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).

Sicily - Palermo

Horse, man, wife (the latter mine!).

Our month-long adventure starts in Palermo. All we knew of it beforehand was that it is Mafia-central but now we know it as a large (population over 1m) and not particularly attractive city. A lot of the newer development has – allegedly – avoided inconvenient distractions like building permission and standards. The streets where we walked are poorly maintained, dirty and full of rubbish with dog poo everywhere. But as we were there for only two nights we can reclassify all this as “atmosphere” and move on to the good bits. And good bits there are plenty of.

Royal Palace

Palermo has a varied history that still shows having been under the control of the Moors, the Normans, the Spanish, the Bourbons … specifically under the Normans (King Roger I and II) it was tolerant of all religions and this shows in the architecture of some of the massive Norman buildings where there are Arab as well as Christian components. Our favourite would be the Royal Palace which dates from around 1100. The chapel (Cappella Palatina) inside is one of the best we’ve seen, with an Arab-style ceiling and Christian mosaics on the walls.

Cappella Palatina

 

Cappella Palatina mosaics

Ancient lay pipes

A real indication of history was walking up a back street and seeing a sign noting that the large crumbling building there was a 16thC water distribution plant. It dispersed water to all parts of the city through clay pipes, many of which you could still see hanging out the walls!

There are plenty of outdoor markets selling food (everything from butchers to fishmongers to fruit and veg - all locally produced), clothes and the usual bric-a-brac. Most of the fish and seafood sellers would have the head of a swordfish on display or the body of a tuna with huge steaks being cut off. Not so much for the tourists but I did splash out on a 6 euro Chinese-made shirt.

Longest ever zucchini, and live snails trying to escape their baskets

One thing we didn’t get a lot of in Palermo was sleep. We were in a small apartment with big windows opening on to a narrow balcony – and staring straight across the alley into the next door neighbour’s lounge. With everyone up and noisy until late, cars and scooters squeezing down the alley, the sound of TVs and fireworks. Yes, fireworks. At the corner the neighbours were having a BBQ on the street that ended in a party. And then there was a game of basketball somewhere nearby with a very vocal crowd, and a lot of whistle-blowing. All quite different to the utter peace we have in our little corner of the English countryside.

Having only walked around the historic area we don’t have a good impression of the city as a whole, but we’ll be back there for a night at the end of the holiday so we will see a little more.

A full-size carriage ready for the Ball

Due (two) gelati, and a happy woman.

Would this get an MOT/WOF?

The Dordogne

In May we enjoyed a week away with sister Gail and her husband Janos to the Dordogne region of France. This is relatively easy to get to - just a shortish flight to Bordeaux and then about 3 hours in a hire car due east. In some ways it isn’t too different from the area of England where we live: very rural, lots of woods, hamlets and lots of English – there are thousands of them lurking in this area. Luckily it was still too early for the main tourist season so everywhere was very quiet, including the well maintained and picturesque rural roads with barely a car to be seen. So unlike the very crowded south of England.

The area is incredibly scenic and clearly very popular in the summertime given the number of restaurants, camping grounds and accommodation signs all over the countryside. Few large towns, forests everywhere, and two big rivers snaking through gorges. This is the home of Foie Gras, walnut plantations and prehistoric cave dwellings. And lots of chateaux.

Need to improve my hedge-cutting ...

Let’s start with food. French fare ranges from the sublime to subpar. Except for the larger towns or tourist areas, getting a basic takeaway sandwich/filled baguette isn’t always that easy, and a dry baguette with a thin slice of ham isn’t that appealing. Luckily there are plenty of restaurants around if you don’t mind spending just a little more. But what is it about the French and their coffee? If you are not into an espresso then it is either a long black (a café américain) or similar with milk (café au lait), neither impressive. Don’t even think about a cappuccino (they have heard of them but can’t make them properly) or a latte, flat white etc. Luckily the compensation is the cheap wine. Our real find of the trip was when things were getting a little desperate for Janos’ birthday dinner. We headed out to a local restaurant that we had tried a few days earlier only to find it closed due to lack of reservations. We then covered quite some distance on back roads to where we had heard there was another, but that turned out to be a bit over our budget. Using the GPS to find us a another restaurant we spent more time on the tiny lanes before arriving at a lonely hotel in the middle of nowhere. But the restaurant was open, prices were good (23 euros for the 5-course menu) and we proceeded to stuff ourselves with soup, a variety of foie gras, duck, more duck and desserts. Stuffed full after the first two courses we struggled on politely so as not to cause any offence. Spectacular meal though quite a lot of groaning ensued later.

More irresistible food was found at the local markets which included numerous foie gras sellers and everything possible you could make from walnuts, from oil to cakes. Janos usually managed to get through a meal’s worth of freebie samples from these stalls. Sadly most of our intake came courtesy of the major supermarkets as we were self-catering.

Due to the terrain and the rivers this area was popular with invaders, from the Romans to the Vikings to the Normans and those nasty English (the ones with the swords, not the credit cards). Hence there are many castles, forts and fortified chateaux.

Maison Forte de Reignac

The caves in the cliffs have made living quarters from prehistoric times to the present. You can see numerous houses built into the cliffs – not unlike the troglodyte dwellings we saw along the Loire in France. Many are open to the public and range from grand houses and churches to prehistoric dwellings. Our favourite would have been Maison Forte de Reignac as it was mainly a small chateau backing into many levels of cave. Inside rooms were furnished in various periods from its history: really, really interesting, though the torture equipment was somewhat depressing. For something completely different we saw La Roque Saint-Christophe which is several levels of cave dug along several hundreds of metres of limestone cliff. Once again inhabited from Neanderthal times until around the 16th C.

La Roque Saint-Christophe

The area is most famous for its prehistoric rock paintings though. Some of the caves have only been recently rediscovered (e.g. 100 years ago) and paintings have deteriorated remarkably in that short time mainly due to the warmth of the human bodies and the bacteria they carry. To prevent further damage the most famous, Lascaux, has been closed and an exact replica built nearby for the tourists. Have a look at some of the images on the website – they are truly amazing. While this replica cave may contain some of the best rock art anywhere, we decided that we wouldn’t actually be seeing the real thing, so we went to Le Font de Gaume instead. Here visitors are restricted to the first 72 that rock up, so we were dutifully there well before opening time sitting on the numbered seats. As they only take parties of 12 at a time there would have been a long wait till the only English-language tour, so we took the French version. It turned out to be fine as the guide spoke good English and was so full of enthusiasm it was infectious. It is interesting to note that many of the paintings take advantage of the natural contours of the rock to give a 3-D effect. But they are very hard to see without the guide pointing them out and waving a torch over them so that the shadows catch their features.

The Dordognne river

Duck-herding by ancient stone farm buildings

Happy on holiday!

Caught outside the chocolate shop!

So, a beautiful piece of peaceful countryside to see with a lot of interesting sites to visit and very friendly locals – advantages to being out-of-season. Favourite moment? Possibly sitting outside in the sun looking over the fields towards a fortress in the hills and eating the best salmon pizza ever, but don't tell the Italians!



There are more photos in the gallery.