Yesterday it was back onto the hydrofoil for the trip back to the port of Milazza and on to Taormina.

After the relative calm of Lipari Taormina seems manic!  As well as the ebb and flow of big tour groups down the narrow main street to the Greek Theatre and back to their bus, Taormina is hosting the G7 towards the end of this month so there are local police, the army, carabinieri and the fire brigade all over the place.  The firies seem to have the job of welding down the manhole covers as part of the security arrangements.  Having worked on some of the G20 arrangements when Brisbane hosted it we both know how incredibly disruptive these things are – and it’ll be worse here!

Anyhoo, Taormina is situated on the side of a very steep hill looking out towards the mainland of Italy and close to Mt Etna.  It’s been a tourist town for a very long time – since the days of the aristocratic European Grand Tour in the 1800s.  It’s a little like Venice in that some areas are mobbed but you can walk down a sidestreet and find relative calm.

We visited the Greek Theatre yesterday with the group, and then just had a bit of a wander.  We are not in the nain hotel, but in a studio apartment in a separated building just down the street.  With a view, a kettle and an iron.  Never thought I’d be so happy to see an iron!

Off to get ready for breakfast.  If the internet cooperates there will be photos.

Two walks in two days – the first on Panarea about an hour by boat from Lipari, and the second to climb to the crater on the island of Vulcano, about 15 minutes away by boat.
Yesterday we went on Summertime, a smallish converted fishing boat to Panarea – a small island an hour away which has a few locals and a lot of flash holiday homes.  We walked out to a spectacular promitory had been the location of a prehistoric village.

The walk through the village was easy but it was hot and we did a bit of dodging golf carts, scooters and Apis transporting goods and people to the various homes and B&Bs.

After the walk and a light lunch at the tiny port, the boat took us out to a volcanic vent in the seabed (smell that sulphur!) and the to a bay below the prehistoric site where the braver among us went for a swim – the water isn’t that warm yet.

Today we were off to the island of Vulcano on the same little boat.  The walk to the crater was short – but 800 meters of steep uphill  climb on soft volcanic sand for much of the way to the top in hot sun.  The fresh orange juice and lemon granita at the bottom were welcome!

On the trip back we stopped in a little cove for another swim – I got in this time – John made sure he had proof!  And it was COLD! Our reward was panettone and malvasia wine for morning tea on the boat after.

Pics of Panarea in this  post.  Pics of Vulcano follow.

We’ve left the mountains and headed for the sea – an hour’s hydrofoil trip from Messina to Lipari – the main town on the island of Lipari.

After a quick freshen up we were off to the archaelogical museum at the Castello – where unsurprisingly the Normans had been – but before them were the Greeks and Romans, and after, the Spanish.

While not really our thing, the museum’s collection of greek pottery was really interesting, including minature theatrical masks and masses of amphorae recovered from shipwrecks.

After a bit of a Fawlty Towers experience with dinner at the hotel and a good sleep we had a serious walk today which began with a taxi trip to the western side of the island for a walk back to Lipari.  The views were fabulous as we were up high, but it was hot – and the beer with (yet another) antipasti lunch was welcome. 

Catching up: some pics from our last walk  in the mountains – we walked from just outside Geraci (near Petralia) to a tiny village called Sperlinga which is up a steep hill topped by yet another Norman castle.  The day was warm and sunny and the views great. We had a light lunch (one of the few so far!) and then were driven back to Petralia via Geraci – one of the few towns we’ve been in which seems to be making a bit of an effort to attract tourists.  The church had a famous painting of the last judgement but the memorable aspect of the visit was to the crypt – where the mummified bodies of parish priests from the mid 1700s to the mid 1800s are displayed, propped up in their vestments.  I was a bit weirded out – there are around 50 mummified priests staring at you and not from inside a glass case!😳 

It was our last day of walking the mountains – yesterday we drove from Petralia Soprana via Castelbuono to Messina, where we took a hyrofoil to Lipari in the Aeolian islands off Sicily’s northeast coast.

The town itself is more touristy (aimed mostly at italians but there seem to be germans here too) than elsewhere we’ve been but it’s nice to be by the sea after being in the mountains.

The pics that follow are in reverse order to the walk.

No more mosaics I promise!  It was an amazing place but like many places here in Sicily the tourism infrastructure doesn’t exist to make it easy to get to.  There were some other tour groups but it isn’t mobbed like Pompei.

Enjoy!

A lighter day today – a drive through the countryside of central Sicily to a roman villa at Casale outside Piazza Amerina – a modern town broadly two hours from Petralia Soprana.

It was well worth it – the villa was built in the 4th century and abandoned in the 12th.  At some point it was covered in a landslide and excavations only started in the 1930s so the mosaics in the villa are amazingly well preserved.  It’s a UNESCO site and has the largest collection of roman mosaics anywhere.

We were taken around by a guide, which was helpful for interpreting some of the symbolism of the mosaics.  The villa has numerous rooms and the designs in the mosaics are a guide to the use of the room and the intended users – public, private, the family or slaves.  

After that it was off to Enna – the major town in the centre of Sicily for lunch.  Still sorting out photos but there will be some!