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A Journey through Southern Italy

by Joe Andriano, with Gail Andriano

October 6-22, 2017

Part I. Sicily:

Taormina, Agrigento, Etna




An ornate version of the Trinacria, symbol of Sicily

    We arrived in Taormina a day earlier than the tour’s start so that we could recover from jetlag (three flights: Lafayette, La, to Atlanta to Rome to Catania, then a hired car to Taormina). Our hotel, the Villa Angela, was way up a long narrow winding road from the town itself. 


    Even though the hotel was very high up the mountain, higher still (and visible from our balcony) was the Madonna della Rocca church built right out of the rock, with its giant white cross facing the Ionian Sea:

            

Even in the off-season the Corso Umberto I, Taormina's main drag, was busy and bustling. It opened into the beautiful Piazza IX Aprile. That church is the baroque Chiesa San Giuseppe jutting up in front of the mountain. 

From the piazza we had a magnificent view of the Ionian Sea, spread out before us .

Further along the Corso, we came to the Piazza del Duomo, where the medieval cathedral (c. 1400 but refurbished many times) contrasts rather starkly with the ornate baroque fountain (1635) across the square, with its female centaur-like figure representing the town:

When we were there, a drone was hovering above the square like a giant bug. It seemed to belong to a papparozzo trying to get a shot of a celebrity on a motorcycle (we didn't get a shot!) The little girl walking on the base of the fountain was not impressed!


We strayed from the Corso every chance we could get, enjoying the less-frequented narrower streets and alleys, where we found the Flamingo bistro, with its excellent pizza and friendly waiter.

   

We took a tour of the Teatro Greco. Built in the third century BC, it's still used for arts and film festivals in the summer. "Sublimely situated," "suspended between sea and sky," with Mt. Etna looming on the southern horizon, this ancient Greek theater's setting was called by Goethe "the greatest work of art and nature."

For ancient Greek ruins (sorry, Goethe!) Agrigento was greater still--well worth the long bus ride across Sicily--with its series of ancient Greek temples on a plateau (the so-called Valley of the Temples) overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

First pictured here, the bouleuterion, or council assembly house; then temples to Heracles and Hera/Juno, and last but by no means least the Concordia.

 


 

   

And lastly in Sicily, we took a drive up Mt. Etna, stopping briefly in Zafferana Etnea on the way, visiting the baroque church there. Those stairs leading up to the church door are made of lava from Mt. Etna.

 



It was the cloudiest day of our trip, but no less awe-inspiring . . . .

   

Numerous lady bugs dotted the rocky volcanic landscape, perhaps having migrated for the winter, or enjoying a giant Mount Etna mating party. The colorful picture next to the ladybug pic shows the highest I climbed. At the top right in that picture are the parking area and visitors' center.

 

    Somewhere in there, by the way, Gail got stuck for ten minutes or so in a bathroom (what she didn't know was the men's room!--the sign was on the other side of the open door). She was given a key to unlock the door, but couldn't get it to work. After I heard her pleas for help, I had to explain to the signorina behind the cash register, in my broken Italian, that Gail couldn't get the door open. She had to slide the key under the door so the young woman could unlock it. Fortunately, the volcano remained dormant during this ordeal.
 
    On the way back to Taormina, we took an agriturismo stop at the Codavolpe farm, where we ate a hearty Sicilian lunch and (sort of) made our own dessert--cannoli, of course. That's our tour manager Gaetano guiding us through the process.





Our last night in Taormina, on our own, we ate al fresco at the Deja Vu ristorante, not far from the Flamingo. Some good Sicilian singers and some fine Italian wine.