Ciao, Sicily!

After a couple of sunny weeks and warm weather in June, summer seemed to reverse to the usual English summer: rainy and cold. Showers every day in the first three weeks in July in London made us really look forward to this holiday in the sun.

And Surely there was plenty of sunshine and heat waiting for us in Sicily.

Before we arrived in Catania, a city in the east coast of Sicily, I had pictured Sicily as an island of a rural and rusty landscape, lemon and olive farms on the hills, wild flowers in bright colours, quiet seaside towns with miles of sandy beaches. But I was to be disappointed to find out that nearly all seaside towns/villages have been overdeveloped, and even in the recession year, the beaches are packed out with hundreds of umbrellas and sunbeds. There is really nothing secluded about it at all, it is just a big commercial scheme to serve thousands of sun seekers, mostly from Italy but also from UK, Germany, France and else where.

Taormina is a charming town, located at top of a hill overlooking the sea, it was built by Greeks and then Romans and others. On a not so hot evening (although it is a rare thing in mid July to mid Aug), it is nice to have a stroll through the narrow streets with fashionable shops on the side. But it was a bit too bustling with tourists, making it lack of any original Sicilian appeal. The beach near Iso Bella is crowded, but the sea near the rocky beach has very clear water, you can see lots of fish swimming there.

Letajanni is a fishing village (as they call it but it is a small town really) that we are quite fond of, the beaches are a little bit quieter than Taormina or Gidiarni Naxos, and the sea was lovely and relatively calm. We ran into a French guy name Nino near the train station there, he turned out to be a Sicilian origin but brought up in France and works near the border of France and Germany. He is an interesting character, who loves traveling in South East Asia. He talked about Thailand, Indonesia so affectionately and said he would love to retire in one of those countries. I started to wonder if he is still single and thinks of finding a wife/girlfriend there as well.

It was extremely hot most of the time during our stay in Sicily, so we spent most of the time dipping in the sea and sitting under the shade of the umbrella on the beach. We did one walking trip from Gidiarni to Taormina and Castelmola, which was quite interesting. You get wonderful view on the hills looking out to the sea and Mt. Etna not so far away. There are a lot of wild Cactus, and some have grown into big trees with trunks looking like a real tree. In Castelmola,a little sleepy village on top of a hill, you get nice breeze from the sea, and it was a real treat on a hot day.

The excursion to Mt. Etna was not as exciting as we expected, the bus took us to 2000 meters above sea level, then it is a combination of cable car and land rovers taking us to 3000 meters, where you can see the top (3300 meters) up close. It is a very active volcano, with smokes coming out in several places near the top. At 3000 meters, looking down you will find a lot of lava trails from past eruptions. Some of the villages at the bottom of the hill were rebuilt after the eruptions in the last thirty years. You can also see wild flowers in red and yellow blooming on the lava sand, a strange landscape you don't come across very often. They have a few ski runs from 3000 meters to 2000 meters, so the same cable cars will take the skiers up hill during winter time.

We enjoyed a rather lazy holiday in the sun, but by the end of the two weeks, we were worn out by the hot weather. When we were back in London, on the bus going from Gatwick to central London, the familiar green landscape under cloudy sky greeted us and we both felt relieved to cool down a bit in this English summer weather, after all, 40 degree was a bit too much for our bodies. So it is home sweet home for us in London and back to work next day.