just back from Sicily

We've just returned from five days in Sicily and what a delightful surprise! I'm not sure quite what I expected but certainly more chaos,rubbish,unfinished buildings and stress than Naples and instead amazing scenery, friendly relaxed people, easy driving, wonderful weather, so much history and food we've never had before in Italy. We flew in over beautifully clear seas into Palermo airport and the backdrop of mountains, warmth and light reminded me a little of Cape Town. The drive past Palermo was easy and we called in to visit the Greek ruins at Salunto - had the place to ourselves with beautiful views down the coast. Stayed the first night in Cefalu, probably very touristy now Easter is upon us but last week was so quiet and we were able to walk the narrow alleys at leisure, visit the beautiful Duomo and sit by the clear waters of the lapping Mediterrean in the evening sun. The following day we drove to Enna in the centre of Sicily via Mistretta as my son's partner's forefathers are da Mistretta. The town was untouched by time and we did get a few stares but that in itself took us back to our first visit to Italy over 30 years ago. The road to Nicosia was collapsing in parts due to landslip but we were the only car for miles and could take our time - stunning views and when we came over a pass and saw snow-capped Mount Etna soaring in the distance - well I was speechless! We dropped in to various other towns perched high on outcrops of rock, capped with Norman castles and stayed the night in Enna. Again the town was very quiet but the views were outstanding. Drove down to Morgentina to see more Greek ruins but the delight for me lay in the abundance of wild flowers - yellow, blue, red and white - all covered with bees. Again we were the only visitors. Then Piazza Armerina to see the wonderful mosaics and as we decided to lunch early, we were fortunate to miss the tours as they had all gone to lunch whilst we were looking around. The last three nights were spent in Siracusa in a small hotel in Ortigia but we did a day 'doing Montalbano' (Scicli, Punta Secca and the house and Ragusa)and the scenery had turned much more like Malta - hot, dry, stone-walled fields and sandstone Baroque churches. On our last day we drove around Mount Etna following the circumnavigation railway. The drive was quiet and initially we couldn't see the peak due to low cloud and smoke but once further round the Western side near Bronte we could see that the smoke was blowing out to sea over Catania and we had excellent views. Took a short route over to Lingualossa and the road crossed old (and not so old) lava flows and it was a bit disconcerting to see signs warning of volcanic cinders and volcanic ash! Back to Catania airport and back to Rome. Most stressful part of the visit to Sicily was the drive round the Rome GRA on our way home. Highly recommend a visit to Sicily - we plan to go back to Palermo and drive West to Trapani and down to Agrigento. Probably next Easter before the summer rush and high temperatures.

Thanks FB a wonderful post, as I believe they do flights from Pescara now, we will have to look at this!

Thanks, FB. We have that trip on our "to do" list and your post is most helpful. I want to stay more time around Siracusa, Modica, Val di Noto . Your post is very helpful.