Sicily - Avola

Avola

In the apartment courtyard

New favourite Sicilian town! This is a “real” Italian town, not at all for the tourists, neither the beach-going Italians nor the historical crowd (both in age of what is looked at and what is looking). And it has got wonderful old things to look at and beaches too.  Perhaps we are a little biased in that we are staying in a very central location – just a few metres away from the central piazza – in a very smart and modern apartment inside a beautiful old building. High ceilings and marble floors everywhere, modern and stylish furnishings, and a private balcony looking over the main street. Plus cycles. Our host, Antonio, is/was an impressive cyclist. In his garage there are a several good road cycles and mountain bikes (plus some old bikes for guests, an electric bike and a couple of scooters), plus a huge collection of trophies. Each day, either morning or at lunch time he is out in the garage getting a bike and heading off for a ride.

hanging out the washing ... a bit of a stretch

... and not for those with a fear of heights

we discovered this hidden garden on our wanderings and were invited in

these flowers fell from the trees in a local piazza and were swept up each morning

waiting for the train

the local noticeboard

avenues of Jacaranda are in flower, and carpet the ground below

Lonely Nigel doing what the local gentlemen do of an evening,
except for the bit about who is accompanying him

We really enjoy the evening passeggiata, the time when everyone gets out for a wander and a sit down to gossip. Each piazza is full of elderly men sitting down on the public benches or the outdoor café chairs talking - not buying food or drink. Not sure where the women were. Even a local couldn't really answer that question for us.  It is a lovely temperature to be out, mid-20s.

The town was rebuilt in the late 17^th Century after an earthquake demolished the previous town. It has been designed as a hexagon with two main roads crossing each other (and numerous little lanes). A piazza has been built in the centre and at each end, five in all. These provide a safe area in case of another earthquake. Also, each building has two exits, one onto the road in front, the other to a courtyard behind. The town now spreads way beyond the original hexagon with “different” building standards. The town has the usual complement of glorious enormous churches and a beautiful theatre. What makes Avola stand out to elsewhere in Sicily is that it is [mostly] clean and tidy! We borrowed a couple of bikes and headed down to the beach area. Nice sandy beaches, lots of little lanes full of rubbish between the houses. Each house surrounded by high walls and huge gates, and many have barking dogs behind those gates. Security is obviously a priority.

Cattedrale di San Nicolo

We chose to stay at Avola as it is a short distance to one of Sicily’s premium tourist attractions – the town of Noto. Again this was destroyed in the same 1693 earthquake and rebuilt in the Baroque style.  There are 50+ churches and convents within the town which, along with municipal buildings and a theatre, are spectacular. Well worth a day’s outing, even if getting to and from there was a little time-consuming. The train only runs a couple of times a day and the bus schedule is 'elastic', which can be hard work when standing around waiting in the heat for an hour.

another cheap and yummy lunch awaits us
- not sure about those chip butties though

the ceiling of Cattedrale di San Nicolo's central dome

Free Wifi, so Nigel skyped Izzie :-)

Noto's Teatro [theatre] seating

Noto's Teatro (theatre) ceiling

part of an exhibition of the art work for the Cattedrale di San Nicolo

An old Moto Guzzi on display outside a restaurant

Heading in the opposite direction (north east this time) from Avola is Siracusa/Syracuse. This made for another interesting day trip. Siracusa is ancient, having been founded by the Greeks around 2,700 years ago. It rose to be one of the major powers in the Mediterranean even after the Romans finally conquered it despite the efforts of Archimedes and his ingenious war machines. It rivalled Athens in size and quality. Of course most of that is now buried under the modern city but you can still get an idea of what it must have been like as it sits across a short bridge on an island which would have been completely walled. It has very interesting lanes, buildings, one of the prettiest fountains anywhere and the highlight – liquorice gelato. We’ve been looking for this everywhere and this is the first time we’ve found it in Sicily.

Vicki checking out the local [artistic] talent

the Siracusa waterfront

the Fountain of Diana

Syracuse Cathedral

local lads harvesting and eating shellfish at the bottom of the city's walls

So, we were sad to leave Avola. It has been our best stop so far: best accommodation, most interesting town to live in, and good destinations in the nearby area.

Sicily - Taormina

Our first long break here in Sicily was at the beach-side town of Letojanni. Not a lot of town – and not particularly attractive either – nestled between the sea and the motorway and railway. Its principle reasons for being popular are the (stony) beaches and easy access into Taormina (known as one of the most popular tourist destinations in Sicily).

Letojanni in the distance, from Taormina

We were picked up at the train station by our host’s mother and sister and driven to the apartment via a supermarket, as it became apparent that we weren’t hiring a car and the biggest supermarket around was too far away to walk. Our apartment at the far end of town was in one of a series of blocks that were either hotels or private apartments, all sharing a private beach. Nice and modern except for an appallingly-designed bathroom, unless sitting on the toilet with your shoulder and thigh pressed to the wall and your feet in the shower tray is the norm here …

Looking from our apartment towards Taormina

We did avail ourselves of the beach a couple of times for swims dips: the water hasn’t yet had time to warm up, so the experience was refreshing. Still, the sun was hot and there were only a couple of others on the beach. In fact there are very few tourists in town so we presume that July/August is the short peak season. Probably not hot enough for the Italians yet, and the English we’ve seen are mostly older and seeing the sights, but there are quite a few Germans around.

Letojanni water-front street

The best that this town offers are the numerous restaurants along the beach, mainly serving fish and seafood dishes.

Birra Moretti for Nigel

Prosecco for Vicki

Yes, it's a metrosideros (related to our rata and pohutakawa) but I haven't been able to find out which one - there are others from other parts of the world. I'm pretty sure they're not native in Sicily, but they grow well - here they were growing as a long, two metre tall hedge on the border of a  hotel, but we've also seen them as small shrubs in pots.

a short step from our apartment to the Med

The result of an Italian apartment without a corkscrew! Nigel used a knife to chip away then push in the cork. Loved the line "morbido e corposo', which, strangely, has nothing to do with corpses and morbidity.

The town of Taormina sits up on the hills nearby. It has a long history of being important to the Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Normans and everyone else who has been through Sicily. In the 19th and early 20^th Centuries it became a popular tourist destination and still is – tourists everywhere. The main street is full of expensive designer shops so it is well maintained and very pretty with numerous restaurants.

The Greek theatre sits above the town

Apart from the usual spectacular churches it is famous for its Greek theatre with a backdrop of Mount Etna. We did make our way up hundreds of ill-maintained steps to an old church built into the rock and then further up to the top of the overlooking hill where there are the remains of a Saracen castle. Sadly the gates were locked as it is probably in a dangerous state of repair, but we were rewarded with glorious views back over Taormina, the sea, and Mount Etna. And while that was my highlight of the day, Vicki’s was her special lunch: a crepe filled with pistachio gelato, lightly grilled and topped with pistachio cream and chocolate sauce. Not for the faint-hearted. It now qualifies as “Best Crepe Ever”.

'That' crepe ...

Nigel's yummy bruschetta

Taormina

Taormina's main piazza

Our second "narrowest street in Italy"

the church built into a very large overhanging rock

 

this symbol of Sicily is everywhere

 

Mt Etna, which is a little more active than usual at present

Looking south

A locked gate at the Saracen fort

view of a neighbouring village

Lunch for 4.50 euros at the train station ...

One day out in this busy tourist spot was enough for us, pretty though it was it still didn’t have quite the atmosphere of some of the northern Italian towns. We were happy to report to the train station for our trip down the coast to our next stay in Avola, changing trains at Catania (the second large city in Sicily) and Siracusa (aka Syracuse, which we’ll be visiting while in Avola).