Raphael Kessler

The first time I went to Sicily, I was only there for a day or two, as I had popped across from mainland Italy with the sole intent of visiting Mount Etna to see the bubbling caldera. That turned out to be a fruitless exercise. When I returned, I was planning on seeing much more of the island, as well as revisiting Etna with some marshmallows, ready to roast on the volcano's flowing lava.

I flew from London to Rome, then connecting on to Palermo. En route, were some nice mountains to look at, so I photographed them. I don't know what they're called or even which country they're in. Then again they probably don't know either.

We spent the first couple of days going around Sicily's capital Palermo. Which is a nicer, more vibrant and more interesting city than I had anticipated. It has some beautiful classical architecture, as well as a relaxed kind of atmosphere. A minor problem, which turned in to a theme for the trip was that everything was shut a lot of the time. Those things that did open were closed between 1.30 and 5.30 in the afternoon, due to the sweltering heat. This peculiarly included restaurants, cafes, bars, etc. which makes getting respite from the heat for non-locals more difficult.

Drinking in the African immigrant part of town late at night was nice as people would dance randomly (I'm being generous).

The huge cathedral is littered with domes which provide an interesting architectural feature externally, helping with cooling and illumination inside. There is also a metal line embedded in the floor which acts as a lunar calendar, for calculating the equinoxes, etc.

At one of the city gates, the characters carved in to the outer wall, look to me as though they would make ideal crewmates for Sinbad or someone similar.

These chaps were playing cards in the early afternoon, in a small park just outside the city walls. These were the most energetic people I saw at that time of day.

The theatre is a big round thing - as you can no doubt tell.

All over Sicily, there were statues of Obi-Wan-Kenobe. I didn't realise that the Sicilians were such big Star Wars fans. It was odd that there wasn't a Chewbacca or Darth Vader in sight. Perhaps they particularly like Alec Guiness, though most would admit it was not his greates role.

The red cupolas on this church appear Moorish with good reason. They are. It was a mosque that was then rededicated as a church and still retains that appearance.

The labyrinthine alleyways in Palermo's old city, as well as the rest of Sicily are apparently also a remnant from Moorish inhabitation. There were interesting bits of architecture at crossroads and in amongst some of the less interesting buildings.

From Palermo we went to Agrigento which has some fabulous Greek ruins in the Valle dei Templi nearby. The temples names have changed names a couple of times, as apparently the archaeologists make new discoveries, reassigning their deity. The first one is much more complete and consequentially imposing.

The other main temple has several large columns erect, though unfortunately did not survive as well as the other.

Around the site are a lot of trogladytes, though they look cramped for living in, they would at least provide some shade. There were some other remnants of parts of temples and so forth. Not sure what the round thing was. There were also nice views and lots of prickly pear cacti.

There was a large statue of fallen Icarus. Also, when one looked at the rock, one could see fossils of all sorts of shells.

From Agrigento, we went to a beach town called Porto Empedocle, close by for the night. In the morning it was apparently already 40c and climbed to 46c at midday. That being an obscene temperature, we high-tailed it out of there for the comparatively cooler Syracusa. 

Syracusa has two main parts of interest. The island of Ortygia (connected by several bridges to the main town) which was rebuilt in a Baroque style after the previous incarnation was destroyed by the 1693 earthquake that razed most of Sicily's towns. It has a labyrinth of little streets, with the buildings crumbling away, some of which are propped against each other like a couple of amiable drunks, preventing each other from falling over. 

There is of course a cathedral, like any other Italian town of more than six people. What was more peculiar was the representation of Mary climbing the wall outside someone's house. Some local youths helpfully explained that was because she was stoned. Though it looked like she was actually made of plaster. Perhaps the homeowner had smoked something interesting.

There is a platform down to some rocks, where we went for a night time swim. It seemed like a good idea until we got smacked against some sharp rocks whilst exiting. It made it more interesting and neither of us got particularly damaged. So that was that. 

The other part of Syracuse of note is the Neopolis which were Greek (latterly redeveloped by the Romans) ruins. The building material is the local white volcanic rock, quarried locally which makes it picturesque, particularly with numerous votive niches and troglodytes all over the place. It is also supposedly the burial location of Archimedes the guy who liked a screw and jumped out the bath shouting YOU-REEK. Something to do with the water being too hot no doubt. 

As an ancient town of note, Siracusa had an amphitheatre, temples and various other structures. The theatre is the most imposing of those remaining.

Votive niches are carved throughout the site in to the rock. In to these would be put offerings, icons and so forth. There are also smaller caves some of which were used as tombs all over the place. A trackway which is now overgrown can be seen with wheel ruts worn in to the stone ground.

Water is fed in to the top of the site via a small aqueduct.

From Syracusa we went to the small town of Noto and had a look at some more Baroque architecture there. I also stumbled in to someone's wedding in one of the old churches. The guy in the dress at the front was saying something in Italian whilst a boy was playing with an imaginary football, so I took a photo, made my excuses and left. 

There was a big colourful thing made out of salt. The picture tells you the rest.

Whilst we were waiting for our delayed train, I decided to walk out and take photos of the train tracks.

We spent a few days in Catania. It has some attractive parts, with a large monastery that is now a school. Unsurprisingly it has an impressive cathedral. Though this one has an elephant in front of it. The elephant is actually Roman. The obelisk on its back wasn't, then the cross popped on top of that was to remove any pagan associations. Now it is the symbol of the city. There is a large square in front of the cathedral which during the afternoons would be almost entirely empty, whereas in the evenings, it would be busy with people catching up with eachother. Apparently the castle in Catania is the most complete medievel castle in Sicily.

The Theatre Bellini is in another square that was empty during the day and would get very busy at night, when the surrounding bars opened up and it became the place to have a drink and congregate.

The fish market in Catania is apparently famous. Thankfully it was not particularly pungent.

In Catania we rented a car and used this to continue our tour. First thing was we went in to the mountains nearby and came across Castello di Nelson. This was a monastery that was gifted to Admiral Lord Nelson by King Ferdinand in 1799, after Horatio had rescued the royal family from Naples where they were under French attack. Nelson was also made Duke of Bronte (the area), though it is thought that he never actually set foot in the place. His family still owned the so called castle and had the title up until the twentieth century. The renovations seem to be going on for quite a while, judging by the fact that the scaffold has plants growing up it.

Castiglione de Sicilia is a pretty little village perched on a mountain, set amongst the mountains.

The following day we went to Mount Etna. It was a generally a clear day, though there is typically cloud around the steaming crater. On the way up the mountain there is evidence of its effect on the local environment and agriculture.

We got the cable car up the main uphill part and then walked the rest (the 4x4 bus was €35). It is quite hard going walking up a mountain of soft, loose rock, though allows for pauses and detours that the bus would not have. The views up to the main crater and to some of the other vents were nice en route, as were they downwards across the bay of Catania. Some people coming down the loose rock and ash would leave a plume behind them.

At the point where there is a safety cordon, with signs in various languages prohibiting upward travel without an official guide, I of course ignored that as I wanted to reach the main crater. I also believed getting the threatened fine would involve some Sicilian doing there job. My travel companion reluctantly accepted my reasoning (there were a couple of other rule breakers with us), so on we went. There were some boulders of snow and the footing was even looser. A couple of hundred metres from the main crater, others turned around. I continued, amongst steaming rocks, venting plumes. As I approached my destination, a guided group some way back were shouting at me to return. I ignored them and pretended not to understand what NOOOO!!! meant. I got to about ten metres below the main crater where the loose tiny bits of rock and ash, at a near vertical angle meant it felt (and probably looked) like a cat trying to climb a window. I reluctantly accepted defeat and descended a bit. 

Unwittingly, I appeared to encourage dissent from the afore mentioned group who ventured past their guide up the volcano. Though none were quite as foolhardy as I was. One chap from Turin attempted a different route and then came and joined me where we had a chat (in French, as it was the most mutually agreeable lingua franca) about things and recovered a bit. I did some graffiti using rocks (intentionally in a cleft where it would not be in anyone's photos but mine and well above the naughty line, where no-one should have been anyway) and went to explore some more craters.

There was a little bit of a buried ruin from a previous refugio. 

I found some lava tubes which I think look cool and there were some nice views downwards.

The upper part of the volcano is grey and desolate, though there are some streaks of colour around some of the craters - red - iron, white - calcium, green - copper, blue - aluminium, yellow - sulphur. There was a rock formation that to me either looks like a pair dancing or some conjoined twins wearing a tux. One part around the back of a crater, along a precipitous path looked like a flesh wound in the side of the mountain.  Some of the views across the lavafield, show what the flow from the volcano encompasses.

Towards the end of the trip, we returned to the north side of Etna, where the alpine forest climbs up the mountain, though swathes are destroyed and burned through. This gives a skeletal look to some of the dead trees which have been bleached by the sun. Some are burned straight through their trunks, whilst others are still erect, looking ghostly (reminded us a bit of the Ents in Lord or the Rings).

I decided to take some 360 degree shots to put the place in context. (The full size ones look more impressive on my computer, still not a reason not to share.)

I liked these photos in the dark. Then as we descended, a cow decided to give us a staring match and idly walked from side to side of the road, with an apparent disregard and disdain for us and our car.

We continued along the coast and visited the tourist hotspot of Taormina, with a picturesque bay and a castle and theatre on top of the town. I was planning on doing some diving there. However the vibe, traffic, volume of tourists, etc. made me change my mind. We visited a few little pretty villages, including Forza D'Agro with views along the coast.

We explored a bit of Milazzo where the old town in connected by an isthmus to the mainland and there was a nice castle. The locals seemed to come up for sunset too.

We spent a bit of time in Cefalu. Mostly swimming in the sea and chilling. I also went to explore some of the historical bits. Of course there is a cathedral. This one is much more impressive inside than one might suppose from the exterior. It is also much larger internally than seems right. There are ancient ruins atop the rock. More intriguing though, is that the rock of Cefalu is home to a unique and endemic creature. A special snail. I'm slightly disappointed it isn't a cephalopod, as it would have seemed more appropriate.

Erice is a picturesque old village perched atop a rock near Trapani. It has a number of churches a castle and confusion about which nationalities speak which language or which their flags are. According to the information, it also has some very slow builders. There are a lot of people sitting around doing nothing but chatting. Perhaps they are the builders.

Trapani had a nice atmosphere and the main pedestrian street seems to be its prettiest, as well as the busiest at night. I noticed that in one of the churches, there was some hebrew writing behind the altar which seemed unusual. Even more peculiar was the hand gesture being made by the beardy chap above the door to another church. Seems more appropriate to a road rage incident than a place of worship.

Segesta is another site of ancient ruins. With a very complete big temple at the bottom and a well restored theatre at the top of a steep bit of mountain. The original builders were apparently an offshoot of the Trojans, so they did not have to pay tributes to Rome.

Castallemare del Golfo was a nice spot for a bit of swimming and relaxing. It is also apparently from where the overwhelming majority of the original Italian American Mafia emanated from.

In Caltanisetta, the fountains in the square had some of the most bizarre creatures imaginable.

Driving around there were some nice villages and we also had a look at this cemetary, which had some interesting tombs. Some of which had less than complimentary pictures of the departed.

On the plane home, took a couple of night shots, they were actually of London. I'll move them some time. I have no idea which stadium this is. Tell me if you do.