Tag Archives: Mt Etna

The Diary of a Slow Traveller – Sunglasses at Mt Etna

Coffee after our early morning bike ride is part of my weekly ritual.

During the week I was sitting with my riding buddies at coffee lamenting not having sunglasses to deal with the morning glare. It provided me with a great opportunity to talk about how my sunglasses got wrecked at Mt Etna.

Mt Etna

Mt Etna

It was on our two daughters’ last day in Sicily before they headed off for the next part of their holiday. We organized a day tour to Mt Etna. While my favourite person, our youngest daughter and I had been there before, our eldest daughter hadn’t and was super keen so IĀ arranged a tour rather than a self drive. Continue reading

Catania, Sicily – does it really deserve the bad press?

The elephant obelisk - Piazza Duomo

The elephant obelisk – Piazza Duomo

We’d heard so many stories about carjacking and having the contents of your car stolen that in our two previous visits to Sicily the nearest we’d got to Catania was the airport. However my interest lifted after reading Shamus Sillar’s “Sicily it’s not Quite Tuscany” a couple of years ago. In addition, our eldest daughter had made it clear that she wanted to visit Mt Etna in the short time she was with us in Sicily and its much easier to get there from Catania.

Catania is about an hour by train from Siracusa, assuming the train runs on time, which of course ours didn’t! Regional trains not running on time is apparently the norm in Sicily, so rather than getting frustrated, just relax and enjoy the view, unless you are stationary in a tunnel for 10 minutes as we were!

Whether it’s Trip Advisor, the guide books or just general commentary, Catania does not get great press.

Catania like a number of towns in Sicily was destroyed by the Etna eruption of the late 17th Century and rebuilt in an imposing baroque style. Unlike Noto it’s not a rich cream sandstone but much darker, with its buildings being made of darker volcanic stone. A visit on a wet day gives it a closed in feeling even when walking down a wide boulevard of which there are many. It’s very Gotham City! I’m sure this adds to why Catania doesn’t enjoy a great reputation as a place to go.

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Once settled into our apartment and assured by our Airbnb host that we would not be murdered, we ventured out. An early wrong turn Continue reading

Book Review – Sicily, it’s Not Quite Tuscany

As well as the overall sense that Shamus Sillar’s wife Gil is a Saint, Sicily, It’s not Quite Tuscany portrays Sicily in a very contemporary and Australian style. Its also a book from a male perspective something which seems a little rare when writing about Italy these days. Whilst I really enjoyed Penelope Green’s books particularly See Naples and Die, as a male it did not hit the spot in the same way as this book does.

It’s a book about a young married couple who spend a year genuinely soaking up the earthiness of this amazing island in its most basic location, Catania, a city which certainly doesn’t enjoy good press and this book doesn’t really enhance it. Yet you are given a sense that by letting the town wash over you it’s not all bad. There is a rich description of the people, the sights and

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