Monday 6th May

Had a later start today & looked out over a street of market stalls selling meat & fruit & vegetables so had breakfast & went walkabout using a local guidebook in Russian but with well labelled maps of the area including well defined walking routes. First we visited the Castello Ursino, a square moated fortress originally built by the Swabians on the coast but now inland. This was quite a gem as it is also a museum & art gallery & holds some particularly fine Greek pottery & a range of pictures from the 15th to the 20th century. The moat had been excavated as lava from Etna had filled it in the 14th century as it engulfed part of the town. Back we came to the Duomo, which is far more impressive externally than inside but does house the composer Bellini's remains. From there we went to the amphitheatre, part of which has been excavated & then on past several churches which were all closed until we reached the Edifici Termali.

This is a gigantic unfinished 17th century church of St Nicholas, which is almost empty but has a meridian line in the floor, which allows one to see the day of the year according to where the sun falls. It also had a war memorial of those who served in WW 1 between 1915 & 1918, which surprised Dick. Although the church is weatherproof the external columns of the front have been abandoned at various levels.

Next door is a huge ex Benedictine monastery complex which is now part of the university & we tried to see the library but to no avail.

After a quick lunch we found the Roman Theatre which seated 7,000 & has been resurrected from under later buildings of the 17th & 18th Centuries which have been demolished. The lowest part, well below street level was flooded by a clear spring & in the water was an eel of 1 ½ metres which was quite a surprise. The little museum had some fine sculptures.

After an excellent ice cream & finding a bus station, just nearby, to get us to Syracuse we found the Bellini Theatre & the Tourist Office, both closed & then passed a state building possibly of the Mussolini era. Dined at a kebab place & then as we returned saw that the Garibaldi Arch was on our street in the distance, so off we set. It was about 1 ½ k up hill & we arrived in the early evening but Jane got a good photo of it.

Tuesday 7th May

Both of us weren’t feeling too well when we got up, probably the kebabs we think. After a modest breakfast we visited the tourist bureau & then went to the Piazza Bellini to see the inside of the Teatro Bellini. The building of the late 1880s is magnificent done in a totally over the top mixture of baroque, classical etc styles with 4 levels of boxes surrounding the stage. Although it only seats 1200 it is a gem of its kind. Inside a ballet corps was rehearsing & then masses of primary children were waiting to attend a concert.

On our return to the B & B Jane felt worse so went to bed for the rest of the day. d*** bought some excellent salami & a couple of rolls & then walked to the train station to enquire about trains to Salerno on Friday. He returned through the red light area unscathed had some dinner & went to bed early. He was woken by a call at 10pm from home to say that water was dripping from the main circuit breaker board in the unit, what should they do? These things always happen when we aren’t home!

Wednesday 8th May

Today we visited Mt Etna which is to the north of Catania in a tired Land Rover with 2 French & one Swiss people & a multi-lingual Italian guide/driver who spoke alternately in French & Italian & was most entertaining. Etna is a quite extraordinary volcano in many ways. It is 3343m in height, has snow on its top for most of the year and covers dormant craters & saw where it had send out lava in its last major eruption in 1984. At one point we were looking down nearly 900m, from a treed area on a valley through which it had flowed at the side. It was amazing to see how some of the trees were still thriving although lava had covered their roots & was some way up their trunks. The lava field itself is weird to walk on & the effects in some places is quite frightening but it contains so many minerals that the soil is incredibly fertile & fruit trees & grape vines are all over the lower slopes.

Apparently the belief is that the many sensors around the mountain will give enough warning of eruptions to allow orderly evacuation of any affected villages in plenty of time. Also because of the nature of the volcano it is expected to flow from existing craters rather than to blow up in a violent manner as in some other volcanoes. The whole trip was quite awesome in every sense in that our driver drove in true Italian style with an absolute minimum of discretion but a maximum of collision avoidance skill.

After returning we walked to the Bellini Gardens & returned via a couple more churches. Our guide claimed that there are 60 million Italians & 63 million churches & we nearly believe him!! Had a great, if slow, meal around the corner.