Sicily

Catania

We arrived into sunny Sicily on the 9th February, keen to embark on our well thought out and precision planned trip. Well, we had at least organized our hotel for the first 2 nights in Catania. The airport is only 7 kms from the city centre which was just as well as the fare rate is astonishing and makes London cabs look like cheap public transport. We arrived safely enough, 40 Euros lighter and moved into out small, quiet and beautiful hotel just a few blocks from the main city square, Piazza Duomo.

Cantania is on the east coast of Sicily facing the Ionian sea and nestled in the shadow of Mount Etna, Europe’s most active volcano. We found Catania a slightly run down but interesting city with plenty of ornate terraces, squares and of course churches. It felt very safe which was a relief after Mags read a review of the hotel we were staying at by a customer as who car jacked as they arrived.

The highlight was our trip to the fish market which takes place every day just behind the main square, and is apparently the busiest in Sicily. There’s dozens of stall holders all shouting out their prices to a throng of people vying for the best spot and determined to get he best price for the seafood. It’s a riot of colour and noise, quite a performance on its own. Intermingled with the fish stalls are grocers, butchers, fromageries, dellies and so on. We stopped for lunch in one of the many seafood restaurants that circle the area. (Mags picked the expensive looking one) – Had a marvelous lunch of mixed seafood pasta and grilled bream, washed down with a very drinkable Sicilian white. Of course, all in the name of foodie research.

Catania’s streets are paved with tiles made from Volcanic rock, which only seems sensible and fair enough as its in plentiful supply, but it does have this quality of squealing when it comes into contact with rubber. There’s a constant screech in the air as cars run around the city sounding like a go cart race track.

It is a fairly quiet town despite the large student population and we de did find it quite hard to find anywhere for a drink in the evening that had any life in it. Perhaps we old fogies were just going out too early. On our second and final night we exhausted the town centre, traipsing around unsuccessfully looking for a lively bar. We headed back to the hotel and decided just to walk around the block to see if they were any local establishments. We found a small street with a clutch of Trattorias all grilling meat in the street, and a fair crowd of locals. We selected one and sat outside at a plastic table. It looked like a family run affair with Dad cooking the meat and his school age daughters serving. We somehow managed to order quail (for me) and something wrapped in aubergine that Mags had. (We don’t know what it was and frankly don’t want to know), with a tomato salad, beers and a carafe of surprisingly drinkable red from a barrel next to the barbeque – all for 11 Euros.

Taormina

Toarmina is a tourist destination a little way North up from Catania. We picked up our hire car in downtown Catania and zipped up the Motorway to our destination. Getting there was the easy bit, but finding the car park proved to be a little more challenging. The Sat Nav got a little confused in the tiny streets and we ended up driving round and round the town several times. We eventually called the travel agent we booked the place through and were directed to a huge car park at the foot of the town.

At this time of year Toarmina is very quiet – well shut actually. Not a lot to do is putting it mildly so booking a week here was in hindsight probably stretching it a little. But it is certainly a good place to wind down, and we both read several novels during our stay. Out little apartment was on the top floor of four flats with a large terrace with magnificent views of the town below, the Ionian sea and the Italian mainline in the distance.

We managed a short walk up a series of steps close to our apartment to a castle (castello) at the top of the cliff behind us. Here you get great views of Mount Etna when its not shrouded in cloud which it was in the day we were there. But the views were down the coast were stunning anyway.

Another must see is the well preserved Greek theatre which dominates the town. The Greeks founded it but the remaining ruins are mostly Roman. Again, great views from here over the town and along the coast.

Siracusa

We left bustling Taormina behind and headed south to Siracusa for a short stay, This is a larger town with a small medival quarter on an island called Ortigia, which is where we stayed. We arrived at our hotel after again lapping the town a few times, not helped by putting in the wrong destination into the Sat Nav.

The major adventure here was a trip to the Neopolis hosting a clutch of historic sites including a Greek theatre (yes, another one), a Roman ampitheatre, and a cave all located on a old quarry. We decided to walk there as it was only a few kilometers away. The old town quickly gives way a more commercial and industrial area and we soon felt like American tourists who have somehow got lost ion London and ended up in Hackney. Everything was suddenly a lot more ‘real’.

Despite being a large town, the old, touristy part was, like Taormina, was mostly shut. Did we arrive in Italy too early? We did locate a fantastic restaurant on the waterfront though and managed our first seafood platter of the trip overlooking the sea. (Just trying to keep the economy going).

Cefalu

A long drive north west across the island took us to Cefalu, a popular tourist destination near to Palermo. We’re here as I write this in our perfectly located apartment overlooking the beach below us 20 metres away. This is a very pretty town sheltered under a huge rock and featuring a very impressive cathedral (Duomo).

We’re just winding down here, enjoying the sun and strolling along the beautiful and largely deserted beach.

We’ve found a great way to learn Italian by watching their version of Millionaire on the TV, We sit with a dictionary and a glass of wine, trying to work out the question and the answer before the contestant does which we even managed to do a few times. Out Italian is coming along slowly and not surprisingly consists mostly of food items when we’re at the market or a restaurant. Pointing is still pretty useful but there’s not a huge amount of English spoken here. I ended up speaking French in one shop as that was our common least worst language.

Our current plan is to stay in Sicily for an extra week before heading off to Puglia. We have to travel through Calabia to reach Puglia and there looks like there’s been loads of snow there.

Quito

We left behind the land of the free and set off for South America, first stop Ecuador. So, goodbye to New York and hello to Quito where the first language is Spanish. No change there, then.

Quito is the capital of Ecuador, situated in the Highlands, nestling at 2800 metres high in a valley between a volcanic mountain range. It’s the first time I’ve arrived by plane where we didn’t descend. We just flew in and landed.

The altitude takes a while to adjust to. It takes a few days for your body to manufacture extra red blood cells to compensate for the lack of oxygen. Even at rest, you need to breathe more often to begin with.

Day 1 commenced with a morning tour of the old town. This was built by the Spanish during colonial rule commencing with the conquest in 1534. More accurately, it was built by the natives with the Spanish supervising.

No surprise that there are churches everywhere. The Spanish tried to get the locals to build classical Catholic churches, and generally succeeded, but our guide pointed to several symbols and decorations that the natives managed to sneak in from their own religion, with the Spanish clueless at the time. In the seventies and eighties, this quarter was abandoned by the wealthy as security deteriorated. Now, it t is undergoing a renaissance, with the old, grand houses being restored as smart new hotels or restaurants. It was declared a world heritage centre in the seventies and is well looked after by the government. The place is well policed and we felt very safe there.

We visited a number of churches to look at the art work, the highlight if which was the Jesuit, “gold” church. This is an incredibly ornate building with every square inch decorate in gold leaf. A place clearly designed to induce awe in visitors, and to demonstrate the extreme wealth of the Jesuits. Indeed, the Jesuits became so powerful that the King of Spain banished them from South America and they all had to leave. There’s a moral to that story, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it” – or maybe not.

We discovered that we had arrived in Quito during an election campaign. There is a run off between a very wealthy businessman and an ex professor to be the next president. One very right wing and the other very left wing – guess which is which.

Our guide is a little worried in case the businessman wins, and not just because he’s a fascist, but that people are not sure how he’s going to take it if he loses. So we could end up in the middle of a revolution. Well, I suppose that’s par for the course for a trip to South America.

During the election, Ecuadorian law forbids the sale and consumption of alcohol two days prior, and during the election day itself. Voting is compulsory so presumably the law is designed to ensure that the populace is not too pissed to take part. One of the pleasures of traveling is to experience new things, so we duly walked upto the hotel bar on the first day of prohibition and ordered a fruit juice.

We’ve also been trying the local food, although we have yet to come across the infamous roasted guinea pig. Our guide recommended an authentic Ecuador restaurant a short walk from our hotel which had the advantage of an English menu. Unfortunately, the translation was not always accurate, as we both went for the Beef and bean soup to start which turned out to be tripe. Actually, I thought it was quite good.


We set off the next day through the avenue of Volcanoes. 13 volcanoes of which 3 are still active. We were heading to the highest active volcano in the world, Cotopaxi, at 4500 Metres. And It’s overdue for an eruption – Is this really a good idea? Mags asked the guide how much notice there would be before an eruption, seeking some reassurance. Our guide, Mery, explained about the seismic centres that are stationed at strategic points, but didn’t actually answer Mags’ question.

Cotopaxi national park is truly beautiful, wild, scenic, and deserted. There had been a recent snow fall, which is unusual apparently, and the volcanoes peaks were covered. We were lucky that the weather was reasonably good to give us a glimpse of the volcano as it is shrouded by clouds most of the time.

There are very few animals that are prepared to tuff it out in this harsh habitat and altitude but we managed to spot Llamas, wild horses and, perhaps more surprisingly, feral cattle.

We continued upwards in our four wheel drive and stopped for lunch at a lonely restaurant anchored to a hillside with spectacular views of Cotopaxi.

After a few minutes we were joined by a group of climbers who had just completed the ascent, and descent of the volcano. This has to undertaken at night to avoid the fierce sun. 5 hours up, and 3 back down, starting at midnight. I think they deserved their lunch.

On the way back, we stopped at a Hacienda. These are the old colonial houses that were built under the feudal land system. The favored Spanish noble would be granted land for farming, and they built beautiful large houses to live in.

Many still exist and some of them are open to tourists. They clearly take a lot of maintenance and the tourist dollar must be welcome. The one we saw was in need of some major work, with damp running throughout the buildings. It is till the centre of a working farm rearing cattle and thoroughbred horses. It was filled with antique furniture, tapestries, and paintings with large rooms decorated with colourful tiles. It certainly gave us some sense of what life must have been like in 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.