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we're off to Sicilia

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Post by FBower Sat Oct 05, 2013 4:50 pm

We are planning our first trip down to Sicily and are musing over various stop overs. We will fly into Palermo and visit Monreale before moving on to Cefalu. We must visit Mistretta because my son's partner is da Mistretta and then thought on to Enna then Siracusa before flying back from Catania (to Roma). Obviously I can find the must to see sights online/guide books but would appreciate personal knowledge. It is an exploratory visit so I know there will be things we miss (Agrigento) but any advice would be well received and obviously if anyone is visiting the Colli Albani, I would be happy to post my experiences:D

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Post by ghiro Sat Oct 05, 2013 9:45 pm

Never been there myself but would like to!  So please share your experiences and recommendations.
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Post by stevegwmonkseaton Sat Oct 05, 2013 10:40 pm

Seems you are the advance guard on this one, so it will be very interesting to hear what you find it like. Always wanted to visit the South of Italy, but not sure now we ever will as we are so entrenched here ....

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Post by Vicino Sun Oct 06, 2013 8:08 am

We went on a cruise last year and called in to Palermo en route, it was basically a big City (to me !) as we didn't have much time there to explore. We are hoping to drive down there next year and see a bit more of it AND the islands to the North East (Lipari comes well recommended).

They do seem to have a LOT of earthquakes around that area, particularly around the Messina Strait, but they are usually relatively weak.

Enjoy,

V
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we're off to Sicilia Empty Sicily: a miracle at Villa del Casale

Post by JulianaAlice Sun Oct 06, 2013 12:59 pm

We have visited Sicily on holiday three times.  It's a wonderful place. The first time, years ago, we took a package tour which was too cheap to miss (about £250 half board in a lovely hotel in Cefalu).  The hotel served good food and we always turned up to sample the offering for the evening.  However, not being package tour people as a general rule, we got bored, and decided to hire a car and head off for a few days and leave our pre-paid hotel.

So good that we did.  We headed across country as far as Etna, (which at the time, had just erupted), before heading down to Ortiga (gorgeous, the best). At Etna we walked on hot lava and jumped over glowing fires.  It was amazing that tourists were allowed wherever they felt like wandering - no restrictions.  There were great swathes of scorched earth and burned out buildings all around us. Apart from the excitement of possisbly being incinerated at any minute, there wasn't much to appreciate, a bit like being in a coal pit, or standing on a slag heap, I would imagine, not having visited either.

One place we did go to on that wild drive-around, was Villa di Casale in Piazza Armerina, Central Sicily "which was protected by Unesco in 1997, and offers something different. It is one of the best-preserved villas from anywhere in the Roman Empire, it still boasts much of its original decoration. The contents of, say, Hadrian's villa at Tivoli outside Rome were long ago dispersed. But, against the odds, the mosaics of the Villa del Casale (named after an agricultural settlement known as casale, or farmhouse, that flourished there in the 15th century) remain in situ".

See this article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/italy/9539405/Sicily-a-miracle-at-Villa-del-Casale.html  The presenter of a new BBC series tells the story behind the astonishingly intact fourth-century mosaics at the recently reopened Villa del Casale.

Try not to miss it out on your trip.
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Post by Gala Placidia Sun Oct 06, 2013 3:19 pm

I would not miss the late Baroque towns of the Val di Noto area, and Modica...
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Post by FBower Sun Oct 06, 2013 3:41 pm

Thanks to everyone for their input - I'm getting really excited although it isn't until next Easter! Will certainly feed back on our experiences.

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we're off to Sicilia Empty Sicily: balcony spotting at Noto

Post by JulianaAlice Sun Oct 06, 2013 3:47 pm

Yes, we went to Noto too. "The principal tourist activity in Noto is simply a wander around the narrow streets, admiring the golden-coloured stone buildings, the fantastical facades and balconies".  We spent a  couple of hours balcony spotting and then sat on the steps of a church people watching.  The weather was fabulous and ..... oooohhhh I want to go again!
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