Unbeknownst to us, the time reverted back from summer time at midnight on the 26th. We woke up at what we thought was 7am and got bathed and dressed and packed up. We went across the road to the hotel for breakfast and were the first to arrive. We had an amazing feast of food and an espresso each. The owner told us we were real Italians for ordering espresso. We paid, got the suitcases into the car and headed up Mount Etna on the south side of the volcano. 1.6km up we saw buried houses and a buried Church, next to newly built houses in the Mount Etna National Park. We then headed for Adrano where I would have loved to have walked around. We drove around looking for fuel and the self service machine decided that Dave wanted diesel and not unleaded like he had pushed. We had put in €20 and some guy came along at that exact time and had €10 so he got a gift of €10 more diesel than he paid for. We decided to not try the self service option again! With fuel in the car we headed to Agira where we stopped for espresso and traditional pastries. When we got to San Mauro Castelverde we stopped for lunch, This part of Sicily is so mountainous and we climbed up and up and up and then dropped down and down and down, covering lots of mileage but very little distance. We sat atop this hillside village overlooking the see while we had our picnic. The agriculture here is amazing, with olive trees clinging to the sides of mountains. We then stopped in Finale for gelato – pistacchio for Dave and Nicciolo for me. We then headed for Palermo and parked and walked around a bit, stopping for a Presecco before we headed to the ferry terminal. This city is expensive – €8 for 2 Prosecco and nothing served with it. We then headed for the ferry terminal and after driving around looking for the ferry – the signs were wrong, and the ferry changed name, we discovered we were an hour earlier than we thought. We had to be at the ferry two hours before it leaves for Naples and we were three hours early. We killed some time by driving around the streets of Palermo, but as soon as started getting dark we headed for the ferry and had a snack while waiting to board. Dave had to drive the car in alone, and I walked up to reception. When he eventually got there we got our room key and went to drop off our stuff. We had a two berth cabin and the space was limited. We walked around the ferry, watched it leave Palermo and then headed for the dining room for dinner. We had a 375ml bottle of 2011 Chianti and started with anti pasti to share of Gran Misto di Mare. It had octopus terrine which was very interesting. We both had the Spaghetti grezzi trafilatial bronza con pomodoro fresce e basillica which was recommended by the waiter as the chef is from Bari. After dinner we headed to the bar for a limoncino – not cheap! and then to bed.
Italy 2013 