Under The Oak Tree: Sicily

Hi girls & Co,

Our first day in Sicily was entertaining from start to finish – we started in what would be the largest market we had seen so far while Jeff and Pete checked out the best show in the city of Catania – being the raucous fish market. The chaos and noise and antics of the stall vendors trying to make a sale was just absolute drama.

Sicily is rich in history, is generally in modern disrepair, and infamous for its mafia connections! Despite that it is still a meditarranean jewel. Mt Etna at 3329m dominates the landscape and was puffing smoke the whole time we were there. We also noticed the piles of swept up volcanic ash on street corners from the last serious eruption – an ever constant threat to the inhabitants living under it.

We stayed near a little fishing port called Riposto which is in the area Debs grandparents lived and her dad grew up. It has been a real privilege looking up places of meaning for Deb and for her to connect to the place of her roots. Deb was famous in the town within ½ hour of being there as Pete showed her family photos to the gathering of old men that meet on the waterfront square in the evening.

We were staying right on the coast in a quiet spot and the town of Riposto was not at all a tourist town – so we have observed real Sicilian life – including pretty much no English language and the absolutely crazy driving and pedestrian antics of the locals on their tiny lanes!! Our holiday villa has been great – situated on a cliff face overlooking the sea, surrounded by lemon/olive groves, and down a long secluded driveway that turned into a dirt track for the last 50m!

The food here is just amazing, and not expensive at all – we have bought from roadside locally grown fruit stalls the most tasty cherries and tomato’s, stocking up from the deli in the local ‘supermacte’ among other things; and stopped at cafés for great coffee and the absolutely delicious Cannoli sweet treats.

We visited Taormina. The Teatro Greco was amazing – a perfect horseshoe shaped amphitheatre built in the 3^rd century BC!! It was set up for the 2013 Taormina FilmFest, with you guessed it – Russell Crowe – in town for the festivities. Stunning views of the coast line.

We have kept our touring around to the Ionian East Coast which is a beautiful part of Sicily. 30-32 degrees every day – no wind – no clouds …. Can it get any better? We swam in the crystal clear water just down from our little holiday villa and were pleasantly surprised how warm it was – way warmer than Lake Taupo in summer!

This morning Deb & I thought we would check out the Jewellers shops, nothing is quite as you would expect! You have to ring a bell to enter the 2 locked doors that get unlocked by the owner one door at a time to enter the Jewellers, the real gold jewellery is then kept in a safe! While we were there Pete got a classic barbershop cut throat razor hair cut/trimup! Jeff did not want to owe anyone anything on leaving Sicily so went to pay our parking fine which was completely in Italian so quite a process to find where to pay, he then had a coffee at our local caffe where he made friends with a guy working there who was dressed completely in white proudly driving off on the footpath on his 750cc Italian made motorbike helmetless!

It was sad to leave what is a fascinating part of a beautiful area of the world.

x W & JK