. They are large round hollow like structures and I have taken several photos to record exactly how it is done. When the mould is filled it is then allowed to dry then it is moved along several metres so the next tunnel section can be completed and fitted next to the last, and this way it grows to form a long hollow tunnel. Quarries appear nearby at regular intervals so the major road works, ongoing, may not be not unduly expensive in terms of bringing in materials. Having said that I have seen only one river with water in it so water supply may be an issue. The river beds must be seasonal or rainfall flow as they have all been dry so far, and it’s not unusual to see rivers with structures built in them, like they may always be dry, or the water is now diverted.
Fuel is presently priced between 1,50 and 1,75€ per litre. The Autostrada we are traveling on is four lanes, two lanes either direction with a fence or division inbetween. Towards Sicily they divide the Autostrada between levels as it carves it’s way between hills and they are often now closer together, with one direction’s two lanes sometimes almost underneath the other direction’s two lanes. There are simply no big cars in Rome. In Southern Italy however larger cars start appearing where parking in the cities is not such a critical problem. I’m seeing a lot of Volkswagen, Fiat, Audi, Mercedes, Renault, Toyota, Ford and BMW. I’ve even seen two Kia Sportages (my car). All left hand drive of course. The speed limit on the Autostrada is 100 to 110 kilometers.
Southern Italy’s countryside has mineral rich volcanic soils. Chocolate brown. Healthy and organic. They grow many things and I have seen all sorts of stone fruits, grapes, corn, olives, vegetables and so on. I saw some hay bales as well this morning. The trees seem to be either deciduous or one of several different types of pines. Common is a sort of umbrella like pine with a tall trunk and flattish umbrella like top. Apparently the deciduous trees turn color here in November.
The cities are quite large which is how Italy’s population totals 58 million, with the capital Rome only around 4 million and Milan a couple of million. It’s quite common to have smaller cities of several hundred thousand or a million, or two. There are solar panel farms here and there but I had not seen wind farms until we got closer to the coastal areas so both are means of supplying electricity here.
It was a very Italian experience driving today with Gianpaolo’s, in his words, macaroni English recitation telling us typical anecdotes about Italy, the regions and particular the towns. Explaining words and hand gestures. The concepts of family and the bus being our home. We are his family, he is our brother. The bus is our home. When we get on the bus each day, or leave from the hotel and head off on tour it’s “andiamo” or forward. Yesterday in Sorrento Gianpaolo broke into song. The opera is playing in the background at present and the whole experience is completely Italiano.
3:00 pm – I’m on the ferry crossing the Messina Strait to Sicily. Ferries depart every twenty minutes so it was very fast buying tickets and boarding. Apparently the traffic treats the ferry docking like a formula one race so although we were permitted to go up for pics for ten minutes we needed to be back on board ready for a speedy departure well before the twenty minute trip finished. The music has just changed from opera to Sicilian with godfather undertones and I am expecting Marlon Brando from The Godfather movie to be sitting outside the dock smoking a cigar when we drive off the ferry.
9:00 pm – Dinner was included tonight at the Hotel Kennedy near Taormina. Pasta, roast beef and a rich fried creme filled pastry. The food was nice tonight, served by friendly people and there was great latte macchiato. The hotel is on the beach and I walked down to the sea, some fifty metres away, just after we arrived to find a fine black rock instead of sand at the water’s edge. The tide was in so I didn’t walk along the beach.
We are thirty kilometers from the live and active Mt. Etna volcano, so if I don’t post a journal tomorrow I guess it exploded and wiped out half of Sicily. Me included.
2:40 pm 21st. September
Stayed in today after ingloriously tripping over Terry’s suitcase after dinner last night, landing some eight feet away and clipping the hard wooden corner of the bed end in the middle of my chest and jarring my hip. So, rather than end up more crippled by walking too much I have been chilling doing little. I cannot figure out how I flew through the air so far, maybe adrenalin or speed as I’d forgotten the suitcase was there and, yes, I had been looking at my iPad not my feet, and yes I had three Wifi bars at the room’s door! Finally!
I’m walking better this afternoon but my chest hurts like the devil. I imagine by tomorrow I’ll be doing a lot better again. The room I’m in is on the first floor and about fifty metres from the beach so the sound of the sea is prominent and quite soothing.
11:00 pm 22nd. September
“Andiamo!” Departure from near Taormina was 7:50 am. An hour and a half drive to Mt. Etna, a live volcano which erupts on a regular basis. We watched a fascinating DVD on the bus on the way that featured graphic footage from eruptions since the 1980’s. Both liquid lava flow and dry rock lava flow were featured and it was interesting how this volcano erupts on a reasonably calculated scale whereby if towns are threatened the Sicilians take immediate action to redirect the lava flows by either using explosives higher up the mountain from the towns or heavy machinery building embankments. Apparently this has been very successful in the past so the locals are quite proud of the fact that they can live BENEATH, WITH and ALONGSIDE an active volcano.
The trek up the volcano was an eye opener. Black, dry, rock lava flows were everywhere either side of the road, up to the edge of buildings, through buildings, across side roads in an indiscriminate manner, cutting into forests whereby destroying everything it submerged but trees growing healthily within inches of where the flow ceased. The dry flows appeared on the video as red hot rock and sand like consistency that wasn’t a liquid flow, rather they fall loosely like sand tumbling forward and scattering freely about. The flows move up to 50 metres an hour for the drier flows, faster for the liquid ones.
There would be no “show” today however as the volcano was peacefully “breathing” with only the occasional smoke plume escaping from various vents. Cosmos didn’t offer an optional tour here but there was an independent tour which took you further up the mountain offered at the village. There we were advised you could catch a chair lift from the bus depot/restaurant area for 30€ and from there you could get into 4WD vehicles and trek it to the top for another 30€. We were told, not by Cosmos, it would be well worth the money so half of our group chose to go and queued for tickets. Whilst queuing a group of French women pushed through gesticulating and chattering in French indicating they were urgent for a rest room and they just pushed through. Regardless everyone else there was queuing for restrooms as well. They then pushed through to the chair lifts.
I caught the chairlift from 1700 metres up to about 2200 metres, a kilometer or so, but it was hard to take pics from the chair lift as the Perspex was scratched and deeply tinted so I waited to get into the 4WD before I could get some images. The trek up from there to the volcano’s top was only a few kilometers further on so it wasn’t far. The landscape there was desolate, raw, stark and I took some pics out our the window as we headed up. We stopped about five hundred meters from the top. A guide then took you a further one hundred meters. Altogether I was very disappointed for my 60€. A fairer amount to charge I think would have been 30€ perhaps for the few kilometers traveled but I believe it certainly wasn’t worth what they were charging. The numbers queuing for tickets were four to six deep and stretched for at least twenty meters.
The landscape was interesting. I took some pics at the top but got straight back on the bus highly unimpressed. Maybe I was expecting more than a wisp of smoke for my investment of money and time. The area gets snow and is a winter playground so it was a cool 9 degrees Celsius where we were and it was blowing a gale. Fine grit in the air coated everything especially your clothes, skin and hair. It was not pleasant. And mixed with the sweat of the day later which topped 37 degrees at Syracuse, my hair later felt like it was coated with fine cement. I met up with Liz back on the 4WD and she said she was also disappointed. If there had been plumes of smoke etc., we felt maybe it would have been worth the money and the trip. Naomi and Alan however disagreed and thought the trip entirely worth it and good value for money.
We had a drink, whilst others had lunch, at the meeting point at the bus station, then met up with the rest of the group. Jeanette had had a fall in the loose scree and it looked like she had broken her arm. It was bandaged and they had given her a shot of morphine for the pain. She was to get it x-rayed when we got to Syracuse.
We traveled down the mountain and onto Syracuse, and the day was quite hot topping 37 degrees by the time we pulled in at at restroom stop mid afternoon. A short twenty minute stop and a coffee later, and we were back on the road and heading towards the coast.
The drive from Mt. Etna to Syracuse was through some really dry country. No flowing rivers, mostly dry river beds and the hills and higher country had all browned off as it was the start of autumn. Apparently in the spring the countryside is a verdant green with rolling grassland. The predominant crops as we traveled were olives, nuts and stone fruit but I did see some cattle at one point. I never saw any more later.
We arrived in Syracuse about 4:00 pm and some of the group went onto the hotel whilst the rest stopped off at the Greek archeological site where there were ruins some 2500 years old. A guide pointed out different aspects of the site including a Greek amphitheater, a Roman amphitheater, quarry, an altar, slave quarters and a jail. The amphitheaters, carved out of the existing rock, were exquisite architectural finds. The Altar of Hierro is 198 meters long and 22.75 meters wide, is carved out of a single piece of some and we were told 450 oxen or cattle were slaughtered at a time as an appeasement to the Greek Gods at the site in historical times. The Ear of Dionysius, originally dug as a water storage facility for the site, is well known for its acoustic value and was also effective as a place of confinement where prisoner’s conversations were easily monitored or overheard from above.
From there we traveled to Ortygia to visit the historic area with its beautiful buildings with their Spanish Baroque influence. We wandered through the town to the cathedral then back towards our pick up point. Such magnificent buildings, in all directions, all intricately detailed and the result of many years of work by hundreds of people. Architectural masterpieces, every one of them, each different yet just as fabulous as any I’ve seen. We saw fabulous Baroque architecture including The Arethuse, a fresh water well and fountain, the cathedral better known as the Temple of Athena, and the Piazza Duomo di Syracuse.
We finished the day at the hotel with a very nice included dinner starting with seafood risotto, tuna coquettes and steamed potatoes with salad, and a Sicilian desert, a fried sweet pastry and ricotta cheese filling. I have not been able to find a really nice red wine yet but I am working on it.
9:15pm 23rd. September
Early start, are there ever any late ones??? Up at 6:45 am and bags out the door at 7:15 am down to breakfast then out the door to the bus by 7:50 am. We headed off and did some inland driving through Sicily today which is very dry being autumn. Apparently the hills are verdant green up until summer here when they dry off. I have to say I’m not sure Sicily is a rich farming economy. There’s a lot of apartment housing in the cities but the evidence of thriving farms is simply not there in terms of machinery, outbuilding, land holdings, livestock etc. There were a lot of vineyards today and olive groves, and also cropped areas, apparently Sicily was the granary of Rome at one time. But I didn’t see a lot of obvious wealth anywhere.
The roads in Sicily are unlike any I have ever seen in Australia. Nearly every road is elevated and runs along above ground on bridge like structures, some just above the land form others, quite high in the air. And the views from these structures are quite breathtaking. Maybe the roads suffer erosion, or it’s a technique to cope with earth movement or it saves on running roads around mountains, but nearly every road is as direct as possible, straight or slightly curved and nearly always elevated. I took quite a few pics to show this phenomenon today as I was absolutely amazed at the expensive cost of making these structures. I noticed however, that roads are a priority here, so they are all in either a state of excellent quality, or in the process of roadworks to make them thus. (Or, maybe the treasurer of Italy loves good roads and simply directs all the money there. Hahaha.)
We arrived in Noto early and were given a local map with the architectural highlights to visit on it and allocated about 90 minutes to wander through the streets at our leisure. The morning was cooler but promising to be hot again, so it was really pleasant getting up and about so early. The baroque style architecture in the old precinct was beautiful. Massive, generous structures, in pristine condition. I am amazed at the quality of workmanship on many of the architectural buildings like the Noto Cathedral finished in 1776. Not only are they of similar quality to when they were completed, except for the more ancient structures, the workmanship, skill, design, art and time it must have taken to build these structures is mind boggling.
The small precinct of historical structures was still asleep when we began our walk, and we saw shop owners opening their stores and displays around 10:00 am. Prior to that coffee shops were the only places with any sign of life, and after wandering for the best part of an hour and covering a couple of kilometers we all managed to find a latte macchiato or caffe latte within a small area, where we relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere of the settlement. I came across a group of older Italian men. The retired men often spend much of the mornings together talking, reading the newspaper, playing games or cards and drinking coffee, leaving their womenfolk at home. It’s a typical Italian custom.
We ambled back to the bus by 10:15 am and walked past outdoor markets where we were offered samples of all types of delicacies including sugared almonds, nuts, capers, sun-dried tomatoes and other treats. I bought a large packet of sugared almonds for 5€ and then headed back to the bus with the others.
Gianpaolo puts another video on Sicily on the TV and we are entertained with Sicilian anecdotes and information for the following half hour as we meander through Sicily’s interior. After that he puts Sicilian music on and it really sets the mood for a drive through the Sicilian countryside.
We stop for lunch at an Autostrada roadhouse and there the choices were quite varied. Fresh panini, rolls, brioche, pita bread, sweet pastries, croissants, Danishes, fresh pasta, schnitzel, gnocchi, rice dishes, antipasto platters, salads, gelato, coffee of every kind, and of course, alcohol. Every roadhouse and cafe seems to offer alcohol from beer and wine to mixed drinks. I have absolutely no idea how their licensing systems work but Italians seem to equate good food with alcoholic drinks. This practice in roadhouses simply does not exist in Australia.
We resume our trek and end the day in Temple Valley, checking into our hotel first for a refresh and change if required, and then a trek to the top of the hill to the first ancient Greek temple of several which follow an ancient road down the hill. It is hot, 34 degrees Celsius when we start the trek so it is nice to amble slowly at a reasonable pace and take shelter at times in the shade of ancient olive and almond trees, hundreds of years old, when the guide Giuseppe stops to speak about specifics about the eleven cultures that were part of the area’s heritage.
The temples are stunning. The Doric Temple of Concord and Hilltop Temple of Juno 450 BC. Beautiful, simple structures, majestic and inspiring in their broken-down decaying states. We walked about three kms this afternoon, in and around these structures and photographic opportunities were everywhere. The modern city of Agrigento is off in the distance and creates an interesting backdrop to the huge Greek structures.
I spent a lot of the day with Dean and Courtney and it was nice having people watch out for you amongst so many other tourists and tour groups but more than that, it was nice getting to know them better.
10:00 pm – Jeanette has broken her arm, and is going to return to Australia as soon as it’s approved by her insurance company and they can organize it from Rome, which means Liz, her traveling companion will be alone for the next journey through Northern Italy, France and Northern Spain.
We returned to the hotel to another three course included dinner, pasta, pork and antipasto followed by coffee ice cream. The meals here are small, and Courtney who joined us in Sorrento ducked out to McDonald’s next door just before to get a little bite more before bed, two large chips and ten nuggets. She said she hasn’t had McDonald’s in years. I don’t know where she puts it as she’s tiny.
Tomorrow is a bit later start but promises to be just as busy.
9:30 am 24th. September
“Andiamo”…….the chorus sung each time we depart. This morning we are headed for Palermo, Sicily. The tour guide Gianpaolo is in good spirits as always and checking to see if we are awake. Waltzing Matilda comes on the CD player and the Aussies start singing albeit quite conservatively. Now the challenge. Let’s see who is awake tonight after our seafood dinner and as much wine as you can drink says Gianpaolo. He intends to play it again later. Then the music changes to Sorrento love songs and Italian sonatas. Such an effective way to affect the senses and set the mood, you know you are in Italy, but now you feel Italian.
It is overcast and there’s light rain. Two perfect weeks of warm days and reasonable humidity and I am seeing the first day of inclement weather. Passed through the orange growing districts where the Washington Naval Orange is predominant. Olive trees are everywhere as well. And we’ve just passed the first large water storage dam I’ve seen on this trip. I believe the countryside here to be more productive due to irrigation but I’m not seeing evidence of the major water bodies that enable this practice to succeed. Catching glimpses of the Mediterranean Sea as we travel, stunning in color when the sun is out, but a dull blue when it is not.
4:30 pm – The included excursion today was to Selinunte its Greek ruins, and the ancient Greek Temple of Hera. We arrived around morning tea at the small Mediterranean town and trekked up to the Greek archaeological sites by bus. It’s interesting how accessible these ancient places are. Australia tends to lock the gate about four kilometers from your destination and you have to walk from there on. So far we’ve almost driven to each locales doorstep, certainly the furthest we’ve walked to get to a major site was three hundred meters. Today the first site we visited was a tumble of broken columns and limestone blocks on a high outlook area overlooking the Mediterranean. They are reconstructing it, like a huge architectural jigsaw puzzle and they are making a nice job of it. The scaffolding was an eyesore but necessary to the work. And what had been completed looked very impressive.
We bussed our way to a second site half a kilometre away and then walked in. Majestic and ancient are the two words that immediately come to mind. The rain had disappeared by the time we walked to the second temple and it was so humid my camera strap at the back of my neck was saturated. Rivulets of sweat were trickling down my face and neck. It was hot and steamy and I drank a couple of liters of water over the course of the day even though I wasn’t doing all that much in exercise terms. Maybe two kilometers today. But it was a gorgeous sunny day and a few of us wandered around the beautiful monolith taking photos of the ruins and the Mediterranean and marveling at the challenges the ancients must have faced building such a regal building in such a remote place.
I really think the rulers and architects must have had little concern for the slaves or people who were expected to build these places. The weight of the rock and extraordinary heights they scaled with the rock to create these buildings is just astounding. How they managed to effect such scale and grandeur of architecture with no modern tools at hand is an absolute marvel as is the time required to create them.
Back on the bus and onto Palermo, Sicily. We drove through some quite rich agricultural regions this afternoon with irrigation evident. The valleys which had rivers running through them once are all rich agriculture producing regions, and the road runs across each of the valleys on tall bridge like structures. Perched above the surrounding valley’s the views are extraordinary. You can see for miles.
We also passed by Corleone territory, not far from the outskirts of Palermo. I’m heading out to the optional evening dinner tonight at a seafood restaurant, with all wine and drinks included. It should be a good evening.
10:30 pm – La Barca Seafood Restaurant was the destination for our evening tonight and the banquet was delicious. It started with sunset photos out front and photos of Mt. Pellegrino to the rear. There were sardines, anchovies and swordfish. Then followed an octopus and squid salad, and fresh bruschetta. Prawns in a seafood sauce, fish in a tomato and olive sauce, deep fried calamari and octopus. Prawns in batter then steamed mussels. Clam linguine, seafood risotto, pasta, salad, and a platter of lobster, fish and prawns. Lemon sorbet. Wine, beer and water. Limoncello to finish. I pulled up after the prawns in batter then finished with the sorbet.
Palermo is a beautiful city and a shopper’s paradise. Big name shops were within walking distance of our hotel which is surprising as the tour companies often select hotels well away from the city centers. And this hotel is probably the best we’ve stayed in on this tour. The first exhaust fan in a bathroom I’ve seen in two weeks. And space in the room. A luxury in European hotels. If the Wifi is good, it’ll be a perfect score as the air con here is good as well.
5:00 pm 25th. September
Rooms were very nice last night except that the bed was harder than I like. I do not understand why some hotels think they need to compromise on comfort when it comes to beds. Do they not think it matters? I looked across the room and Terry still asleep had pummeled her pillow into a solid tight ball. She was enjoying the experience about as much as I. The room was spacious, had a table and two dining chairs, two lounge chairs and plenty of bench space and room to move. This was unusual on this trip but really nice.
The bathroom was also one of the best we’ve had except to get into the shower you had to squeeze between the shower entry and toilet a gap of thirty centimeters. Why have a bidet squeezed in a bathroom that really doesn’t afford the room for one? It was however, all on one level, had an exhaust fan, was clean and fresh with plenty of towels and even smelt nice.
We rose late this morning, 8:00 am and went down for a leisurely breakfast. Please please let it be scrambled eggs and bacon for a change instead of sliced cheese, sliced ham and danishes.
Bags were sorted early as we were catching the ferry later today for Naples, an overnight cruise. Went shopping with Terry for half an hour and found some lunch in a closed off street in an outdoor restaurant. The shopping in Palermo is exquisite. It’s Sicily’s largest city topping some one million and it is a Mecca for the fashion conscious. I strolled down the streets among shoppers visiting Hugo Boss, Prada, Lacoste, Gucci, Louis Vuitton.
Our tour today departed at 1:30 pm and it was a local bus tour of Palermo. We visited the Royal Palace and Cappella Palatina, it’s amazing mosaic encrusted chapel, a cathedral, churches, the Palermo chariot, town walls and gates, and we drove past bustling markets.
The mountain that overlooks Palermo is called Mt. Pellegrino and I thought a lot about my good friend Di who passed away four years ago at age 55, my age today, and who never had the chance to travel to exotic places and her three adult children, two of whom have the surname Pellegrino.
The trip up to the top of Mt. Pellegrino afforded amazing views of Palermo but we didn’t stop on the way up to take photos which was frustrating as the view would pop in and out of sight between trees and foliage in a tantalizing wisp of promise of what I could capture if I could halt the bus at any point. It was a gorgeous view of this fabulous city but I only managed to steal snippets through the windows as we sped by. Still, better than nothing.
We ended the tour with a trip to the local beach. At 15€ per day to hire your spot on the sand, an umbrella and chair in the summer it looked like a nice place to be but the hundreds and hundreds of chairs behind barriers looked very much like large scale crowd control performed on a handkerchief. Apparently beach visiting is free in winter so regardless of the weather I personally think the winter would be a much nicer option.
10:00 pm – The tour finished around 6:00 pm this evening and we had our last official meeting at the hotel where we’d stayed last night where Gianpaolo told us departure times for the people leaving at Naples, and the plan for everyone departing in Rome. Alan and his wife Naomi, and their good friend Dean, Liz and myself are doing the Northern Italy tour next which then takes us all through France, then the top of Spain. I’m the only one doing Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Others are doing different tours again or returning to their respective homes.
Also tonight we were to hand in the survey on what we encountered and what we thought of the trip. I have had a great time but nearly every optional excursion was an additional cost and with one almost every day it was somewhere between 28€ and 58€ per day additional to the tour cost. However the tour itself was not, in terms of cost, unduly expensive so I don’t think the optional tours costs were too bad in the general scheme of things. And. Even better if the optional excursion had a meal included as only half the evening meals, as is often the case with tours in general, were included on the tour, but an additional cost nonetheless. It would perhaps have been difficult for some if traveling on a very tight budget. Accommodation was generally generous and overall most bathrooms were small, and only one bathroom on the entire tour had an exhaust fan. This may not be important in Italy however, or even Europe, so it may or may not, in others’ opinions, be worth mentioning. I did make notes on the form about these things. I genuinely felt the tour overall was great. So much to be seen and done, so much to experience. And I wouldn’t for a second, hesitate to recommend this tour to anyone as a lower cost tour.
We trekked to the Port of Palermo and boarded the ferry for Naples around 7:00 pm. The ferry looked about the size of the Australian Spirit of Tasmania, and Terry and I had an overnight cabin. We got lost trying to find our room stupidly assuming room 369 was on the 3rd. Deck. It was on the seventh and we finally found our cabin after much conversing with non English speaking Italian crew members. I stood laughing myself silly at one point as we really were not making progress, in fact we were stuck outside an elevator that refused to work, with hand luggage, almost at the bottom of the ship among the cars and buses. We were tired and flustered and totally over not being assisted and it all seemed suddenly strangely amusing.
Dinner was in a self serve restaurant and cost 23€. I thought it was going to be an early night but it’s now 11:30 pm. Tomorrow we wake in Naples and disembarkation is at 6:30 am. So. For now. Goodnight!
9:30 am 26th. September
Woke after a restless sleep at 5:55 am when the captain’s voice boomed over the loud speakers. No idea what he said but it got us mobile particularly when I realized the iPad alarm hadn’t gone off. Quick shower, dressed and packed then down to reception by 6:30 am. Breakfast at the Port of Naples this morning in a cafe, croissants and coffee only. Here we said our goodbyes to some of the other travelers departing from Naples.
We are presently sitting on the bus traveling towards Rome. This is this tour’s last day and Gianpaolo has left us with Annelisa and nothing on the itinerary included, free time they call it. Tomorrow a group of us will transfer to the hotel where our next tour will depart.
1:45 pm – Back in Rome and at the next hotel. Annilesa our new tour guide is most efficient and has arranged transfers for everyone needing to get from A to B. This tour ends tomorrow morning at 10:00 am. Transfer to the new hotel then with Alan, Naomi, Dean and Liz who are doing the next leg.
10:00 pm – Not part od any tour, Terry and I paid for dinner tonight at the hotel, the Hotel Pineta Palace, and it was delicious. Rigatoni cacio e peep con guanciale croccante (Cheese and pepper rigatoni with crispy bacon) 10€ and Semifreddo al cioccolato Bianca con menta selvatica e ribes rosso (White chocolate parfait with mint and red currant) 7€. Great fun trying to pronounce the menu all the time. I do really well until they assume I might speak more than basic Italian then they ask a question and I look completely stupid and blank. Hahaha. So much for my new European persona Glennnyyysss as Gianpaolo would say.
6:00 pm 27th. September
Late start today as the tour has finished and a full breakfast marked the last group get together. Bacon and eggs appeared at the full buffet this morning which was a nice deviation from the sweet pastries we always seem to be offered. Never thought I’d say this but I really think I’m a bit over croissants. Transfers to different hotels, airports and other destinations to follow and a last moment decision by me to spend an extra day with Terry shopping in Rome Central rather than in a hotel further out meant my baggage was heading in one direction and me in another. To get into town we paid 10€ each for a taxi to the Spanish Steps.
It was a lovely day today, a cooler change came through yesterday with the shower of rain in Palermo and it stretched its tentacles all the way to Rome. Very nice strolling the streets. I guess you could say shopping here is quite pleasurable. Those who know me well, they would gasp at that statement, as I usually baulk at the task, chafing at the bit to do something, anything other than that, but with so much beauty and exquisite workmanship all around me, it was impossible not to fall in love with the amazing array of things displayed and the idea of actually buying. So it was a pleasure to while away the hours window shopping and walking the cobblestone pavements.
This city is so full of things. Shops, streets, buildings, churches, sculpture, architecture, art, couture, cars, people, dogs on leashes going shopping with their owners, outdoor restaurants, market type stalls, shoes, gelato … and I spent a little time just photographing the people, photographing the best dressed and the ones with dogs. Shopping with a smaller dog in tow seems to be the fashion and you can see at least half a dozen dogs stroll by with their male or female owners on the prowl for purchases in the space of half an hour.
I had a coffee sitting in a side street today for 5€, unashamedly the waitress asked “standing 1, 50€ or sitting 5€?” Normally getting one at a table with a meal it’s around 1,50€ so it was a major money spinner when I came along today. To top things off Terry ordered a coke and sat too “standing 1,50€ or sitting 5€?” was her question as well. Nice. I’d heard they charge for table service but this was my first encounter and I’ve been sitting at Roman street restaurants numerous times now.
I’m sitting waiting for a taxi at present. Seems like there are none in the whole of Rome. The lass at the hotel desk is lovely though and has been trying for the best part of half an hour for me. It’s evening and many people are out and about.
11:15 pm – In my room updating Facebook and my journal as for once I have excellent Wifi, and in my room no less!!! Managed to get a taxi after 45 minutes waiting and enjoyed a safe, careful drive to the hotel the Park Hotel Dei Massimi, in Rome about two kilometres from the Vatican. It was 19,10€ so I told him to keep the change in the 20€ note I gave him. I’d be nervous doing this trek alone, but he seemed to take a direct route and Annelisa was spot on when she said it would be about 20€ from Central Rome to my new hotel. The Metro would have been 1,50€ but I feel completely unsafe for me alone at night with my camera. I arrived to find a nice room and my luggage safely stowed. Gotta love porters! Pretty exciting to be on my own now. And looking forward to my next tour which starts tomorrow evening.
Andiamo….!
DEDICATED TO JACK TOMAMICHEL
The first three tour journals on my new web site Travel Essae are dedicated to my father Jack Tomamichel, a wheat and sheep farmer and a pioneer of the Victorian Mallee. My father didn’t travel many places outside of Australia in his 84 years and his only regret in life was that he hadn’t seen much of the world. He did however leave his mark, in hard work, devotion to family, living by honourable example and he was extremely generous of spirit.
I had booked the first three tours on this web site before I found out my father had only a short time left to live so I decided to write comprehensive daily journals to him to share my experience, if not first hand, through his daughter’s eyes. I emailed them through to him and my mother Chriss, almost daily. They both enjoyed reading about the world as I saw it and very much looked forward to each daily installment. My mother and father were married almost 64 years.
Shortly after I returned to Australia my father was told he only had a few months to live. He passed surrounded by his family 49 days later.
My father was one of the kindest most gentle people I know, and I am very proud to be his daughter. I miss you dad. Everyday.
Glenys
Essae Photography
Come along on my next journey by reading –
Gems of Italy, France and Spain – 19 Days – Cosmos Tour
then
Spain, Portugal and Morocco – 16 Days – Cosmos Tour
#cosmos #cosmossouthernitalyandsicily #cosmostours