Sicilian Circumnavigation

We took the ferry over to Sicily and began our counterclockwise circumnavigation of the island.  There was no way of knowing at the time just how long we would spend on the island.  By the time we left, more than two full weeks had passed.  

One of our first nights on the island of Sicily we stayed in the car, and we woke up to this beautiful sunny beach.  Our explorations began!

There are many, many towns along the coast of Sicily that are worth visiting.  Cefalu is one of them.

In Palermo we stayed with two girls from Lithuania.  They were hardcore fanatics for architectural design and were in Palermo to study.  We stayed in their large apartment in the center of the city.  They were young and much more interested in partying than we are.  One night they invited us to a party among their school friends in a suburb outside the city.  We were not entirely sure what to expect, but it turned out to be an extremely classy affair with delicious Lithuanian cepelinai (potato dumplings).

Further along the coast we visited San Vito lo Capo.  The landscape on this thumb of the island was dry, rocky, and desolate.

High above the city of Trapani, on the western coast, is the old city of Erice.  This city is perched upon an isolated mountain far above the valley below.  It is a labyrinth of dusty stone buildings packed tightly together on the small mountain top.  We had one of the most luxurious stays in this town.  A man who lived down in Trapani let us stay in his summer house in the center of the old town.  The house was interesting in that it was only 2.5-3 meters wide and three levels high.  It was like the place had been squeezed between two existing buildings.

Inland from Trapani is an archaeological site including the Temple of Segesta.  It was a rainy day when we visited, but we enjoyed walking through the countryside between the different sites.

On the southern coast near Agrigento we visited the Scala dei Turchi - Steps of Turkey.  These "steps" are a short section of blazing white sedimentary cliff.  The rock is smooth and polished from the wind and water.  We walked out onto its terraced ledges.

Also near Agrigento is the Valle dei Templi - Valley of Temples.  These Doric temples are some of the most impressive I have seen anywhere in Europe.  Their structure is very well preserved. 

Siracusa, the birthplace of the famous mathematician Archimedes.  It is a simple town.  There are some ruins, though not the best preserved.  The city center is unremarkable, but still fun to walk around.  I mostly remember Siracusa as the place where we learned how to make the delicious Sicilian dish arancini.

As we began to drive north up the eastern coast, we began to notice the smoking Etna volcano.  In the evenings when it got dark, you could see the lava and sparks of the erupting mountain.

North past Etna volcano is the popular town of Taormina.  We visited this small winding town two times.  It is a great place to walk around.

Finally, one of our last hosts in Sicily - this winking cat!

A place in Tropea

In Briatico we were very well treated.  We were given the summer house of a young man, and we spent three full days relaxing and visiting the nearby towns. 

During the day we would drive to Tropea, Pizzo, or across the toe of the boot to Stignano.  Tropea is typical of most of the towns in the area.  The main thing that is interesting about Tropea is how tiny alleyways will end overlooking a cliff.  Pizzo is very small and not particularly interesting, but it is the birthplace of the delicious dessert called Tartufo.  Tartufo are balls of ice cream - either one or two flavors - filled in the center with some form of sweet sticky syrup.  Pretty delicious. 

Our day trip over to Stignano was fun.  The road was not the best, which is always thrilling.  We crossed over the mountains, passing through both hard rain and sun.  Stignano was a surprise.  A cute stone town that was surprisingly hard to find. 

In the evenings we would retire to the house and cook ourselves some dinner.  Our host and his girlfriend joined us once, and prepared a regional Calabrian pasta dish.  Our time in Tropea was sweet and refreshing.

La Costiera Amalfitana

The Amalfi coast is a beautiful peninsula south of Naples.  The southern coast of the peninsula is 40km (25 miles) of steep vegetated slopes and rock cliffs.  Tiny villages are scattered along the length of the peninsula, clinging to the rocks.

The road along the coast is extremely narrow.  Probably one of the most interesting memories I have of our time navigating the coast is due to the narrow roads.  We were just about to leave one of the villages, and as we turned a sharp corner we came across two buses trying to pass each other.  The buses had met at a particularly narrow part of the road that did a bit of an "S" curve.  The houses on each side came right up to the edge.  We sat there watching the buses move forward a little, then move back.  Slowly they wiggled their way past each other, but how they did this still baffles me.

Along the road there are tiny replicas of the villages clinging to alcoves in the rock cliffs.

Napoli: The European Third World

Napoli is a city of chaos.  We arrived to this dirty, crowded city after dark.  It felt like we were arriving to some city in the heart of Africa.  The place we were staying at was incredibly difficult to find, especially from the direction we were trying to approach it.  Once, we started going up this street which got narrower and narrower.  It got so narrow it became difficult to navigate between the vehicles parked on each side.  I eventually had to turn off onto another road.

Finding our hosts house took quite some time.  We ended up parking in a plaza at the bottom of the hill and walking the skinny streets up to his house.  Walking up some zigzagging staircases we finally found it.  He was an elderly man living in a big house off of a small community courtyard.  Him and some friends treated us to some very traditional pizza with mozzarella di bufala.

One afternoon we took a tour of the Naples underground.  It was just as impressive to be underground knowing that the mayhem of the city was just above us, as it was to realize on the streets outside that such quiet catacombs were below.

One day we went walking up the endless staircases of the city to the fortress at the top.  We had a very funny encounter with a dog, who thought he was the fiercest thing in the country.  Javier showed him who was boss.  With a few barks and a couple steps toward the dog Javier had him running and crying all the way home.

At the top of the stairs you can see out across the city all the way down to Mount Vesuvius.

On the south side of the volcano is the ancient city of Pompei.  This city was incredibly well preserved since it had been completely buried under several meters of ash until its discovery in the 16th century.  The sad thing now is that the Italian government has not been taking the best care of the city.  Not long before we arrived one of the buildings collapsed. 

As they excavated the city they began to notice large oddly shaped air pockets in the ash.  In a moment of genius they filled these holes with plaster.  As they suspected, these air pockets were the voids left after the bodies of the people buried in the ash had decayed.  The resulting plaster molds were perfect images of the last moments of the people of Pompei.  The shriveled screaming figures are terrifying.  Unfortunately these plaster molds are falling apart today.  The technology used when they were made was not meant to last so long.