Sicily 8: Catania

Tags

Bellini, Catania, Etna, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, lava tube, Monteverdi, Nievski, Sicily, Siculorum gymnasium, Trattoria de Fiore

Sicily 8: Catania. Suitcases packed, accounts settled, we were off to spend the day in Catania before dispersing.  A last sighting of Etna as we went south.

Francesca had arranged for us to leave our luggage in Catania at a small B and B, The Globetrootter, owned by a friend, for the day, and we set off.

I was thrilled serendipitously at the first place we stopped, a castle built by one of my favourite characters in history, Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, 1194-1250, a fascinating, if far from likeable, man.  I had studied him for my ‘A’ levels and he had intrigued me then.  (If you click on the link, skip the history, and go to ‘Personality’, and ‘Literature and Science’.) On my trip to Sicily in 1975 I had paid homage at his tomb in Palermo Cathedral.  This castle was a real bonus for me.

Although we went in, it was just to say hello to the woman running the bookshop, another friend of Francesca.  (We came across many more of them during the day – this was her home city after all, and she was well-known as a television journalist on the island.)

We then went on to the fishmarket, which turned out to be so much more.

Smoking artichokes!

Francesca and a scampo

We had been told about long courgettes!

 

The next two photos will be of interest only to geology enthusiasts, especially since one is not at all clear.  We went through a bar to see a lava tube, a tunnel made by flowing lava as it solidifies on the outside.  As the sign indicates, it formed during the eruption of Etna in 1669.  It’s of particular interest because it now has a stream flowing though it – in the other direction from that of the original lava flow.On to Catania’s cathedral.  I was pleased to see the tomb of Sicily’s famous composer, Bellini, but not nearly as much as I had been to come across that of Monteverdi in Venice some years back.After a stop for refreshments in the cathedral square, we walked on, and passed this.It was communist headquarters, now a popular pub

 

Not a the modern meaning of a gymnasium, but a place of learning. ‘Siculorum’ means ‘of [the] Sicilians’

Lunchtime.  At the Trattoria de Fiore, run (that does not adequately describe the force that she is) for the last 40 plus years by Rosanna, who makes wonderful pasta among other things.  Ordering our meal was an event in itself, especially since Rosanna just loves talking – and she wasn’t the only Sicilian present who has the same predilection…The others all ordered pasta , but I just didn’t feel hungry enough so I ordered antipasti and a light fish dish…

My antipasti!

 

But I should have known that antipasti would be more than sufficient. The sardines to follow were delicious, but I could only manage two of the seven, even though they were small as fresh sardines go.  I managed to persuade others to eat three of those left over, and made copious apologies to Rosanna for not finishing the entire dish.

Here is a blurry picture of someone’s ‘pasta alla norma’, resembling a volcano.We got up from table well after 4 pm!  It was nearly time to get back to the B and B place to pick up our luggage and say goodbye.  But we just had one more visit to make – to what had once been a monastery and was now a university – where Francesca had done her studies.We were able to peek inside the large rooms where lecturers worked – the monks clearly didn’t stint themselves for space back in the days.

And so we said goodbye.  Geoff was off to Syracusa, Francesca, and Alec and Isobel were staying on in Catania for one extra night before returning to the UK the following day, so it was just Emma and I who took a 20-minute bus ride to the airport to await our plane, which would get us to Gatwick at midnight.

Despite my accidents and being off-colour, it had been a lovely week in good and friendly company, with a great variety of themes and activities.  Being a study tour had made it extra interesting.  If there is one which stands out as both unexpected and ultra enjoyable … it was Food!

I  think it is definitely a case of ‘Arrivederci Sicilia’.  I hope so anyway.

Sicily 7: Taormina

Tags

amaro, D H Lawrence, Etna, Florence Trevelyan, Fontana Vecchia, Francesca Marchese, G7, Geoff Andrews, granita, Parco Duca di Cesaro, Sciascia, Sicily, Taormina, Verga

Sicily 7: Taormina.  I had slept terribly on Monday night, or rather I scarcely slept at all. My ankle was troubling me – discomfort is always worse at night – my cold was now full-blown, and I had a sore shoulder from my fall.  I therefore decided to cut the morning’s programme of discussion on Sicilian writers, notably Sciascia and Verga, (of whom I had  never heard) and to rejoin my companions at lunchtime.  I was greeted at 12.45, ‘Have you heard the news? [Wifi was patchy in the bedrooms.] There’s to be a general election on 8th June.’

Well, that determined conversation over our meal – fortunately and not surprisingly we were all committed Remainers, so there was no falling out.

The afternoon’s programme was a visit to the nearby large town of Taormina. On being dropped, we made out way to the Greek/Roman amphitheatre.  Taormina is to host the G7 for three days at the end of May, so it is being spruced up everywhere.  I counted four separate work sites in the amphitheatre, each of them seemingly driven by a very noisy generator.And sadly the iconic (sorry!) view towards Etna was restricted by clouds over the volcano.  Oh well, I had had a good view of it in 1975…The views north and south from the spot were wonderful. Francesca, testing out security, then marched the five of us into a very posh hotel nearby.She so much wanted us to see its gardens.Next it was the Parco Duca di Cesaro, created by the Englishwoman, Florence Trevelyan, two centuries ago. However, Britain, as it seemed to me, had been once of the few large powers before the nineteenth century never to have ruled Sicily.  Evidence of occupations of Sicily was to be seen everywhere.

Greek

Roman

French

And then it was time to visit the ‘best place in Taormina’ for granita.

Eating Granita is a serious business

All around the town we had seen wonderful paintings on external walls.  I regret not having taken more photos of them.  But  we stopped to have a particular look at these, which actually were not in the same style as the others.  Francesca called on the owner of the house they ornamented, whom she knew to be the author of all these paintings, and chatted to him for a while.There were not only paintings everywhere we went but wonderful balcony decorations.  Here is one near the painter’s house.But this had been my favourite, a feast for my eyes while my mouth was feasting on my granita.There was one more place to be visited.  Geoff was very keen that we should see Fontana Vecchia, the former house of D H Lawrence.  We had to tramp a bit for this, and we had some difficulty finding it. My ankle was troubling me and I was feeling very tired, so at one point I stopped, and sat on a low wall as the sun started going down, while the others continued searching. They were gone for what seemed to me a very long time.   But I was delighted on their coming to pick me up to learn that not only had they found the house, but they been invited in by the current owner.  One very happy group returned to Edoné – and I had managed to buy my amaro to take home.

 

Sicily 5: Wine-tasting and Wet

Tags

Cavanera, cuddura ccu l'ova, DH Lawrence, di Lampedusa, Edoné, Etna, Etna Bianco, Etna Rosso, Favinia, Firriato, Francesca Marchese, Gaudensius, Geoff Andrews, Salvatore Romano, Sicily, The Leopard

Sicily 5: Wine-tasting and Wet. From Etna, we were taken not very far to the Firriato winery, where we met up once more with Salvatore Romano and his Swiss wife, Karin.  They had joined us for our very first evening meal at Edoné, and they will figure large in the next post.Here we had lunch. We started by just soaking bread in the most heavenly olive oil you can imagine, accompanied by a little salad, and the first of the wines.

Geoff, Natalie, Salvatore and Karin

Next came this assortment of cheeses and meats, accompanied by white, then red, versions of this wine.

I failed to get a photo of the sweet, but it was accompanied by a very nice sweet wine.We were shown around the winery, and given the opportunity to buy their products.  Reluctant to weigh my suitcase down too much, I didn’t purchase anything here, as I planned to buy some amaro before the stay was over.

On just a few more kilometres, and we made a short diversion to a Byzantine basilica, about which nothing appears to be known.

View from the basilica

The programme was light for the next day, Easter Sunday, just a morning discussion around D H Lawrence in Sicily and Di Lampedusa’s ‘The Leopard’ (which I had actually re-read before leaving home).

Isobel, Alec, Geoff, Emma and Francesca on the patio

Francesca at what I believe to be her favourite activity – taking pictures of people

Sunday lunch included these traditional Easter cakes or biscuits, cuddura ccu l’ova.  Those are indeed whole boiled eggs.

Nothing was programmed for the afternoon. Just as well, as there was a torrential thunderstorm, trapping Francesca’s parents, who had arrived in the early afternoon to take their daughter out for a couple of hours.   Living in London, Francesca had not seen them for a while, and was looking forward to catching up with them.

(Just as well for me as well. I was developing a sore throat.)

All three people eventually escaped and the day cleared up.

Tomorrow: Food – seen a lot already? You ain’t seen nuttin’ yet!

Sicily 4: Mount Etna

Tags

Betula Aetnensis, Etna, Etna Birch, Mount Etna, Sicily, volcano

Sicily 4: Mount Etna.  When I had visited Sicily in 1975, for me the most exciting discovery, of all the amazing discoveries on the tour of the whole island, had been Mount Etna.  Our visit to it had taken place on a grey day, but that hadn’t mattered at all.  Up first in a jeep, then a funicular, and then a little way on foot to be almost within touching distance of a slow, glowing, tinkling, crinkly, lava flow, from which we could feel the warmth.  I recall that, in those days when you took just one photo of a given area and that was that, because of film and processing costs, I used a whole 36-image film just on that lava flow, so excited was I by it all.  And I came home and bought a book on how volcanoes work.  (Soon afterwards, that particular funicular was destroyed by a further eruption.) Since then I have done an Open University module on geology, a significant part of which was on volcanoes.  So my hopes this day were high.

Nathalie, presumably a self-employed guide, took us in her people carrier. Up and up and up we went,

and we stopped to look at a road which was distinctly no longer a Z-bend.

Then we moved on and up to about 2500 metres, to the north, less tourist-frequented side of the volcano.  Pictures of devastation and desolation.

The white gas is water vapour, the blue sulphur dioxide

Geoff surveys where a hotel used to be

This was the highest we got.  Apparently it is possible to go further up in a funicular, and then further on foot, to get much closer (but not too close!) to where the action is, but that had not been the intention for our particular group.  So I was a little sad.

Francesca looking on.

We moved round and a little lower down by car, and were introduced to Etna birch, Betula Aetnensis, found only on Etna, its peculiarity being that, unlike other birches, it has multiple trunks coming from the ground. (Virtually nothing on it is to be found via search engines on the internet.)  We started off on a walk towards a spectacular view.  Unfortunately my ankle did not at all enjoy the terrain – small broken up lava – on which we were walking, re-twisting itself frequently.  I found a nice Etna birch on which to perch, and Francesca kindly decided to stay with me, stating she had done Etna a thousand times.  I have to say it was really rather pleasant sitting there in the sun, though I didn’t fancy stretching out on the ground as Francesca did.  She insisted on taking a photo of me with Etna in the background,

then a close-up on the grounds that I had a ladybird in my hair

which I couldn’t see in the photo until I blew it up…

Finally we went on to a refuge/bar where we had a drink – of course – and watched some videos of Etna erupting, and looked at a map. 

I took a panorama from that spot.

Lunch, described in the next post, consisted of a wine tasting and antipasti a few kilometres away…

Sicily 3: Good Friday Procession

Tags

amaro, Castiglione, Good Friday, Religious custom, Sicily, Venerdi Santo

Sicily 3: Good Friday Procession.  For 2500 years, Sicily has been a melting pot of Mediterranean and other cultures and conquerors, : Greek, Carthaginian, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Norman, German, Spanish, French, before finally acceding to unity with the Italian mainland in the nineteenth century.  Olive has already commented (Sicily 1) how Good Friday processions in Spain are spooky.  I think therefore that the procession we saw on Venerdì Santo must date from the Spanish era.  We had been told that the processions – the make up of which varied greatly between towns, though all would include statues Christ and the Virgin Mary, and often guild banners – were essentially about the Sicilians’ relationship with death.  And, my, was this mournful.  Very long faces, no chatting, to begin with anyway, and the band playing very solemn music, including at one point Chopin’s Funeral March.

We were driven to Castiglione. After we had parked, I limped along with the others in search of the procession, and after a short while we saw it coming towards us.  We went up some steps, and I managed to get these pretty impressionist photos.

People in various uniforms, including clergy, a choir of female voices, the band and large numbers of the general population. “That’s it” said Francesca, as the last went by.  “But where is the statue of Christ carried by the four virgins?” I asked.   It had been there she replied.

We moved along by the side of and near to the front of the procession.  This time I saw the Christ figure.  It was much smaller and  less obvious than the Virgin Statue.  Very odd, I thought. (And I’m not sure how I managed to miss it first time anyhow.)

From time to time the priest intoned prayers, and processors sometimes joined in

Very young and very old were there…

… though this push chair is carrying a loudspeaker so that the priest may be heard.

 

This was the only person I saw looking from a balcony, though I reckon most of the town was taking part.

We continued, accompanying the procession.

And I stopped to record the band.

The procession ended up at the church.  I didn’t enter and the others just hovered at the door for a few minutes before we all went off to find refreshment.  I discovered amaro, the bitter but tasty drink.

Yes, that is a conspiratorial look from the proprietor as Francesca takes her drink

 

Saturday: Mount Etna

Sicily 1: Edoné

Tags

Catania, Edoné, Francesca Marchese, Geoff Andrews, Graniti, Sicilian food, Sicily, Sicily Unlimited

Edoné. I’d last been to Sicily in 1975, and had longed to go back again ever since.  At last I had the chance, when I booked on to Geoff Andrews’ Sicily Unlimited trip, to spend a week at Edoné (stress on the last syllable), about an hour’s drive north west of Catania, studying a few aspects of Sicilian culture, with appropriate visits.  Geoff organised, and Francesca Marchese, a Sicilian journalist (mainly TV), now living and working freelance in London, was our local guide.

We – a group of just four people – arrived late morning on Thursday, 4th April, and spent the rest of the day quietly settling in, exploring Edoné and getting to know each other.

The building on the hill is another holiday residence

Alfresco eating location

I was very pleased with my room, and its very modern bathroom.

Entrance

View from

Once unpacked, I made the acquaintance of some of Edoné’s personnel.

Enzo in his kitchen

Nerina

 

Luna

I only ever saw one species of lizard, very green with an amazingly long tail.

We had had a delicious lunch, and soon realised that superb food was to be a hallmark of the week.  This is the dining room, and the antipasti at dinner.  (While I was tempted to, I did not take a photo of every dish we were served during the week.)The next day was Good Friday.  A nature walk and a most extraordinary Good Friday procession will be the subject of the next two posts.