Taormina

Today we took a tour of the classic Greek theatre in Taormina. It went through many revisions as the city was ruled by the Greeks, Romans, Normans and Byzantines. The Romans did the most damage when they turned it into a gladiator arena. However, the theatre always retained its value by being in a location with beautiful views and and being a wonderful sound chamber by having the sea behind the stage—this allowed the sea breeze to always be pushing the sound to the audience. There is seating for 2,000 people. It is the 2nd largest theatre in Italy. Many famous classical groups and other popular performers have been on this stage. Taormina is the most culturally diverse and well-educated city in Sicily—the tour guide called it “an island within an island”. It was an alternate home for many writers, including Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Goethe and Lord Nelson. The pictures today are of the theatre, an apiary horse from a garden donated to Taormina by Lord Nelson's wife, a view from an old castle on a hill above the city and Anne having a drink or two. Well, actually one of the drinks was mine :). We climbed the hill to the castle after the drinks—fortunately, we had no falls. You can see the theatre from the hill picture!

Mt. Etna

We took our final bike ride of the Sicicliano tour around Mt. Etna today. The mountain was clear of clouds, something that is quite unusual according to our guide, Franco. One of the pictures is from Taormina, the location of our hotel, Villa Belvedere. The others are from the bike ride. I am in front of lava fields in one and am enjoying a special gelato (made from chocolate and almond paste) that won an award in 2005. I bet you can guess it tastes pretty good!

The volcanic island

Today we took a hydrofoil to our final island tour, the volcanic island. We hiked to the top of a crater that had exploded a thousand years and continues to simmer. The climb up was a chore--loose rock the the size of sand, then a mixture of clay and rock as we worked through the layers left by the volcanic eruption. However, it was well worth it! Pictured are the crater and steaming pots of sulfer, some over 400 degrees.

Salina

We went to another island today with our bikes. Franco, our guide, has a degree in geology and specialized in volcanic activity. Therefore, he is a perfect person to take us around the islands. The pictures today show one of the types of lava flow on the islands: pumice. Pumice is also one of the two main exports of Salina, along with capers. There is a big pumice quarry on both Salina and Lipari. Since pumice is a fairly soft material, it is a danger for crumbling or sliding on to roads around the islands. You can see the porousness in it from the pictures. A chain link netting is used to keep it in place but Franco says that it is still quite unstable, especially when it rains. Fortunately, there was no rain today. The other lava flow material is obsidian, which is a big export of Lipardi. I bought some obsidian jewellery to try and do my part at supporting the Lipardi economy.

Lipari

We are on the largest of the Eolie Islands for a couple of days. The sun is out and the view is gorgeous. It is still chilly so we are dressing in layers. We took a loop around the island today and then had will have a cooking class with a famous local chef this evening. I will post the pictures later because the internet connection is very slow and takes a while to upload. See you a sera!
More on the cooking class: The chef prepared 4 courses, using many traditional Italian ingredients but also some typical Sicilian ones, like capers and local fish. He also created a healthy breaded fish by just using bread crumbs, olive oil and herbs (no eggs) and baking the fish with a bowel of water in the oven to keep the fish moist. It was delicious!

Salomi and Segesta

We hopped on our bikes bright and early today because we needed to cover 24 miles by noon. We were riding to the typical Italy city on a hill, Salomi, with a strong head wind. However, the sun came out and fields of blooming flowers distracted us from our toil. We hopped in the van and met on with Regina again to tour a well kept classic Greek temple in Segesta. Then Franco drove us clear across Sicily(four hours of driving) to catch a ferry to the Aoila Islands. It was a long day finished with dinner at a local pizzeria and ensconced in a beautiful hotel room. Hope you enjoy the attached pictures. Caio!

Palermo

This is the beginning of our Sicily trip. We arrived in Palermo, the biggest city, and will be here for a couple of days to get acclimated prior to our first bicycle trip with Siciclamo. Palermo has many historical sites that have a true mix of Greek, Roman and Arabic styles, depending upon what conquering hero was in running the city. The picture above is a church that has Byzantine mosiacs in its dome ceiling, then also has "Allah" engraved in many areas from when the church was a mosque. The next picture up is a lovely fountain with frolicking nude nymphs and gods and goddesses. It is surrounded by churches. The church-going members did not necessarily appreciate its hedonism and nicknamed it "the fountain of shame". Finally, the top picture is a 150 year old tree in the largest palazzo. It is located next to the old headquarters of the local Inquisition so it was witness to many bloody executions. Anne is giving us a sense of size of the tree by posing in the front. Caio!