Monday 26th October 2009 – Punta Braccetto, Sicily, Italy

Our target for today was the Cava D'Ispica, one of two areas of Prehistoric caves in this part of Italy. The major area is Pantellica, quite close to Siracusa and this would have been the obvious place to visit. However, the map showed that the site is a long way up tortuous mountain roads, at a dead end and away from any villages. Not knowing how Henrietta would cope with the roads, I decided to go for the Cava D'Ispica on a through road and only 6 km off the main SP 115. The Michelin map showed a motorway under construction and this turned out to be open, soon to be a pay motorway (they were building the toll booths) but currently free. This speeded up our journey and we arrived before 11:30 and according to the guide book that allowed us just over two hours to see the free site. It turned out that there was now an entrance fee (a very reasonable €2) but the site was now open all day. The gorge is 12 km long, extended all the way back to Ispica and has caves along its entire length. They date back to the early bronze age when natural caves were used as houses. They were often extended by excavation and must have provided relatively comfortable accommodation. The fertile river valley must have also added to the attraction of the site.
When the Greeks colonised the island, they adapted the caves for burials, digging many tombs in the floors and walls of the caves. They also used the caves for habitation when pirate raids forced them in land from their cities. The Romans continued the practice of burials in the area and they have provided rich archaeological evidence for many cultures from the Bronze age right into the Christian age with the caves being finally deserted after the 1693 earthquake.
The scenery changed on the way, with volcanic rock giving way to limestone and craggy mountains appearing on the edge of the flatter coastal land. As we approached Ispica, drystone walls separated the fields and we saw many pomegranate, carob and walnut trees. As we walked around the site, carob pods lay all over the ground, the fermenting fruit filling the air with a pungent, sweet scent.
The site itself is based at the northern end of the gorge where there is a particularly dense collection of caves and we spent some time exploring them. Most had rock-cut, man-size slots in the floors and often in the walls although some had small pits, presumably for cremations burials. A fascinating site.
We walked a little further north to see 'Our Lady's Grotto' and, just by the car park, 'St. Nicolas's Grotto', complete with faded frescoes. We could have walked down the valley towards Ispica but decided to move on back to the coast to Camping Scarabeo at Punta Braccetto. This turned out to be a small but very impressive site next to the beach, full of flowering plants and with lovely pitches. We were welcomed by the Swiss couple next to us and I said how nice we thought the campsite was. They agreed but said that there was a problem with flies and as soon as we sat outside we saw the problem. And felt the problem – they crawled all over you and it was impossible to get rid of them. Subsequently we were told that they are come from Tunisia, which is very close, and appear when the wind is in a certain direction. We were told that they had been much worse over the last few days, so we hope that they are on the decline.
Photos: The fertile valley at Cava D'Ispica with cave dwellings visible in the cliff face; The 'Ipogei del Camposanto', a pre-historic dwelling reused as a tomb; A complex of caves eroded by the elements and probably damaged in the 1693 earthquake.

Sunday 25th October 2009 - Siracusa, Sicily, Italy

The clocks went back last night so we were able to get an early start for the Archaeological Park. There was a short shower over breakfast but the weather was definitely improving – fresher and lots of blue sky visible.
The short walk took us past the large coach park with the inevitable souvenir stalls to the park entrance. Here we saw the enormous, 200m long altar to Zeus Eleutherios (the giver of freedom) built by Hieron II in the 3rd century BC. It is the largest altar in the whole of the Greek empire and was the scene of massive sacrifices, Diodorus wrote that 450 bulls were killed in one of the annual feasts.
The Greek (inevitably modified by the Romans) theatre capable of holding 15,000 people and backed by a Nymphaeum, the water being by a tunnel cut through the rock. Sat in the seats of the theatre there is a view over the sea and in ancient times, without the modern buildings, it would have been even better. It was easy to imagine watching a performance of a Greek play with the sound of the water from the Nyphaeum and that view over the stage.
The other part of the park was one of the quarries that supplied the stone for the building of the ancient city. There were two natural caves in the quarry, the first the 'Orecchio del Dionisio' (The Ear of Dionysius) being shaped like an ear, high and going deep into the cliff in a twisted passage. The acoustics were remarkable and a single clap of the hands sounded like a rifle shot with a ricochet provided by the echo. The second cave was used in more modern times by rope makers, the dampness of the cave making it easier to make the ropes as the fibres were less likely to break. Unfortunately we weren't able to go into the second cave or explore the rest of the quarry. Although there were paths going off into the quarry, they were blocked and it was obvious that they had been out of bounds for a while. We inspected the Roman Amphitheatre with its central tank to collect the blood from the animals and humans killed for entertainment. The position of the lift used to raise animals into the ring was clearly visible.
After leaving the park we decided to check out the other two quarries behind the park. All of the quarries were used as a prison to hold the 7000 Athenians captured after their disastrous attempt to defeat defeat Syracuse in the Great Expedition of 415 BC with the largest fleet that ever sailed from Athens. They were badly organised and suffered from diseases and were soundly defeated, their generals executed and many of the Athenians made into slaves. The rest of the Greek world took a very dim view of this – killing Greeks in a battle was one thing but imprisoning Greeks for seven years in appalling conditions and enslaving them was wholly unacceptable. Once again, the quarries obviously had been open to the public at one time but they were now overgrown and securely fenced with padlocked gates. We were however able to see into them and the Latomia (pit) di Santa Venera was particularly fascinating. The rock was covered with niches cut for Greek and Roman cemeteries. We saw the tomb claimed to be that of Archimedes although there is absolutely no evidence to support the claim.
The afternoon was spent relaxing and reading in the sunshine and in the afternoon we decided to visit a more modern monument. Opposite the archaeological museum is a striking modern building shaped like a thin up-turned ice cream cone. This is the Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime (the Sanctuary of Madonna of Tears) built in 1994 to hold the statue of the Madonna that allegedly wept for five days in 1953. It is now an important place of pilgrimage and it was busy every time that we passed it. There were many people in the sanctuary when we visited and it took us a while to work out where the statue was. It was only when someone put some money in a box that the, much smaller than we expected, statue in the wall above the altar was lit. The building dominates the skyline from many parts of the city and is meant to look like a teardrop. The view from inside looking up into the conical roof is quite impressive but we noticed that they are already having to do extensive repairs to the roof on the outside.
Photos: The massive Altar of Hieron II; The Greek Theatre; Latomia del Paradiso; The Ear of Dionysius cave; The conical ceiling of The Santuario della Madonna delle Lacrime.

Saturday 24th October 2009 – Siracusa, Sicily, Italy

We wanted to see Siracusa (Syracuse), intending to stop at a campsite a few kilometres outside the city and travelling in by bus. However I discovered that there was an aire in the centre of the city and, checking the location, it turned out to be very close to the archaeological museum.
We got an early start and decided to take the motorway so that we could get a look at the city today. Jane thinks that she might have seen the bottom of Etna but it was on the wrong side of the van for me to see it and the low cloud prevented positive identification. It was an easy journey into the city and we were greeted at the aire (also a coach park) by a man who explained that the cost was €18 for 24 hours including water, showers and toilets. He also gave us a very badly printed map that showed us that we were next to the museum and he explained that the Archaeological Park was 10 minutes walk and 20 minutes would take us to the old part of the city. Although the aire was more expensive than the campsite that we were going to use, that was more than compensated for by the convenience of the location. The pitches were very pleasant – lots of room and level with plenty of electrical points and taps. The toilet and shower block however were not good and the gents was in a poor state of repair and dirty.
We bought a combined ticket at the museum that also covered the archaeological park and were looking at the exhibits by 11:30. The visiting hours had been extended to cover the whole day (09:00 to 19:00) so we didn't have to rush the visit. The brochure showed four large rooms, A to D with E and F due for completion in 2009. As often happens with Italian (and Greek) museums, some rooms were closed, so we only had rooms B and C and there was no sign of E and F being opened in the near future. It was obvious that they had squeezed in some exhibits from A and D into the open rooms but this was at the expense of some large sculptures.
The museum was well laid out with lots of high quality pottery although surprisingly little in the way of precious metals (plundered by looters or more important museums?). Of particular interest were the many votive offerings from a Greek temple of Demeter. They had found thousands of statues of Demeter buried at the temple and had exhibited a sample of the different styles demonstrating how common each one was by the number exhibited. It was strange to see so many statues lining the display cases and I could imagine the stalls outside the temple - “Come and get your Demeter offerings here! I've got the Goddess on her own or with a torch or with a piglet. For you madam we have a very special model with the torch and piglet and at a very special price!”.
We walked back to Henrietta for lunch and decided not to rush the Archaeological Park (it closed at 16:00), so we walked down to the city. Ortigia is a small island just a few metres off the mainland and now joined to it by three separate bridges. Because of its defensive qualities and an abundance of fresh springs, this was the site of ancient Syracuse and the second place in Sicily to be colonised by Corithian Greeks in 733 BC. This was just one year after pioneers from Naxos landed further north on the east coast and, with little originality, named their new city Naxos. Crossing over to the island we were soon greeted by the ruins of a large temple to Apollo, part of which was once used as a church.
The highlight of the visit to Ortigia was the Duomo, not just another ornate Italian church but a very important archaeological site. The Piazza Duomo is lovely in itself, surrounded by beautiful 17th and 18th century buildings but the Duomo dominates the square. An ornate Baroque façade replaced the Norman one that collapsed during the 1693 earthquake. Inside there is also a Norman stone font but the history of the building goes back much further. The building started life as a temple to Athena in the early 6th century BC, famous throughout the Greek world due to the opulence of its decoration. The doors were made of ivory and gold and the walls painted with military scenes and portraits of the tyrants of Syracuse – claimed to be the earliest example of portraiture in Europe. During the Roman period it was converted into a Christian church and this ensured its survival. Viewed from the Via Minerva the Doric columns can be seen in their original positions forming part of the structure of the church. Inside it is even clearer with the columns lining the aisles on either side and some of the wall of the temple cella (the holiest part) still in position. On the western side, the columns are misaligned and sections have shifted by a few centimetres, showing how close the structure came to collapse in the 1693 earthquake.
The other piazzas of the island are quite pretty but the most interesting parts of the town are definitely the warren of narrow streets full of interesting architecture of many ages and styles. Ortigia is very much lived in rather than being a tourist town and many of the families are obviously poor, squeezed into tiny terraced houses. But everywhere there were narrow alleys and arches leading to tiny open squares where the owners grew flowers in pots under the towering walls of the encroaching houses. I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Ortigia we spent a very pleasant afternoon there and didn't get back to the van until 18:45.
Photos: The Temple of Apollo; The outside of the Duomo with the Doric columns and Norman battlements clearly visible; The columns lining the inside of the eastern isle; A typical Ortigia street; The security was tight at Parcheggio Von Platen – the searchlights were used at night and the guards carried sub-machine guns! There were three of these lookouts around the edge of the parking and it does make one wonder why they thought that they needed them.

Friday 23rd October 2009 - Acireale, Sicily, Italy

Another warm and sticky night but no thunderstorms and we woke to see blue sky with small white clouds. With a bit of luck the wind, the first that we have had for a few days, will bring fresher, clearer weather.
I wrote the paragraph above too early as it clouded over, started to rain and thunder rumbled as soon as I had put the computer down. The remainder of the day was overcast for most of the time and there was the occasional light shower.
We caught the 09:40 bus up into Acireale and then the 10:30 bus to Catania, a major town one hour's slow bus ride south. The lady in the Tourist Information Office yesterday went into huge (unnecessary) detail about the buses throughout the day, whether they ran on Saturdays, Sundays, Festival Days, or on school days only and told us exactly where we could catch each one (some varied during the day). Unfortunately she neglected to tell us that there was another bus run by a different operator that only took 25 minutes to get to Catania. We discovered this only after we had bought tickets for the slower bus and watched the faster bus drive past us!
The journey was interesting with the first part especially spent in very narrow street often with only two or three inches between the bus and parked cars. On four separate occasions cars parked in ridiculous positions blocked the bus and we had to wait until a driver appeared to move it. Once a car parked opposite a junction prevented the bus from turning left. Coincidently a Municipal Police car arrived at the same moment and took control, one policeman blowing hid whistle to attract the attention of the car owner. He had his notebook out and I was sure that the driver was going to be booked. However, after about five minutes, the driver appeared, said a few words to the policeman, got in the car and drove off without any form of punishment being issued. The Italians are amazingly tolerant of bad driving and parking. When we were waiting for the bus in Acireale I saw a ship's captain in full uniform and it made me wonder whether the Italians steer and moor their ships like they drive and park their cars. If they do, reminder me not to take a cruise with an Italian shipping line! Pedestrian crossings are a great place to park cars; pavements are blocked by parked scooters; stop signs on the road are totally ignored; cars just edge forward onto major roads until there isn't enough room to get around them; cars often overshoot red traffic lights or anticipate them changing so that the traffic with priority has to swerve around them; cars continue driving down the road even when it is obvious that the traffic ahead is stopped and they will block the road to on-coming traffic. I could go on and on and on. I must say that Italian driving is bad but Sicilian driving is absolutely terrible.
Arriving at 11:30 and leaving at 16:00 gave us enough time to whiz around the town visiting the Duomo (cathedral), a couple of impressive churches, the Roman theatre and odeon as well as touring the centre admiring the architecture. We also managed to fit in a four course meal and twenty-minute walks to and from the bus station. We thought that we did quite well.
Much of Catania's architecture is in that very elaborate Baroque style and this is echoed throughout much of Sicily. There is a good reason for this as Baroque was the fashion at the time of the huge earthquake and volcanic eruption that destroyed much of the island in 1693. Acireale was covered by a lava flow from Etna and the city rebuilt over the old one. Catania was destroyed by the earthquake and the town redesigned and built in the modern style. Everywhere in churches you find the year 1693 mentioned and it is surprising how quickly the churches in particular are rebuilt. Thanks from those who were saved or protection from future disasters? Who knows?
One further thought for the day. Are we going to be the only people to spend three weeks in Sicily without seeing Mount Etna? Low cloud is still obscuring the view and we are not convinced that it actually exists!
Photos: The Roman Theatre at Catania. Some houses incorporate the theatre in their fabric but up to the 1950's there were houses occupying the whole of the theatre and set out in tell-tale semi-circular pattern.

Thursday 22nd October 2009 - Acireale, Sicily, Italy

Happy Birthday to Simon!
I was woken by a gentle rumbling noise at about 06:30. It got louder and I decided that it definitely was not Jane's stomach rumbling. Could it be Mount Etna about to blow? No, it was a thunderstorm – not surprising given that the outside temperature when we went to bed was as high as any time during the day and it was very humid. The storm didn't pass directly overhead but we were treated to an hour of spectacular lightening and accompanying thunder (in a motorhome you feel the thunder as well as hearing it) together with plenty of rain.
We caught the bus up to the town of Acireale high above the campsite and enjoyed the interesting town. There are some lovely churches and architecture and the fish and vegetable markets were interesting. One fascinating feature of the Duomo in Acireale was the Meridian line surrounded by the signs of the Zodiac built into the floor of the apse. This seems to have been a fashion in Sicilly as there are other churches with the same feature. This one also shows standard measures including the French metre, the English foot and the Sicilian and Neapolitan hands – it appears that the Neapolitans have larger hands than the Sicilians! The rain held off until we started on the walk back down to Santa Maria La Scala and up to the campsite. Fortunately it was quite short lived.
We very reasonable Internet access (€3 per day) at the campsite, we spent the afternoon catching up with emails and the blog.
Photos: Jane was struck by this cupid in the municipal building in Acireale; Standard measures in Acireale's Duomo; The beautiful ceiling of the Duomo showing a celestial choir complete with orchestra and conductor; Anyone for half a pig?

Wednesday 21st October 2009 – Acireale, Sicily, Italy

Warm again this morning and sunny. The views were much better and we could make out towns on Sicily.
Having no bread, we were just about to sit down to cereal for breakfast when Jane heard a shout of “Pane” from outside. Sure enough there was the local baker's van, rather surprising given that there were only two vans in the campsite! The bread was that tasty long load with a hard crust. Jane decided to cut it and, aware that it would be difficult, attacked it with vigour. An expletive, mild of course, escaped from Jane's mouth as the knife slipped and she carved her finger. I was sent to find the plasters in amongst our extensive medical supplies and found it in the last of three containers. Fortunately, the patient hadn't lost too much blood so I was able to apply the plaster and continue cutting the bread without further mishap.
It is olive picking time in this area and many olive groves, including the one in the campsite, have nets spread under the trees and white plastic bags full of collected olives scattered around on the nets.
We drove for an hour to reach Villa San Giovani, the port from which we caught the ferry to Sicily. The cloud was building and the area that we were heading for looked decidedly dark. The crossing is very quick (20 minutes for €60 return) and we were soon driving off to brave the Messina traffic on the way to the pay motorway. The motorway was quiet and the driving easy. Soon after leaving the city we started to see evidence of the catastrophic floods that hit the area with considerable loss of life. Tunnels were reduced to a single lane and the brown stains on the road showed that they had been covered with mud. Every dry gulley had either been recently cleared or workers with diggers and bulldozers were working on them. In one place wrecked cars were still upended in the mud and in another the wrecks were lined up in the school car park. Further on we passed vast dry river beds – very wide and shallow but designed to take very large amounts of water. These obvious coped with the floods whereas those closer to Messina were much steeper and narrow – unable to cope with the continuous torrential rain.
The Michelin map showed the non-motorway route from Fiumefreddo in green (picturesque) whereas the motorway lost that status. We decided to leave the motorway and follow the picturesque route – a mistake. All I can say is that the person who decided that this section of road was 'picturesque' has very poor taste! The road is almost entirely urban with one run-down, uninteresting town following another, and it was very busy leading to tortuous driving. If you are doing this trip, stay on the motorway.
We headed for Acireale and 'International Camping La Timpa' and found it quite pleasant. We chose a pitch overlooking the sea again but this time the sea was crashing onto the rocks directly below. The rocks here are all volcanic, the outflow from Etna which we are close to, so there is no beach just slabs of lava that provide an area for swimming from. The campsite even has a private lift that takes customers down through the rock to the platform. I tried to use it but it wouldn't respond to the buttons, probably because the sea was too rough and the platform too dangerous. It certainly wasn't the time to be swimming or sunbathing there!
We walked down to the harbour of Santa Maria La Scala just below the campsite. The boats were quite attractive but the village is somewhat scruffy, like most of the towns that we passed on the journey. In fact we both agreed that we were struggling to see the attractive Sicily that we had expected.
Photos: The view from Henrietta of the volcanic rock ledge that forms Camping La Timpa's 'beach'; Moving a boat by committee; Santa Maria La Scala FC playing by the harbour.

Tuesday 20th October 2009 – Taureana di Palmi, Italy

A much warmer morning with the outside temperature at 15°C at 08:00 and no need for heating in Henrietta. We walked up into the town and did some shopping and attempted to use the WiFi Internet in an Internet café. Unfortunately it was one of those cases where I could connect to the café's network but couldn't access anything on the Internet. The café reset their Internet connection and I rebooted the laptop but all to no effect, so we just enjoyed the cappuccinos.
The short hop down the coast turned out to be quite exciting. It started to rain as we started to climb the long winding hill out of the town to the higher land behind and then the heavens opened. Torrential rain followed for nearly an hour. Rivers of water ran down the hill disappearing off at the hairpin bends and as the road levelled out we drove through standing water sending curtains of water up on both sides. And then it suddenly stopped – from pouring rain to nothing and the roads were totally dry!
Palmi is to be our last stop before we take the ferry over to Sicily. The San Fantino site in Taureana di Palmi is located on high land shaded by pine and olive trees and is an ancient Greek and Roman site. The facilities are basic but this is compensated by the position. We chose the pitch on the edge on the hill – there are no signs of ancient remains but this must have been a temple site. High above the beach, there are lovely views up and down the coast and out to sea with Sicily, Stomboli and other islands.
We chose a sunny spot for lunch and then continued to follow the sunny spots whilst planning the rest of the trip. We ended up sat on the edge of the hill overlooking the small fishing harbour below. A constant stream of small fishing boats set off with the deep 'phutt, phutt' of their engines drifting up the cliff. And then we watched the sun set in a blaze of colour over the tip of Sicily – magical!
Photos: View south from Palmi; View north from Palmi; Sunset over Sicily.