Catania: Thurs Sept 15 – Sat Sept 17

Accommodation link.

We had a full day tour booked for Mt Etna and so didn’t try to fit in a morning walk. It was whilst we were waiting for out tour pick-up that I mulled over the name of the street where our accomodation was located; it had been a bit of a blur the day before: Via del Casa Mutilano. We just hoped our apartment wasn’t the one where there had been a mutilation.

Our Etna Tribe guide for the day, Alessandro, picked us up at 8.45 am and our group included Jim and Elizabeth, an older couple from Lancashire, a young lady, Faith, from California and a couple from Austria along with their toddler son, David. Faith turned out to be a most interesting woman as she was a ‘psychic and cosmic healer’. She was in Sicily for a ‘yoga and intuition’ retreat so we had some shared interest of ‘Yoga with Adriene’. Faith had just completed giving her own first retreat in California so I can see her being the equivalent of ‘Adriene’ for the west coast of the USA.

Jim and Elizabeth were a most entertaining couple as well as they were very chatty and widely travelled and had probably seen more of Australia than we had! Elizabeth was a bit upset about the Queen’s death and was keeping close tabs on the funeral proceedings and all the happenings surrounding the mourning of the Queen.

I had been joking with Jim and Elizabeth about the interesting driving we’d experienced in Italy and Elizabeth joked, with our guide Allesandro, that she hoped he would drive safely which he assured her he would. However, the next hour up to TaormIna, Alessandra proceeded to drive at 130-140 km and all over the road, but mostly along the middle line marking. Mark and I initially though we were lucky to score the front seats of the minibus but I started to rethink this as we drove along.

Our first stop was at Taormina, a beautiful hilltop town on the north east of Sicily. Our group dispersed for 2 1/2 hours of free time. Most of the key sites are located along a strip in the old town area between the two main mediaeval gates. Mark and I spent our time checking out the shops, the Cathedral and the Greek theatre. Taormina and the surrounding area is rather dramatic and beautiful and reminded us of the Amalfi coast. I can understand why people would choose to holiday here.

One of the Instagram Influencers I follow recently spent time here on holiday, he’s a reality TV real estate guy, and I can now see why he and his family would have fitted in. The shops here were rather upmarket, high-end retail and our first coffee stop set us back €12! The most we’ve paid this trip. We found a little place later on for lunch, just off the main strip, and we had a beer, soft drink and panini for just €1 more than our coffees.

Our group departed Taormina at 1pm for the trip up to Mt Etna. There was a stop on the way to visit a lava cave and another to taste some local wine, oil and honey. The most interesting thing with this latter stop though was the backdrop in the shop of a wall of lava from the 1792 eruptions.

The final stop of our day was at Mt Etna and Faith, Jim, Elizabeth, Mark and I all elected to do the optional €68 per head trip higher up the volcano via a cable car followed by a bus trip up a bit further and, then, a 40 minute guided walk with a volcanologist. This was a great way to experience the lunar-like landscape of the Mt Etna and we also got to walk through a crater from the 2001 eruption where there were sections that were still quite warm to touch and steaming.

It was 6 pm before we departed Mt Etna and the drive home took about an hour but we made it back to our apartment safely. It was a lovely day and made that more fun by the interesting and friendly members of our group of 8.

Mark and I popped down to Piazza Bellini for dinner and I had a Pasta Norma in his honour whilst Mark elected to have a horse-meat burger 🙁

We enjoyed our short stay in Catania and could have done with another or even two but tomorrow we head to Syracuse; a 1 ¹/₄ hr drive further south.