Giardini Naxos and Taormina

Friday 19th October

This was our last day, and a free one, so we did very little. Because we breakfasted a bit later today, not having to eat at 7 so as to rush off to Etna, we were able to have our breakfast on the terrace, with views over the bay.

We had intended to swim in the morning, but as you can see from the sky, it wasn't a particularly nice day.

We lazed about in the morning, reading and, in my case, finishing yesterday's blog. Paul was also reading and looking at his email. Eventually, we got ourselves together and went out for a walk along the very long beach.

The weather continued very dull, so after lunch we decided to go into Taormina for a proper look around, and caught a bus from one end of the town.

As the bus was almost empty, we sat at the front, and it was quite a hair-raising drive. The bus had a lot of difficulty on the tight hairpin bends, and there were many occasions when I wondered if the paint would be scraped off the bus onto the wall. At one spot, we met an been bigger bus on the way down, and he gave way and backed back up the hill, as did the traffic behind him. Driving on these roads is not an easy job!

On this occasion, we had more time to explore the town and went much further along the main street. Half way along the street is a small square with a restored 12th century clock tower, and two old churches, 15th century Sant' Agostino, (which is now a library) and San Guiseppe, with a 17th century facade.

My picture only shows the clock tower, with San Guiseppe on the right. This square is at the edge of the cliff, so there are views across the bay. I didn't take a veryngood picture of the bay, but it's a similar one to the one I failed to post yesterday, taken from the Greek theatre.

By this time I was glad to see the only public WC I had noticed in the town, though I had to pay 50 cents to use it. This make even most central London loos look cheap! 

If you go through the gate in the clock tower, there is another street of old buildings beyond, leading to another small square. This has a 13th century church, and an ornate 17th century fountain. 

As time was passing, and the bus terminus was by now quite some distance away, we turned back, stopping on the way for an ice cream - a scoop of melon and one of black cherry, in my case, both delicious. The bus back was very crowded, so we had to fight our way on, but we managed to get a seat, and were back in good time to have showers and be dressed in time for 6.30, when we had our last evening talk. Then we went out, quite sadly, for our last group meal. We leave for home tomorrow.

I hope I manage to post this blog, the wireless network keeps dropping my connection. I have tried 6 times so far, and am fast losing patience. The connection gives me an IP address, but only for a few seconds.

Etna and Taormina

Thursday 18th October

We set off before 8 this morning to drive up the slopes of Mount Etna. The mountain was completely hidden in the clouds, so there was no view of it as we drove there, which was very disappointing. It has been covered in clouds all the time we have been here, so we have never had a view of it.

We drove up the lower slopes which were extremely lush and covered with vines and citrus and walnut trees. The Passion Flowers were rampant on the fences round the fields, the most beautiful deep blue. Then, quite suddenly, we were into the clouds, and we wondered how on earth our driver could see to negotiate the hairpin bends on the twisty road. Fortunately, at that hour of the morning, there was nothing coming down!

Once we were amongst the clouds, we we also past the farms, and into the chestnut forest. The trees were heavy with huge chestnuts. A little higher, as we emerged from the clouds, we started to encounter black lava flows. There was less and less vegetation and more barren black lava flows and piles of jumbled rocks. The bus took us as far up as the first mountain refuge, which is at 2000 metres; it is where the cable car starts. There is also a ski lift, but it only operates in the winter.

Some of our party went higher, but Paul and I didn't bother. Paul wasn't really interested - there was plenty to see where we were - and I felt I had climbed enough volcanos. 

The mountain refuge where we were marked the extent of the 2002 eruption and we wandered around and looked at the lava flows. The view down the slopes was like nothing I've ever seen before because we were above the clouds, the way you are in an aeroplane.

So we looked across the barren burned rocky slopes to the upper surface of the clouds. I'm afraid the rocky slopes are a bit too black in my photo, there is so much light from the upper side of the clouds.

We also took a walk to a couple of smaller craters which were produced in an eruption just over 100 years ago. The two craters, one small and one larger, were the traditional bowl shape and surprisingly regular. My photos of them didn't come out too well, as I was facing straight into the sun, but this is a view from the top of one of them.

Apparently, as Etna erupts quite regularly, it is not explosive and there are usually just clouds of ash - which accounts for the fertility of the lower slopes - and very slow-flowing lava. It flows so slowly that it has sometimes been possible, with bulldozers and the use of explosives, to direct it away from buildings. It hasn't always worked; a hotel on a different slope was lost in 2002, but some lava was successfully diverted from the buildings at the mountain refuge where we parked, though the lava took out the ski lift and one of the towers of the cable car.

We had time for an early lunch at 12 (breakfast having been at 7), before going back to the bus for the drive to Taormina. We stopped on the way at a place where honey is produced, and tasted it. The area is famous for honey, producing 30% of all Italian honey, and I am sorry to say I did not like any of it! I admired the fact that it is an entirely natural product, and that absolutely nothing is added to it. I could certainly taste the slight difference between the honey made from the nectar of different flowers, but to my great disappointment, I really didn't like the taste of it, including that of the honey made from the nectar of the chestnut flowers. What I did like was the pesto made with local pistachios as well, and I bought some of that. I wanted to buy some of the olive oil flavoured with onion, but was worried it would break in my suitcase. I can stuff the two jars of pesto into my walking boots to keep them safe.

We arrived in Taormina, where the bus had to park in a car park at the foot of the steep hill while we caught a smaller shuttle bus up the hill to the town. You enter the town through an old gateway, Porta Messina. It is 14th or 15th century, but built on the remains of a much older one.

The town was originally Greek, founded in the 3rd century BC, and enjoyed great prosperity under the Romans, particularly after the end of the 1st century AD. The town was on the Via Valeria, which was the only road in the area; the road passed into the town through this gate, and out of it at the other end of the main street.

Once inside the town, you are close to the 14th century Palazzo Corveja; you enter a small courtyard from which a staircase rises into a chamber which was described as having been used by the first Sicilian Parliament. 

Adjacent to this Palazzo is the church of Santa Caterina, which was built partly on top of a small brick-built Roman odeon, used for musical performances. 

It has been somewhat restored, and part of it is underneath the church - you can go in and look down at it from inside the building.

The undoubted highlight of the town is the Greek theatre, which you reach from a small street, at right angles to the main street and lined with souvenir shops. The Greeks carved the theatre out of a hillside, and it had a superb panorama of the Sicilian coastline, with the snow-capped Etna in the background. The Romans cut out the bottom rows of seats and built a wall so it could be used for gladiator and wild beast fights, and they also built up a more permanent brick skena, destroying the view.

I'm afraid my photo doesn't show much of the wonderful view, only a tiny corner of the it. Mount Etna didn't appear anyway, being still stuck behind such heavy and low clouds you would have thought there was nothing there at all. There was a wonderful view from the back of the theatre though, down to some expensive hotels and villas and a couple of beautiful little bays.

I've taken out the photo of the view of the bay because the blog refuses to post - I don't know why, but fewer photos may help. I'll also make the photos smaller, though they always seem to post the same size with this software. I'll put it in to tomorrow's blog if I can.

We had time for a little sightseeing in the town, which still betrays its origin as a tiny late medieval hilltop town, with narrow streets and twisty alleys. Paul dissuaded me from buying any of the little possible presents I picked out for people (sorry, family), and stopped also me from going into numerous marzipan fruit shops. There is an abundance of marzipan fruit at the moment, it's apparently a traditional gift on All Souls Day (2nd Nov).

At 5.15 we returned to the bus stop near Porta Messina, where we fought our way onto a shuttle bus. It was a bit like being on a very crowded London Tube, when you aren't entirely certain you can get both your feet onto the floor. Once back in Gardini Naxos, we had to say goodbye to Nuncio, our expert bus driver; a different driver will take us to the airport.

Cefalù

Wednesday 17th October, in the morning

We set off in the bus this morning for the resort of Cefalù, a small town about 70 km from Palermo. It has a long beach and a most dramatic setting under the crags of a huge rock called La Rocca.

Our driver dropped us off near the lighthouse and we walked into town; the streets are too narrow for a bus. We had gone to see the mosaics in the Cathedral, which was built by Roger II in 1130. One of the stories is that he built it in gratitude after being almost shipwrecked in a storm and finding refuge on the beach, but my guide book disputes this. 

The church is clearly Norman, and of the type which could also be a fortress, with heavy blank walls pierced only with cross loops - the cross-shaped arrow slits. Inside, the mosaics decorate the apse. I am afraid this is the best overall view I could manage - the church is very dark inside, and my photos were no better with a flash.

The mosaics were completed in 1148, and are Byzantine in appearance, with Christ Pantocrator dominating the central apse; underneath is the Madonna, flanked by angels, then the twelve apostles, in 2 rows. Only the apse is decorated. Roger died when the decorations had got that far, and his son William preferred to concentrate on other churches.

There appear to have been some Baroque additions to the church, but thankfully, most of these seem to have been removed.

The town is full of narrow streets and small alleys, and it is hard to imagine what it must be like to drive through them. It's certainly quite difficult as a pedestrian constantly having to leap into shop doorways to avoid cars and the ubiquitous Vespas. 

We walked down the narrow streets to look at an oil store from the middle ages

Further down the hill is a lavatorio or wash house from Saracen times, with cold water from a spring flowing into the square wash basins, and flowing out to the sea.

Just below the lavatorio, there is this beautiful view of the sea and the beach.

Below this, at Fishermen's corner, we found a tangle of nets overlooking the curve of the beach.

We went to a ceramic shop, where we watched the potter demonstrating how to throw a vase, and we bought a serving dish.

Quite a lot of the ceramics we have seen are in quite garish colours or designs, but this was more restrained.

Paul and I wandered through the crowded street looking for something to eat that wasn't enormous. This is one of the tiny alleys; in this one, you are in no danger from cars, but the Vespas can still manage to bump down them!

Eventually, we found a café shaded by a vine where they had snacks. I had something I can't spell - or pronounce - but it was a triangular slice of a big round flat loaf, filled with a sauce of tomato, cheese and aubergines, and was very nice. We allowed ourselves an ice-cream as well - banana in my case. Then we made our way slowly back to the bus, to set off for Tyndaris.

Tyndaris

Wednesday 17th October, in the afternoon

I thought I'd provide an illustration of some of the viaducts and tunnels built to make the road as level as possible in this hilly country.

Especially in this area, if you are on the motorway, it's going to be all tunnels and huge long viaducts.

Another 90 minutes in the bus brought us to Tyndaris, originally founded in 396 BC by settlers from Syracuse, and fortified as a defence against the Carthaginian attacks along this coast. It is set on commanding heights, so there was another opportunity for our bus driver to demonstrate his skill in negotiating the steep narrow hairpin bends on the way up. This time, we had the interesting experience of meeting a big coach coming down as we were going up. It is necessary for a coach to occupy the entire road as it goes round the hairpin bend, so both vehicles wanted the whole road! This did not seem to faze either of the drivers, fortunately, though I was a bit worried.

The views on the way up, and from the top, were spectacular, as we have come to expect. We soon noticed the remains of the original fortifications

and later we paused to take photos of the bay and the sea over to the Aeolian Islands.

The site was small, but it had a tiny museum, with a wonderful head of Augustus.

The iconoclasts had unfortunately knocked his nose off, which spoiled his beauty a bit.

There were some coins, most notable being a small bronze coin from the time of Dionysus I, at the time of the founding of the city in the 4th century BC.

The majority of the ruins are Roman, as the city also flourished under Rome. The Greek theatre, which had a truly wonderful view, had been altered by the Romans so it could be used like an amphitheater.

The took out the bottom rows of the seats and built a high wall to keep the spectators away from the fighters and any wild beasts. The remains of the skena were Greek though.

We walked along one of the two main streets to look at the most complete insula. There was a bath house with mosaics, and you could clearly see the pipes in the walls to carry the warm air round the rooms that needed to be hot or warm.

We looked out over the Agora, just a jumble of ruins now. The modern houses cover what would have been the Acropolis. A rather kitsch church was built in the square in the 1960s to house the Black Madonna, a Byzantine icon held to have performed a number of miracles. We had almost no time to visit the church, and no photographs were allowed, so we just returned to the bus.

Our next destination is Giardini Naxos, which is near Taormini. On the way, we drove past the Straits of Messina.

There are only 2 km between Sicily and the coast of Italy at this point. I must say I had no idea it was that close. The ship you can see is one of the many ferries that cross the Straits.

Palermo

Tuesday 16th October

This was our free day in Palermo, so we celebrated by not getting up until after 8.30 and having a late breakfast. Then we set off for the centre of the city. The traffic was at a complete standstill along the main road near our hotel, but we caught a bus anyway, to the central station. At least I was sitting down!

At the central station, we failed to find out where to get a bus to Piazza Verdi to see Theatro Massimo, the opera house, and ended up walking there, which was miles. We got tickets for the Theatre tour; there was to be a premiere tonight, of a couple of modern operas set to music by Ravel; stalls tickets were €130 so we thought a tour would be a rather less expensive way to see the theatre. Anyway, we have no clothes fit for visits to the opera. I hoped to see the backstage area, but was to be disappointed in that hope.

We saw the entrance hall, which was impressive and full of costumes from operas performed there. The ones below are from Lohengrin.

Sadly, this was the only place inside where we were allowed to take pictures. We had a short talk about the opera house, which was opened in 1897, and is the third largest in Europe. We sat in the auditorium, and admired the domed ceiling, which is divided into panels like a daisy and painted in a somewhat Baroque style with an allegorical portrayal of the triumph of music. The panels can be opened to let air in, which apparently helps to keep the place cool. There are no performances in July and August though - even with the dome open it would be too hot.

We went upstairs to the Royal Box, to see where part of The Godfather Part III was filmed, and to admire the beautiful ceiling painting, a branch of almond blossom painted on silk.

We also saw the famous gilded marble Sala Pompeiana, where noblemen once gathered, partly because it had such an echo that it was impossible to hear what any other group of people was discussing. The room is built of stone, but panelled in mahogany and this is what causes the echo, which everybody in the party was able to try out. The paintings around the dome mimic those of Pompeii, which explains the name.

The tour was interesting, though rather short. It was also hard to hear the guide. The concert piano was being tuned, and various singers were running through their voice exercises, so it was quite a noisy place

After we left there, we had another long walk right over to the east of the city, to see the Regional Art Gallery. It is housed in a 15th century Palazzo, and you can still see some echoes of its origin.

Everywhere you look there are these window seats, just like the ones I photographed in Old Soar Manor, two centuries earlier.

There are many 15th century statues downstairs, but the highlight of this section is The Triumph of Death, by an unknown artist. Death is a skeleton, astride a skeletal horse, trampling over heaps of bodies. 

Most of the paintings are upstairs. I was disappointed that the rooms with the earliest paintings were closed, but there were some wonderful paintings there, including this 15th century masterpiece by Antonello da Messina of the Annunciation.

There were also some wonderful 17th century paintings, such as a very good copy of Caravaggio's Supper Emmaus; I suppose  this is not surprising as Caravaggio spent 9 months in Sicily. I was also impressed by several works by Jusepe Ribera.

After a couple of hours at this gallery, we discovered it was well past lunch time, so we went off to have some lunch, after which Paul was anxious to try the Modern Art Gallery, so this was our next destination.

This gallery is also in a Palazzo. There is a charming garden with colonnade which you pass through as you move between rooms.

The art was not really very modern, mostly 18th and 19th century. I was greatly taken with this statue of Christopher Columbus

and this wonderful painting by somebody I had never heard of, Francesco Lojacono.

By the time we had been round this gallery, I was very tired, and we set off to walk more miles back to the Wi-Fi cafe I used yesterday, so that we could have coffee and post yesterday's blog. Then we walked back to the hotel. I was pretty tired after all the walking, so we elected to eat in the hotel to avoid yet more walking.

Palermo and Monreale

Monday 15th October in the morning

We went back to the same cafe with Wi-Fi!

We set off this morning for the Palatine Chapel. This is in the west of Palermo, on a site that has always been a royal palace. It was originally a Saracen palace, built in the 9th century, but considerably enlarged by the Normans. Most of its interior is now taken up by the Sicilian regional parliament.

The Palatine Chapel, a small part of the palace, was the private chapel of Roger II, built between 1142 and 1153. The interior is utterly overwhelming, with every surface completely covered with mosaics of outstanding quality. 

The chapel is dedicated to St Peter. The ilustration below shows a bit of the mosaic depicting him.

It also shows a portion of the carved and painted arabic ceiling above the mosaic, and below it, some of the complex patterns that appear all over the chapel.

The colours are really vivid, and what dominates everything is the image of Christ as Pantocrator. I think He looks quite stern.

The mosaics in the cupola and apses are the oldest, probably finished about 1150, and are thought to be by Byzantine artists.

Those in the nave are slightly later, perhaps by about 20 years, and the artists were possibly local. They illustrate scenes from the Old and New Testament.

You can clearly see that every single possible surface is covered, by pattern if not by picture, and the mosaics are so fine in quality that Paul, who had not read the guide book, thought they were paintings and not mosaics.

If I don't write any more, you can safely assume it is because I am, for once, speechless. And I have to admit, words failed me more than once today.

We got back into the bus and were driven to Monreale, a small hill town about 5 miles outside Palermo. It is said to have wonderful views down the valley towards Palermo in the distance, but for once, I paid little attention to the views. We had gone to see the Norman cathedral and its celebrated mosaics; the cathedral was built in 1174, and was finished very quickly. The mosaics were probably created by Greek and Byzantine craftsmen, and were designed for the worshippers to be able to read the Bible stories straight off the walls. 

There are 89 steps up the hillside from the car park, so I was already gasping by the time I got inside, and I never stopped gasping.

As you can see, the scene is again dominated by the figure of Christ, this time in benediction, in the central apse.

Underneath are an enthroned Virgin and Child, attendant angels, and below them, a row of saints, each identified by name.

Our guide told us an amusing little story. The cathedral was built by William I, who was married to Joanna, daughter of the English king Henry II. You may recall it is he who was blamed for the murder of Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. William was so embarrassed by this crime attributed to his father-in-law that he declared Thomas a saint before the Pope did; Thomas' picture is here, labelled 'St Thomas', to the right of the central window, long before the Pope pronounced him a saint. 'In Sicily', said our guide, 'anything is possible!'

It is the image of Christ that draws the attention here, it is so enormous. The head and shoulders stand almost 20 metres high, and the face is described as being full of compassion. The photo above shows how it dominates the church, but I am also including a closer view below because it is such a stunning image.

Many of the other mosaics are little masterpieces. This next one shows Adam and Eve, having eaten the forbidden fruit, realising that they are naked and hastily donning large fig leaves. You can see the look of dismay on both their faces.

Clearly, the mosaic artists had a sense of humour. You can see in the next illustration that Adam and Eve are not so pleased with their lives outside Paradise. Adam is having to toil away out in the fields, while Eve is clearly bored to tears with her spinning.

I told Paul I had assumed at first glance that Adam was playing golf, rather than tilling the fields; I recognised Eve's facial expression as the one on the face of any golf widow, especially when being obliged to endure tedious and seemingly interminable golf anecdotes. However, I then saw that Adam had a hoe, rather than a golf club, and realised that the mosaic artist was probably having a dig at women. He obviously feels that housework, cooking and childminding (not to mention spinning, weaving etc.) are insufficient occupation to keep a woman from being bored.

Outside are the cloisters, an elegant arcade with 216 double pillars. The arches, we were told, are a legacy of Arab influence in Sicilian art. Each one is patterned - you may be able to see some of the patterns - and there are different scenes on each of the carved capitals.

After that, the rain started! Paul and I rushed down the stairs to the bus just in time to avoid getting soaked, and the bus headed back to Palermo to take us to the Cathedral there.

More Palermo

Monday 15th October - the rest of the day

After our visits earlier in the morning, the Cathedral of Palermo came as something of an anti-climax. It was founded in 1185, and is a very substantial Norman relic. Apparently, it wasn't finished for centuries, and as you can see below, it was completely outshone by the cathedral at Monreale.

It is clearly a Baroque church inside. There were lots of late 18th century alterations to the dome and the interior which many critics feel were out of character with the building.

We were all somewhat footsore by now, and the bus dropped us in Piazza Verdi by the Teatro Massimo, the opera house, where we took some pictures before setting off for lunch. Most places of interest are shut on Mondays, so we planned to see those that were open, though many of them close for a long lunch. So while we waited, we wandered off to have coffee in the cafe that used to be frequented by Guiseppe de Lampedusa while he was writing 'The Leopard'. Then we returned to the area of the Quattro Canti to visit the church of Santa Caterina.

Words almost fail me here. This is surely Sicilian Baroque at its most extreme; in fact, it seems to me to be Rococo imposed on top of Baroque.

There is no inch of the enormous interior that is not crammed with mad plasterwork, encrusted with wildly decorative relief work, exploding with cherubs, or adorned with gold.

The photo below almost defies description. You hardly know what to look at next. Did I mention the twisted pillars? This is decoration on top of decoration.

We had to sit down for quite a long while to take all this in; while we sat, some other people from our group came in, and recommended the Oratorio of San Lorenzo, which was also open. So we set off there.

The oratorio was much smaller and completely in white. But I don't think I have ever seen plasterwork in such high relief.

We both felt that we had seen more cherubs in a few hours today than we had seen in the entire rest of our lives; the oratorio is just bursting with them.

The plasterwork here is simply amazing. Below is an illustration of St Laurence's martyrdom; he was grilled to death - a horrid thought.

You can see how high the relief is in this plasterwork. This is another place where we were struck dumb, but this time there wasn't even a seat to sit on while we gazed around. There are benches round the walls, but you aren't allowed to sit on them. They have intricately carved legs and veneered seats with mother of pearl inlay; you can't even touch them, let alone sit on them.

The rain started again soon after we left, so we scurried off to a cafe in the main street, and by great good fortune, it had Wi-Fi, so I was able to post the last two days of blog while I refreshed myself. At 5, we went off to meet the rest of our group for a visit to a puppet show.

Puppet theatre has been described as Sicily's most vibrant traditional entertainment, and we saw it in a small theatre near the Cathedral. This is a family business. The owner explained that it was started by his grandfather, and passed on to his father. He now runs it, with the help of his son and grandson. He showed us how to work a puppet, which weighs 10 kilos and is suspended by a rod from its head. He demonstrated how to make it walk; he made it look easy, but none of us could manage it when we tried.

The show was wonderful, with knights and a fair lady, knights fighting one another and then fighting saracens - much metallic clashing of swords, cutting off of heads, cutting of heads or bodies in half - and a wonderful dragon which breathed smoke if not fire.

It was after 6.30 by the time it was all over, so Paul and I walked back to tne hotel. Other people from our group went off to a bar, but we had had enough for one day. Tomorrow is a free day, and we hope not to get too tired. There was a violent thunderstorm around 10, so we were relieved we hadn't been sitting about in a restaurant miles away from the hotel, as we had been on the two previous nights. Later, we met our tour leader, who was not only soaked to the skin, but said the street she had been walking down was running with water which was nearly knee-deep!