Catania & Mount etna

Saturday, 11 July 2011

Our plane leaves at noon from Brussels. We decline the overpriced sandwhiches of 7 euro a piece and look forward to our two weeks smorgasboard of the cucina Italiana. We have a stopover in Rome as it was a bit cheaper than the direct flight to Sicily. So we have our first panino imbottito at Rome’s airport together with our first cup of real coffee. I buy a couple of Topolino’s (Mickey mouse) while we are waiting as this is a nice way of learning Italian. Our flight to Catania has a 45 minutes delay, and when we arrive at Hertz we are promptly acquainted with Sicilian chaos. No queue, no ticket number, just pushing to get to the front of the counter. But hey, we did India, and they know a thing or two about getting in front of a line.

By late afternoon we arrive at our B&B Giara in Nicolosi, which is being run by Patrizzia.  She runs the B&B and her family with the same chaos as the traffic we were in coming up to this place. The blue room for which we had a reservation is taken so we settle for the yellow room. No big deal, we unpack and walk to the village where we have a superb 25 euro dinner of anti-pasti, pasti, secondo, dolci e caffe correto. The house wine costs 3 euro for a liter, go figure.

Sunday, 12 June 2011

Due to recent eruptions the snow covered top is covered in a layer of black ash and little snow is visible

When we get up it is very cloudy but we decide to have a visit to Mount Etna anyway, so we drive up to Rifugio. Refugio is a small place with a couple of tourist shops in wooden cabins, a few eateries and the start of the cable lift up the mountain. The mountain top is shrouded in clouds and it is cold and windy. We do not see the “point” in taking a tour to the top at 53 euro a person and opt for a drive along the “strada del vino” at the foot of the mountain.

www.vinigambino.it/e_index.html

We enjoy a lovely tasting which is accompanied by delicious anti pasti (appetizers) of grilled veggies in oil, olives, affetatti misti (mixed cuts) of meat and cheeses as well as some lovely baked sausages. A real treat!
On the way back to the B&B I get stopped by the police, but the papers are OK and my Italian is sufficient to smooth talk the coppers. I was a bit scared as with the 4 glasses I must have been over the limit. We stop by a street vendor to buy some fruits and have a lovely fruit salad for dinner.

Monday, 13 June 2011

Patrizzia convinces us to take a late breakfast so we will not get stuck in the morning traffic chaos the commuters create on their way to the office in downtown Catania. So by 10 we slowly head down for a visit to the fish market in Catania. I worry a bit when I am driving on the road next to the market but I am able to find a parking spot near the Norman Castle. The market is indeed worth a visit, and it is not only fish on sale. Fresh fruits, vegetables and all kinds of bits and bobs are loudly offered by their vendors. I find the fish market the most interesting, but I guess that has to do with my love for fish and indeed there is a fantastic variety available.

Fresh fish straight from the sea

Then we are off to the via Etna (with Etna view) for the next Sicilian gastronomic height: the graniti gelsi (Mulberry sorbet). My Italian teacher worded it as follows “I first tasted it when I was 12 and even now I can still remember the taste” The Sicilian style is that you eat the ice in a bun.
We walk around a bit and are stopped by some mailmen who are curious about our being here. Somehow I am able to get around with my poor Italian. When I say that they live in a pretty city they broaden their smile. Yes indeed Catania is very pretty they reply, and they start to sum up all the things they think we need to see.

At noon the warm weather is just telling you to take a siesta

It is now early afternoon and about right for a Sicilian lunch. What else then Spada (swordfish) can we eat? When we want to visit the Norman castle it is closed. We do not feel like waiting and slowly drive back to our hotel. What we also did not see, but for sure we want to come back, is the harbor and the platja

.

The Norman Castle in Catania

To Enna

Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Partir c’est mourir un peu, and Patrizzia’s Sicilian soul finds it hard to let us go, only a firm promise to “ritorno” helps. Then we are off to the middle of the island where the small village of Enna is perched on top of a hill.

The village Calascibetta, view from Enna

Enna, Sicily’s highest provincial capital stands at a 1000 meters altitude and has a beautiful medieval centre with stunning view. In 1087 the Normans defeated the Arabs and turned it into a fortified town

2000 years later, eternal gratitude gets a different meaning

We visit the Norman castle (Castello di Lombardia) from where there are great views of the Sicilian landscape. Unfortunately there is an overcast which spoils the photo opportunity of the Calascibetta village. We have a lunch and try the local arancini (rice balls), some with spinach and cheese and some with meat. They are all very nice, very filling and very cheap. Drowned with a beer it is the perfect quick lunch.

The next generation

Morgantina:

Click on map for further information:

4 kilometers from the village Aidone lays the ancient Greek settlement of Morgantina (Μοργαντίνη), but the site was already in use and an ancient Sicani village has been found as well. According to Strabo Morgantina was founded by Apenine people known as the Morgeti and were led by a king named Morges from which the city took its name. Together with the Siculians and the Ausonians they crossed the straits of Messina in the 9th century BC and occupied all the the area in central east Sicily, which forced the Sicans to retreat to the central west part of the island. In the 6th century BC a group of Greek settlers arriveds from Katane and so the city got its characteristics of a greek poleis with its sanctuaries and a walled fortification. The city got destroyed several times, starting with the tyrantt of Gela, Hippocratesin 500BC, a Siculian uprising in 459BC and by the Atheninans in 427BC.

Morgantina

In the second half of the 4th century BC, Morgantina saw the building of some major civilian, political and religious monuments and a double layerd city wall with 4 city Gates. A century later the agora was built. The city reached its highest splendour in the 3rd century BC under the reign of Jerone when the Gymasium and the ekklesia got erected. Jerone remained neutral during the  Punic war in 263, but his succesor Jerome adopted an anti Roman policy which led to the distruction of the city in 211BC, 4 years later than Syracuse. As a reward for their betrayal the Spanish mercenaries got rewarded with the city by the romans and  coins got minted which helped identify the city at the dig in 1955.

Walking on history in Margantina

After the assasination of Julius Caesar, Morgantina wrongly sided with Pompeus against Octavius and got destroyed by the to be Augustus for the last time and the site got abandoned for good.

To Piazza Amerina

It is already late afternoon and we decide to skip the museum in Aidone. Aah, we will ritorno. In Aidone I am a bit lost as to which way to take to get to Piazza Armerina so I ask an older man if I should take the left or the right turn. I get a waterfall of words over me and the worst part is that it is in Sicilian which makes me frown my head a couple of times. The old guy is not deterred in his drive to help us out. I understand he wants to get in the car and drive with us to where the road to Armerina is. Of course I decline such friendliness, but no he says, his house is very close to there so I let him in the car and surely, 500 meters further I see the road sign. I tell him I will take him to his house now that I know my way around but he refuses. I finally give up and say allora, grazie mille, thank you very much, but he says no. It is I how should thank you! He starts again in his Sicilian, calling on Jesus and Mary and some more, and so very much blessed we safely arrive in Piazza Armerina.

Take five and join the gang for a chat

In Piazza Amerina we stay in the charming B&B of Alessandra and Mirko “La Volpe e l’uva” (fable of Aesopica)  . We get a lovely room at an affordable price and this is definitely one of the best places we stayed in on this trip. We have an evening stroll (passegiata) around town and enjoy the place thoroughly. We see a lot of crumbling buildings that are begging to be restored and the population seems to exist mainly out of elderly people. I guess the young leave for jobs and studies in the big cities, which seems to be a problem for all the villages of Sicily. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Can this building be saved? It would make a great B&B…

We have dinner at the restaurant teatro and what else can we have in such a place than a pasta alla Norma. Afterwards we have a nice piece of meat which goes well with the Nero d’Avola and the owner offers us a limoncello to wash it all away. Recommended and we get a serious discount with the voucher Alessandra has given us. Happy, but a bit unstable we walk back to our room while having a gelato.

Wednesday, 15 June 2011.

We enjoy the huge breakfast Alessandra and Mirko have prepared for us and two girls from Cordoba. We spend a lot of time talking at the breakfast table and nobody seems to be in a hurry. The conversation goes from English to Italian to Spanish and there is always somebody able to say it in another language. I guess these meetings make the difference between a homely B&B and a nice, but impersonal hotel.

The famous pasta alla Norma, named after the opera of Bellini

The mosaics depict the lives and festivities of the period and do not include the gladiator fights which were no longer popular due to the spread of Christianity in this period. Only a small portion of the villa is available for visiting, but still it is enough to get impressed by the beauty of the mosaics and the villa life. The most famous mosaics are the ones of girls in bikini doing some kind of workout and of course the hunting scenes which are absolutely spectacular.

Notice the guy on the left wearing a swastika on his clothes.

Again the weather gods are against me making nice photos. Where the weather has been overcast for the past few days, today it is a bright and sunny day. Perfect for all photography accept for the mosaics at the villa where the sun casts the shadows of the iron beam onto the floor mosaics. I am not able to make 1 good photo!!!

Bikini girls doing a work out!

To Agrigento:

I am getting really annoyed with the Sicilian weather. By the time we get to Agrigento the weather is overcast! This is where I need sun which makes the temple stones glow.

We drop of our luggage at Casa di Max which is a huge apartment owned by Antonia. She is a lovely person with an Italian flair. The room with private bathroom has a veranda and a panoramic view of the temples.

Valle dei Templi     (website: www.valleyofthetemples.com)

These temples are Sicily’s most popular archeological site and are located in a 1300 hectare park.

1. The temple of Hera
Also known as the temple of Juno it is located high up on the edge of the ridge. The building, like all the others, faces east and is 40 by 20 meters long. It is dated around 450-440 BC.

2. The temple of concord
This is the temple that stands model for the UNESCO logo is still almost completely intact. It was erected in 430 BC. One of the reasons why it is still fairly intact is that it was converted into a Christian basilica in the 6th century. Another reason is that beneath the surface of hard rock, lays a layer of soft clay that acts as a shock absorber and protecting the building during an earthquake. It was restored to its original form in 1748.

3. Temple of Hercules

The oldest temple, dating from 510BC , it is now reduced in poor ruins. But even so, the building, still visible from far away, is imposing and rises in the Valley of the Temples just like the symbol of the power and strength of  Herakles,  the national hero of Sicily and, in particular, Agrigento.

At the temples I really get annoyed by one of the guards. I set up my tripod to make a photo of the two of us, and just as I am about to make our photo, a guard comes up to say tripods are not allowed. I tell him that is absolute rubbish, I am not disturbing anyone and I am just making a photo of myself! He insists, I ask him where this is written. I am getting really upset, which is not my style, but when he starts calling me Tedesco (German) I tell him I am Taiwanese! To annoy him, I put my camera on my backpack and make several photos from us with the remote control. Yes, we can do that he says, but not with a tripod. Ah, what a frustrated bureaucrat. I bite my tongue as with all the weird rules, it just might be that he is correct.

The temple of Concord

The weather gets better again by late afternoon and the walk along the sacred road is pleasant.
Tonight is “la luna Rossa”, or Full red moon. This is the lunar phase when the moon is on the opposite side of the earth from the sun. It gets the red color because the sunlight hits the earth which then functions as a light reflector to the moon. This happens after quickly after sunset.

Seize did matter to the Greeks…A Kariatide statue in the Agrigento museum. A big girl.

We decide to have an early dinner before we make the evening photos of temples, hopefully with a red moon, but by the time we leave the restaurant the golden hour is already gone, and then I also manage to get completely lost by car. The TomTom navigator is completely useless and so by the time I arrive to make my photo of the red moon with the temples, the moon is already too high in the zenith.

A bit disappointed we go to the B&B where Antonia welcomes us with a local liqueur. We have a nice chat but when I tell here we want to leave early in the morning she does not understand. Surely Agrigento is worth more than 1 day, and why hurry to the other side of the island? True, all true, but that was me doing an arm chair travel planning. To really get her out of balance I tell her we want to leave early and she does not have to bother with breakfast. We will grab something along the way. Now we have insulted her deeply and she will not let us leave with at least something in our stomach, what a bad hostess she would be if she would let us leave like that. So we agree on a cup of coffee and some cakes early next morning.

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