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Tale
2 - Sicily Island Beauty - by Polynesia
27th August : Today we would head towards Reggio
Di Calabria. Reggio di Calabria is located in the continental
area of Italy. We took a boat, and it was a 20 minute trip.
In Reggio di Calabria we went to visit the archaeological museum
of Villa S. Giovanni. I found the museum a bit boring... pretty
hot inside and the entrance fee was pretty high! Finally we
left the museum and used the last 30 minutes left to walk around
the city. We left Villa S. Giovanni, back to Sicily Island.
Next we arrived into Taormina City
just after lunch. It lies at an altitude of 206 meters above
sea level. It is facing the amazing Etna volcano. We had to
take small buses to drive us to the old area. Gosh!! The old
area is really beautiful!! We visited the Greek theatre that
has such an amazing acoustic...even today! It measures 109 meters
across, and dates from 111 BC, but was remodelled by the Romans!!
Performances of classical plays are given in summer there. I
found it very interesting being in the theatre and seeing it's
marvellous views over Naxos. I loved Taormina, and it's gorgeous
streets full of colour and shopping!! The rich area of Taormina
is full of good brand mark stores... with some original decoration
stores that made my day. We had dinner in a local restaurant
facing the sea. It was really well located and romantic!! Our
dinner mates were again these 3 boring guys from Italy and USA!!
How opportune haha!! That was one of my favourite days!
28th August : After rising early again, we headed off
to see Etna Volcano! I was anxious
to see it! Unfortunately though we only ascended up to 1800
meters, and it is 3343 meters high! I was told it's the tallest
active Volcano in Europe. A natural wonder. This time last year
it was actually erupting!!
The view towards Etna Volcano
Next we headed to Siracusa. We
arrived there around 5.00pm. Siracusa was colonised in 734 BC
by the Greeks! The famous geometrician Archimedes was born here
in 287 BC. We went to visit the Greek theatre, dating from 5
BC and it's one of the largest and best preserved theatre's
of the ancient world. We then visited the Roman Amphitheatre,
the famous ear of Dionysius and then we passed through the modern
sanctuary of Madonna delle Lacrime. To end the day, we visited
Siracusa's Island of Ortigia.
We had some free time before dinner to explore a bit. While
I relaxed in the Hotel and watched some Tennis, Fati like a
freak went shopping! At 8.00pm it was time for dinner. The food
was delicious and this time we shared the table with 2 Argentinian
couples. They told us about their trip to Japan, it was cool.
We were also joking a bit about our Siracusa's guide whom was
gay! My cousin Fati was great imitating him later on, in the
hotel room! Laughing we went to sleep about 0.30am.
29th August : The same old routine. Up early at 6.15am,
7.00am sending suitcases to the bus, breakfast at 7.30am, and
on the road heading to Piazza Amerina
by 8.00am. We visited the Villa de Casale that dates from 3
and 4 BC. This thermal complex is full of amazing mosaics, well
preserved and it's now world heritage!! However, it was a bit
hot, and I was losing my patience having to circulate with all
these persons! Half of Italy seemed to be there!
After lunch our next stop would be Agrigento.
It was hot, hot and hot! We went to visit the Temples
Valley. It was supposed to be the best time to take photos,
but the sun was just in front of us, damaging most of the views
and photos! It was an interesting feeling anyway! What upset
me most was that the area was full of tourists. They seemed
like mushrooms!! Grrrrr
Time stands still in the Temples Valley.
After that visit, we went back to our hotel, it was time for
dinner. Our hotel had an amazing garden area and the swimming-pool
made me feel in paradise. But I got no chance to swim. At 9.30pm
it was settled we would tour by bus all the Temples in the Valley.
These were illuminated! Despite it was raining, it was really
beautiful to see the valley with it's temples. Our guide put
some instrumental music in the background, and it was a strong
moment seeing these art pieces of history!! We didn't leave
the bus, nor it did stop, so i had no chance to take photos.
30th August : This morning we drove towards Monreale..
Monreale lies about 20 kms from Palermo. We had a new guide
today Marcela. She was a nice, young woman, slim, organised
and efficient We had a short stop to see the amazing Roman style
cathedral. It's Byzantine mosaics are very famous and beautiful!
While some then went to see the Cloister's cathedral, Fati and
I decided to invest our money and time seeing a bit of the city
and doing some shopping. Of course I concluded the trip buying
about 9 books and 80 postcards! Yeah.. I know I'm insane. Believe
it or not, I returned home with almost half of the money I was
supposed to spend! Isn't it great??
A Roman style cathedral at Monreale.
Later on we returned to our hotel in Palermo,
it was time for lunch. Tonight we heard there would be a big
music spectacle just in front of our hotel. That meant we wouldn't
be able to sleep the whole night!! Our last night in Sicily
and we would madly need sleep. We had to wake up at 3.30am for
the 6.50am flight!! Bahhhhh Well after some confusion, we left
the hotel to visit Palermo city! We saw the Normand palace,
San Giovanni degli Eremiti church, the Quatro Canti square,
and Petroria square with it's big fountain that was being restored.
The traffic was crazy as it became evening. It was all due to
that music show as I mentioned above. We returned back to our
hotel, had dinner and then tried to get some sleep! To my surprise
about 11.30pm, even with the noisy music, I slept. Next we woke
up at 3.30am. We made our 6am flight and before I knew it we
were back in Porto, Portugal.
My sis, bro-in-law and older niece were there waiting for me.
After that long day I was finally at home! Home sweet home!!
I was dead, but it was good being home again!! Isn't amazing
to travel?!! My mum wasn't at home when I was back. She was
spending her vacation in Tanzania's island of Zanzibar. She
would be returning only on the 6th Sept! Well that's all for
now.
I hope you didn't find boring my trip's report. It was a bit
to detailed, I guess!
Submitted: 10 December 2003 |
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