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.
No comments:
Post a Comment