Sicily on fire, Palermo and a spot of saltwater swimming

There had been reports of a fire at the Zingaro natural park, close to our previous stop at Capo St Vito, which got us talking about the hay harvest, currently in full swing here, where it seems common practice to burn the remaining stubble.  With Sicily's high winds and arid climate we're curious to know why it's done this way, and wondered if any secondary fires are caused by it.  We passed one blaze right by the roadside which was clearly out of control and saw the remnants of many others, small patches of charred landscape, especially on our drive around the south and west coasts.  

Sicily seems to be intensively cultivated and proud of its produce, including local wines and citrus fruit, although the latter has taken a back seat to more profitable crops in recent years.  There is very much a sense of independence on the island and a local we chatted to today described his origins to us as Sicilian 'DOC' (like DOC wines!) and our return to the mainland was referred to as 'going back to Italy' by a campsite owner.

As we've probably said before, the scenery all over Sicily is pretty amazing, and after another breathtaking drive we arrived at camping La Playa at Isola delle Femmine in time to join the 4:30pm queue! Lots of campervanners use this site as a stopover for visiting Palermo and jolly convenient it is too, as well as being very boundaried about its siesta times; the site closes its gates, and doors, for three hours at lunchtime!

After a super helpful Palermo visit briefing by Daniela at the campsite (she provides group briefings to all new arrivals in fluent French, English and German - every evening if needed; very impressive!) we retired early in preparation for a day in Sicily's capital. It's an easy journey, just 30 minutes on the train and we got off 2 stops early on Daniela's suggestion, at Orleans Station, opposite the Palazzo Reale.  As I was keen to get along to the morning foodmarkets, we put that on hold and headed straight off via a small church, San Giovanni degli Ermiti and garden. Then off through the city . . .

We arrived soon after to Ballaro market, an explosion of colour and noise.  The market is open air and in a network of mainly pedestrianised streets, give or take the odd 3 wheeler!  The produce here is fantastic - and I have to wax lyrical here, Jamie Oliver style!!  Stall after stall of amazing fruit and veg, along with specialist vendors selling cheeses, herbs, olives and fish, specialising in pesce spada (swordfish) cut straight from the beast itself, the heads displayed on the counters.  There were sardines too, and gilthead bream, in fact the most fish we've seen since arriving in Italy.  I could have come away laden, but we had a day of sightseeing ahead, so we decided to stuff our faces at a restaurant in the market instead, but not before buying a kilo of fresh figs from Messina, and some herbs and olives.

Lunch was delicious, and what a fascinating spot to people watch, sat outdoors at the entrance to the market.  We ate a mixed starter platter with sardines, octopus, peppers and aubergine, followed by an enormous pesce spada steak (me) and a mixed fish platter (Mr B).

Then off to wander the streets and absorb the atmosphere of this vibrant city.  We stopped at one more recommended church, Martorana, which was beautiful, with sumptuous Greek style mosaics in golds and blues; a real wow moment on entry!  The racy Florentine style fountain nearby was pretty impressive too, although I'm still sulking a bit about the Trevi!

Then it was time to head back.  There's a lot more to see here than we'd want to do in a day, and we heard that Monreale, a short bus ride away is worth a visit too - maybe another time.

Back at La Playa, we decided to stay on for a day to rest.  Four consecutive days sightseeing in the heat is pretty tiring!  Next day we wandered along the peninsula to the village of Isola delle Femmine to see the old tower and harbour and to buy some fresh pesce spada from a hole in the wall fishmonger, and fruit and veg from a greengrocers, much nicer than the supermarket and a mini language lesson too.  At the fish stall we learned that pica (not poco) is Sicilian for a little, and at the greengrocers that finochio (fennel, which we were buying) is slang for gay - a bit of a random conversation that one! We also sampled salted sardines from huge tins, which were being sold loose; they're a bit like anchovies in texture and taste, and bought some of the juiciest tomatoes I've ever eaten.  The tomatoes here are wonderful and come in all shapes and sizes, each more delicious than the last, probably with summer hotting up, which it certainly is!

The coast at Isola delle Femmine

Then it was time for another early night and attempt number three at sleeping through the local disco and karaoke before setting off for our next stop, just east of Cefalu.

We arrived at Rais Gerbi camping, near Finale, with some trepidation; it's a 250 pitch holiday village and the last one described like that we'd bailed out of after one night!   This one however, was a nice surprise and we managed to bag a fabulous pitch overlooking the saltwater pool, which itself overlooked the beach with the Aeolian islands shimmering on the horizon.  We stayed five nights, swimming, sunbathing and getting very hot. Temperatures are rocketing!  If you look closely you might be able to see my nifty swimhat in the pic below, compulsory poolwear at this site!

We celebrated our final night with a delicious pizza from the restaurant and home made salad, eaten on our pitch with a view, and then it was time to head to our final stop on the island, a campsite on the Marinello Lagoons near the ancient city of Tyndaris.



J.

Trapani, Capo St Vito and on to Segesta – yup – more Greek ruins!

Going to Trapani was a must for us – partly because of its north African links and varied history, but also as one of the most westerly bits of Sicily bar Marsala (which we drove through en route to Trapani). Having decided to drive round the coast of Sicily we could hardly miss off the west coast. It was an interesting drive too, with working salt pans on the outskirts of Trapani – move over Maldon!

We’d heard some pretty dire reports of Sicily’s west coast from other travellers, and particularly the levels of rubbish washed up on the beaches, so when we parked up we enlisted a bit of help from the local patron saint…

All we found was about a metre of slowly rotting weed along the shoreline instead! The sea state was rough and the wind had been strong and on-shore, so no surprises about the weed – but apart from that, it wasn’t that grubby at all. You can just make out some of the square, low houses that are influenced by architecture from Tunisia and elsewhere along the north African Mediterranean coast in the next picture.

Like much of the rest of Sicily, Trapani delivered on some fine baroque buildings and was not too big for us to enjoy a pleasant wander, taking in the architecture and hunting for a gelateria. It would have been a top place to have idled away a few hours over lunch, but we were still beached from the enormous arancinis we had eaten at a road-side stop. They certainly make them big here!

One of the other reasons we wanted to go to Trapani was to visit Erice, a hill top mediaeval village with views (on a clear day) to Tunisia - which can be reached by cable car from the town. Unfortunately, this is as close as we got as the weather turned and Erice disappeared into the clouds…

So off we headed, past more disused and crumbling tuna canning factories towards Capo St Vito on the north coast of Sicily, where we planned to spend a few days ligging about on a campsite that looked promising (and had been recommended by some other camper-vanners on the mainland) with maybe the promise of a bit of yomping in one of the two natural parks on the headland.

It was certainly set in a spectacular location, nestled at the foot of this hill/mountain-ette – which was very popular with climbers.

Unfortunately, Camping la Pineta wasn’t what we’d hoped for – serried ranks of pitches in gloomy woods, surrounded by scrubland and with loud music at the pool and bar until late … I know this sounds a bit old fart/ ‘if it’s too loud you’re too old’ etc – but we had deliberately chosen this site as it was billed as a relaxing and picturesque stop over. Indeed, sometimes shaded sites are great – this one just seemed oppressive – and a mediocre, busy and concession dominated beach didn’t help!

The weather had also darkened along with our mood, so we decided after just one night to cut loose and take the back road over the hills to Segesta in the interior. It was only on the way out that we noticed that Capo St Vito was described on the multilingual signs as a ‘resort’ – we clearly need to hone our research and planning skills!

This campsite experience was also a bit of an object lesson for us, as we have found no reliable correlation between reviews of campsites on the ACSI app we use and how we actually then find them ourselves – moral of the story being to go and have a look and make your own mind up - and on balance, most of them have delivered!

The ACSI app is, however, dead good for route planning/ navigating in areas where they have campsites, as they use map tiles with a lot of detail (more than our paper map) but not so good when you get to a bit they’ve not got the tile for. So we used it to navigate our way over the hills out of Capo St Vito to Segesta – along a route that our faithful old paper map was telling us was partly unmade… the landslips (this was just one of many) were an additional feature!

Maybe we should have guessed from the fact that all the signs for Segesta were really faded and not always pointing in the same direction, that this was not one of the more popular routes up over the hills to the ruins. It was, however, a good adventure and we were glad that we had deliberately built the camper on a van with a strong chassis and good ground clearance – we certainly needed both on this journey!

The road may have been old and sometimes simply not there, but at least it brought us directly to the car park for Segesta. Again we’d managed it for the middle of the day so it wasn’t too busy. This ancient site is famous for having a temple that was left unfinished (to the inexpert eye it doesn’t look that much different I have to say!) and an amphitheatre with a truly exceptional view.

As usual, there’s a bit of a yomp involved in getting to the best bits. You can get a shuttle bus up, but we decided to walk. This picture is taken about a quarter of the way up to the amphitheatre, with the van in the car park below.

This is a view back to the temple complex from a bit further up the hill…

Here’s a view from the top in the amphitheatre, looking over the hills and plains – and the motorway – in the background.

The amphitheatre has been partially restored (you can see the smaller stones used in the next picture) but for me this is a bonus, as you get to appreciate the scale of what it must have been like to sit and debate in such an amazing location.

We stopped at the temple itself on the way back down. For any Greek temple aficionados amongst you, apparently you can tell it was unfinished from the little square bits sticking out of the base of the pillars in the next picture.

It seems that the Carthaginians invaded and the temple was left incomplete. But as with all the others we’ve seen on Sicily, it’s still pretty impressive!

And so, with what might be our last Greek temple experience on Sicily under our belt, we headed off on the motorway we had seen from on high to a site near Palermo – our next stop.

S.

South of Tunis with Inspector Montalbano - and more Greek ruins

Before we left the UK we managed to squeeze in a couple of episodes of Inspector Montalbano to help us with our basic Italian language skills (!) and also to get a sneak preview of what Sicily might have in store. We noticed that in each episode and all locations, it seemed to be quite windy….

Although we hadn’t planned it, we happened to touch down on the southern coast right next to where Montalbano’s beach-side house is, at a place called Punta Secca. This is further south than Tunis and correspondingly hotter than we’ve experienced so far! We camped up just north of Punta Secca and were pleased that the campsite (Scarabeo at Punta Braccetto) had a beach-front plot free and was pretty calm with lovely views of the bay. This was the first site we’d come across in Italy that had differentiated pitches for ACSI card holders, but we decided that an extra four Euros a night was worth it for the location and view across the bay to the ruins of an 18^th century fort. It also had a much more pleasant vibe than the alternative site next door that we had looked at – plus we met up again with Roger and Karen from Cardiff who we’d first bumped into on the mainland in Calabria. Like us, they’re set to become grand parents for the first time this summer!

We enjoyed a couple of days lazing on the beach and walking, and then the wind began to pick up enough for the kitesurfers to come out…

And the flat sea started to turn into rolling surf…

And the wind blew for a couple of days – and nights - without let up. It got windy enough that we decided to put the awning away just in case – and as the wind increased in strength, the winding handle snapped – leaving us to make do with a pair of mole grips on the end of the broken pole! Luckily, we managed to get it wound in and next day we moved pitches to one that had some shelter and shade…

Of course, as soon as we moved pitches the wind dropped and we were back to calmer seas and watching the sun go down, as we have become used to…

Being so close to one of the sets used in Inspector Montalbano we had to go and have a look – so we decided to have a cycle down the coast on one of the windy days. The house and adjacent plaza is just as it’s shown in the series – although now it’s a B&B where guests can sit on the terrace where the Comissario takes his drinks – and phone calls – but under the constant gaze of a near continuous stream of tourists, which of course included us!

After a few more days of enjoying the life of beach bums, we started to get withdrawal symptoms for some good old ruins – so off we set for Agrigento and the Valle dei Templi. The journey across to the west revealed an agricultural landscape almost entirely given over to poly tunnels – mainly tomatoes and aubergines in industrial quantities. Away from the pockets of pretty coastline, a lot of the landscape is pretty bleak in this south east corner of Sicily.

Agrigento is yet another of those grand scale sites where the Greeks (and later the Romans) had settled and left behind a series of temples. These, set along a ridge line above the coast give the site an impressive setting from afar as well as the long and very hot walk up and back down again! This picture shows the view from the main temple at the top, back to one in the middle of the site – which starts at the bottom of the slope away in the distance!

The incredible state of preservation of the temples here is a testament to the respect that the Romans had for Greek gods, as well as a bit of later adaptation as Christian churches that just built around the main structures. With an interest in early cultures and a pan-European fad for ‘gentleman archaeologists’ in the 18^th/19^th centuries, much of the Christian stuff was pulled down and the early Greek structures revealed – and sometimes ‘restored’. Whatever the back-story, what is now left for people to go and see is quite incredible as the scale is so impressive.

Although for some peeps, one pile of Greek ruins may be much like any another, as we’ve wandered round each site (often in the middle of the day when, although it’s hot, it’s also a bit quieter) what we’ve found in each location is a real sense of awe and admiration for the ancients, especially when you take into account the effort and skill required to build on this scale – and often in locations that are not the easiest to access.

One aspect we’ve noticed in how the Italians manage their historic monuments, is that they’re not averse to chucking in some contemporary art – this bronze of Icarus (from 2011) was artfully poised just in front of one of the temples.

They are also good at helping visitors grasp the scale of some of the stuff that had fallen down/ been badly damaged. This is the remains of one of a number of 8m statues (telemones) that held up the roof on a temple that is now in thousands of pieces, helpfully re-assembled to get a sense of what they were like.

After a hot and sticky few hours under the Sicilian sun, we stopped for a quick lemon sorbet (served by a Italian from Aylesbury, of course!) and then set off for our next site, en route to the west coast. Camping Kamemi is near Ribera and this pic shows the now familiar ‘adapted’ caravans that the locals build around for their weekend and holiday homes on many sites. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but we’ve found (so far) that they lend a friendly air to sites and often mean that the shop and or bar/restaurant is well stocked!

Although we had a noisy night with the local dogs serenading us, the relaxed atmosphere of the ‘camper stop’ area and the adjacent pool, made for an enjoyable interval before we set off for the west coast and Trapani, next on our agenda. Technically, once we get to Trapani we’re on the homeward leg of the trip, having done about 2500 miles so far. So far, so good!

S.

Enticed by the locals and admiring the Baroque

If ever there was a nation that being charming came naturally to, it has to be the Italians!  We arrived at Camping Sabbiadoro near Avola a couple of hours later, having successfully negotiated the narrow 500m approach road, and were shown around the site by the delightful male owner talking us through each pitch area as we inched our way towards the sea, finally arriving at the perfect beachfront pitch with a flourish. He'd read us well. How could we refuse? And the showers, we asked, do they have hot water? Oh yes, and they are enormous; big enough for two people to make love in – for those in tents, he hastened to add! 

Of course we took the pitch, the best of the trip so far and probably the most picturesque on the site, with views directly across the bay.  We settled in for a few days of relaxing; this was one of the reasons we’d come here; lazy days in the sun . . .

and incredible sunrises . . . .

This site is lush, set in a Mediterranean/sub tropical garden and immaculately kept. The public beach here is lovely too, a small sandy cove kept clean and tidy, and it was hard to leave the sound of the sea and those wonderful facilities, but the interior was calling and the weather was looking stormy, so after four nights we headed off to Noto, baroque jewel in Sicily's crown, or so the tourist literature will tell you.

Noto welcomes coachloads of tourists throughout the day, so if you want a quiet visit, go early.  We arrived around midday and had time to wander around this beautiful place with its honey coloured buildings, in relative peace.  We were also lucky enough to chance on a guided tour of one of the churches and its tower and learn more about the history of Noto, rebuilt after the 1693 earthquake, with its 32 churches to a population of just 25,000.  We took lunch on a park bench in the Piazza Municipio, with delicious local cherries from a nearby stall to finish and then headed off to Palazzolo Acriede, another inland and rather less visited town. 

Palazzolo has a rather more brooding presence and although it's also in the baroque style, it's much darker in every sense.  We arrived as the clouds were gathering for a thunderstorm and set off on foot in search of some information.  We walked first to the Mediaeval Castle and then through the town itself, as it woke up after the afternoon siesta.  As the sun came out we ate pistachio ice cream (they grow pistachios on Sicily), which is coffee coloured not green like at home, and delicious by the way!  Then up to the ancient Greek site of Akrai, not much to see here but great views across the valley.  We finished with a wander through the Giardino Storico.

Then back to the van to decide where we were sleeping!! Although we'd been told that the Piazza Australia in the town was ok to sleep, we didn't have a good feeling about it, so following our instincts, set off back to the coast at Avola where we'd previously cycled one morning a few days before, only to discover that what was a quiet beachfront in the day was heaving with humanity at night! Ah well, it was too late to move, so we hunkered down with the other two vans freecamping and slept fitfully through a noisy night, and when we woke in the morning, all was peaceful again.

S.

Camperstop at Mt Etna @ 2000 metres!

Arriving in Sicily was great – the weather was hotter than the mainland and as we drove through towns and villages en route to our first stop near Mt Etna, it felt nicely Mediterranean. Our chosen campsite, Mokambo, was nestled in the plains below Etna and from our pitch we had a champion view up to the volcano.

After a quick pow-wow to look at the costs of getting a day trip up to Etna from the campsite (80 Euros each), we decided to brave it and take the van instead! We’d learned from a couple we got chatting to on the site that it was possible to sleep over at the 2000m refuge – so, armed with our experience of ascending Vesuvius in an Iveco converted into a tram, we decided to do Etna in one converted into a camper!

The journey up was slow – very slow, as the switchback road took us via a less than direct route. In fact it took us the best part of two hours to do 26 miles!

Luckily for us we seemed to meet more traffic on the way down than the way up – or else we would have had a long tail of irate Italians behind us. The van is a ‘sedate’ climber of steep gradients, which we knew from our journeys across the Pyrenees in previous years – but this was the first time we had ever heard the cooling fan turn on just as the needle reached the red bit on the gauge! We’d heard from fellow Iveco owners that it sounded a bit like a hovercraft when it does cut in – and indeed it did! The views across the lava fields were well worth the temperature related tension and snail-like pace though.

When we got to the 2000m refuge we discovered that we could indeed stay over for the night at the princely sum of 12 Euros for 24 hours of parking and decided that, rather than spend the 50 Euros or so each to get the cable car and then Unimog to the summit in the clouds, we’d have a bit of a yomp and explore some of the more recent craters and lava fields from the 1980s eruptions.

These recent craters are amazing. The lava reached out towards the coast in the background of this one and we could see the lava fields on the drive up. The impact of recent eruptions was clear to see – parts of the slopes between 2000m and 3300m looked otherworldly and alien.

Others, which had avoided the lava flow, were more lush and almost Alpine.

The next pic shows a view of the summit of Etna from the peak of one of the more recent eruptions – the red lava being typical of these.

Yet not more than 200m away in a different direction, the landscape retuned to the almost ‘lush’ Alpine terrain we had seen earlier.

As we wandered the lava fields we could hear the sound of a vehicle from above – and not long after, one of the Unimogs that are used to do the final bit of the ascent to the summit came past us on its way down to the refuge at the end of a day ferrying peeps up the final bit of the ascent. I’d always hankered after one of these to convert to a camper – until I found out the fuel consumption. Still, they do look pretty cool!

As the daylight started to fade, we made our way back to the refuge and the van. This is me at the top of one of the 1980s eruption craters.

And this is a wo/man and dog on the other side of the same crater.

By about nine o’clock all that was left after the departure of the day-trippers to the refuge, was a motley collection of campervans – and an almost obligatory chorus of barking dogs. Luckily, unlike their Spanish counterparts, the Italian dogs fell quiet before midnight, leaving us with a spectacular view out to Catania – where the lava flows did reach in days gone by.

After a very windy, cold but peaceful night under the summit of Etna, we woke the next day to the mandatory ‘cloud cap’ that Etna seems to keep during daylight hours.

Having really enjoyed the novelty of a cool night, we were already keen for a return to the Sicilian heat – so we set our course for a campsite on the coast near Syracusa that had been recommended to us by fellow travellers – with the caveat that it was ‘difficult to access’ for campervans. Well we shall see!

S.