Our trip around the island of Sicily ended in Palermo, the same city where we started 12 days earlier. Since our last post we spent time in Taormina, a pretty seaside city built on a plateau, and Cefalu along the north coast, which has become popular with travellers because it combines fine medieval architecture with nice beaches. In between we went through over 100 tunnels driving between the two cities. Several of the tunnels were more than 4 km's in length while others went through tiny hills that wouldn't have been a tough climb for a cyclist. While it does speed up the drive, it certainly impeded the nice coastal view. We also made a detour to Monreale to visit the amazing 12th century Cathedral that is filled with glass mosaics in excellent condition. The walls and ceiling are covered with the golden mosaics that hold stories within. Quite incredible to find a massive church like this in a town with a population of 30,000 people.
We are now back home following a long day of flights yesterday. We were fortunate with the weather throughout our two month trip but the disappearing crowds during the last few weeks of November also resulted in the closing of some restaurants and places to stay that we had targeted so that was a bit disappointing. Overall it was still another wonderful experience for us, getting to see the many different sides of Italy, from the bustling cities you would never want to drive in to the lakes and countryside areas that were a treasure to explore.
Some of the top memories we will take away:
- the beautiful, well adorned churches and the incredible number of them everywhere (even in small towns) and often less than 100 metres from one another.
- the Venice waterways, Florence's Renaissance art, the Cinque Terre hiking trails, Tuscany's vineyards, the Amalfi Coast roads and the Greek ruins in Sicily.
- the aggressive Italian drivers who jump in if you show a nanosecond of hesitation and feel quite comfortable parking their vehicles for a few minutes in a driving lane on a narrow road.
- a history that we can only dream of, and their efforts to both preserve it and search for more of it.
- very drinkable house wines for a pittance to enjoy with a multitude of different tasty pasta dishes and seafood, followed by a sweet cannoli or tiramisu on the few occasions when we weren't already overstuffed.
Arrivederci.
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Taormina - every alley off of the pedestrian-friendly main street had shops or restaurants to check out.
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| We loved this Taormina alleyway balcony. |
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| Cefalu's Porta Pescara. The tide was in.....normally the sandy beach areas are much larger. |
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| The medieval laundromat in Cefalu. There was 'fresh' water draining into the area....but it was near the sea, downhill from the homes so perhaps it was also part of the ancient sewer system? |
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| The immaculate Cathedral in Monreale |
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| Every wall in the large church had tiny glass tile mosaics like this one. This one was honouring Saints while most of the others included animals, sacred scenes or battles reflecting life in older times. |
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| The back side of the Monreale Cathedral that was almost hidden from view. |
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| The Last Tiramisu.....we had to find room for our final meal in Italy |
