April 21-23, 2018 - Sicily

After our time in Ragusa, we traveled north and east to Letojanni and Taormina, by way of Caltagirone.  After spending a night in Letojanni, we went to church in Catania, spent a night in Siracusa (Syracuse), and then traveled back to the Comiso airport by way of Pozzallo and Modica.  It was a fantastic, whirlwind trip! The map below may help orient you a bit:

The country between cities in Sicily is beautiful and very pastoral.  We really enjoyed the relaxing peacefulness of it all.

We visited the city of Caltagirone, which is famous for its ceramics.  We saw so many ceramics shops that we started to wonder if there might be more of them than residents. There are three ceramics schools in the city, and pieces from this town are found throughout Italy and Europe.

We saw so many beautiful ceramics that we started to become numb to them all.  We did end up making a purchase or two, however.

One of the main church domes is covered in ceramic tiles, and there is a huge stairway on which each stair is decorated with a different, hand-painted, ceramic pattern.  It is beautiful!  Apparently, twice per year they light the entire stairway with candle luminaries.

There were little ceramic shops, off to either side, all the way up the long staircase.

I guess we are suckers for a nice church bell.

Before leaving Caltagirone, we stopped by a tiny little rotisserie restaurant on the edge of town overlooking the valley below.  We bought 7-10 different traditional, grilled, fried, and rotisseried dishes to sample.  It was excellent and ended up being one of our favorite meals.

We then headed toward the resort city of Taormina and its suburb, Letojanni.  The snow-covered Mt. Etna loomed over us as we drove along.

Our place in Letojanni was just a few steps from the beach, which was composed of small, round rocks.

We couldn't resist a swim, despite the water being a little chilly and the presence of some jellyfish. We are told that during high season, you struggle to find a place to sit on this beach due to all the people, but we had it all to ourselves this early in the spring.

The next morning we were reluctant to leave this beautiful place, but we took off in time to get to church in Catania.

We then drove to Siracusa (Syracuse) and checked into our unique, multi-level apartment.

The owners of the apartment where we stayed, Terry and Aldo (pictured below), were exceptionally nice and said that every weekend they take a stroll through the old part of town, the island of Ortigia.  They asked if we would like to come along and have them show us around.  We accepted, and they spent the next few hours acting as tour guides, showing us many things we would have missed otherwise and giving us the history of many parts of the city.  It was amazingly kind of them to do this for us, and we really enjoyed it. Sicily has an amazing and diverse history and this ancient island city is a fascinating place to explore.

We loved this fountain!

The central piazza is beautiful, all in light colored travertine, shiny from millions of feet passing over it for hundreds of years, and surrounded by ornate and stately historic buildings. It would be fantastic to see it lit up in the evening. It almost seems like it is waiting to be filled by a fancy dance ball.

Siracusa is an extremely old city, first settled in 734 B.C.  It has Greek and Roman ruins throughout.  This old church has been used as many different things, and is now a catholic church.  It is interesting to see the influence of many different periods in it.

This freshwater pool, remarkably situated just a few feet from the sea, is called "The Arethuse Fountain", and has a legend associated with it. If you would like to read about it, here is a link.

Siracusa seemed like the best place on our travel path to try some fresh sea food. As predicted, it was
not Heather's favorite meal (squid, octopus, prawns, and some unnamed fish of dark flesh), but Hannah and Mark really liked it.

The sunset and the evening walk along the water were spectacular!

The next morning we had to make our way back to the Comiso Airport, but not before making brief stops in Pozzallo and Modica.  We wanted to see Pozzallo because it is the port city where many refugees first land and where we had originally planned to spend June-August.  Though it is a lovely little city, we all decided that it would have been particularly difficult for Heather and Hannah to live there for those three hot months.

We marveled at the abundant rock walls that seemed to be everywhere we looked in this area.  They were beautifully done!

We spent very little time in Modica, but it seemed to have a lot of character, with an old town center. It is famous for its chocolate :).

We really wish we could have spent more time exploring Sicily, but we were also really glad to have been able to see what we did. The Comiso Airport used to be a U.S. Military airfield, but has now been converted into a commercial airport. We were sad to leave Sicily, with its relaxed atmosphere, delicious food, friendly people, and interesting history. Maybe we can come back someday.