I never finished detailing our mini Spring Break Trip #2 to Sicily! So today, I shall do so. If you recall from months ago, we did the kids' Spring Break in 2 smaller trips - ambitious though they both were now that I look back on it. The first involved Pisa, Lucca, and Firenza. Then a few days back in Naples where Dirk and I both worked. Next, we took off for a few days down in Sicily where there is also a Navy base.
We took off driving in our very large rented van down to Sicily. Our GPS said 6 hours or something like that - it took more like 8 thanks to an unremitting amount of construction zones. Indiana friends, think of the song, "orange barrel, orange barrel" and you get the drift. However, sometimes those detours on trips (and of course, in life) yield great surprises. The constant road construction caused us to detour off the main highway and so we decided to stop and eat our packed lunch and use the restroom. We stopped at this little town, all centered around the cute little lake behind Sullivan and I. Seriously, an adorable little village that I could have spent more time in. The name of this fabulous little town - ah, well, that is why I should blog our travels as soon as we return as neither Dirk nor I remember its name:(.
We finally made our way down to Reggio Calabria where we managed to find the ferry terminal, drive our big beast aboard, and hop up to the deck to enjoy the views on our 20-minute ferry over to Messina, the arrival town for the ferry on the island of Sicily.
The preparations we made for this trip, other than booking our lodging, were minimal to say the least. Our neighbors (who have sadly now moved away to San Diego) used to live on the island with the Navy and gave us our best information - in fact, really our only information! Our lodging though was great - stayed on the Navy base in the Lodge and it was lovely. The base even had these gorgeous pansies that I had to snap, making my somewhat willing cherubs sit in front of and pose. Cheers to my sorority sisters:)!
Fortunately, the Navy base is very close to Mt. Etna and it provided for the majority of our entertainment while there. The first night we were in Sicily, we knew some religious ministry staff from Naples that were down in Sigonella and we met them for supper. After we were returning home, lots of people from our hotel were standing in the parking lot staring at something. Well, we are curious humans after all, so we joined them in their standing and staring and occasional pointing. It seems that Mt. Etna was erupting and every great once in a while, a little flare of red light went off in the sky - but you REALLY had to be paying attention - but still, I was jazzed, I was seeing a volcano erupt! Little did I know, it had a much better show in store for us!
The next day, we journeyed up to Mt. Etna to check it out for ourselves. It was very high up there, chilly, and very breezy! In many ways it looked like images of the moon - cool experience to explore.
We then set off to explore Taormina, it is a cool little town up on a hill with an amazing old amphitheatre that we got to explore. Here is a picture (sorry for the darkness) of the cherubs at our lunch location in Taormina, watching the cable car go up and down to the water - lovely view (also had a soccer field right below us we could see).
The town of Taormina, looked mostly like this with lots of shops. We ended up having serious parking difficulties in Taormina (one of those lovely trip issues I would like to forget) and drove down some rather narrow streets in said large van due to those parking issues - ahhh, the memories!;)
The ancient amphitheatre in Taormina was stunning, check out the views of the water.
We are getting pretty good at family "selfies"!
Lots of cool little inlets for shopping and theoretically cool photos - or as cool as my iPhone can handle...
So, back to that show that I indicated Mt. Etna gave us. See the fire and smoke below, that is her - she is showing us some fury - AMAZING! I also tried to attach a video, crossing my fingers that it shows up here okay.
The next day we ventured to Siracusa. After figuring out exactly where to go and where to park (the more frustrating parts of our travels I must say), we set out to enjoy the day.
The Cathedral of Siracusa, beautiful and amazing on the inside.
Another selfie - it is always fun to try to squeeze ourselves into one shot. Cheap fun.
Following our rather long and tortuous drive down, we did some research and worked with the travel agent on base in Sigonella (she was extremely helpful) and booked an overnight ferry up to Naples. We drove on, had a cabin with a bathroom in which to try to sleep - all for the same price as staying another night in a hotel and paying for gas to drive back up to Naples = WIN/WIN! We also essentially gained a day since we woke up in the morning in Naples instead of spending all day driving back to Naples, arriving tired. Worth it many times over.
Thanks for a great time Sicily, we enjoyed our trip!
*Upcoming traveling chronicles: US, Tuscany, and Capua!
