Mount Etna is always smoking and seems ready to blow. It's mildly unnerving, but also really quite cool.
It might sound cheesy, but the skies in Sicily are the most intensely blue I've ever seen. It's one of the things that struck me most clearly on my previous visit in 2001.
Churches hidden behind ever (garbage-strewn) corner.
The city was just recovering from a huge festival to Saint Agatha. The city was strewn with all these signs saying WS.AGATA (W = viva).
I just kept asking what the hell Wsagata meant. It was really bothering me.
First stop: Simply awesome lunch. Amazing pasta, sausage, and wine. So good. Fortunately, we were going to walk it all off!
This is an ancient Roman amphitheatre which was definitely open for tourists today. Closed.
Church.
Government building.
Central duomo. Gorgeous.
Scary faces on a local university building.
At the end of this street is the Fortina, or Porta Garibaldi.
This is the Castello Ursino. You can pay some money to go and walk around, but there's not much there.
Me and Sabrina!
Walking towards the fortino.
It was getting quite dark by the time we started heading back.
We were exhausted, but still went and drove 30 minutes out of town to some village town full of seafood restaurants.
And so we stopped for a massive-ass Sicilian seafood feast.
Not much business on a Thursday night in early February.
Most of the food was great, but there were also a few weird things. All good.
Pasta here is outta sight.
Ravioli
Next morning, breakfast by the water. With a giant smoking volcano in the distance.
Ficchi d'India, cactus fruit.
The Mediterranean, otherwise known as the world's largest swimming pool.
Breakfast was juice, coffee, and a sammamich. So awesome.
Hopped in the car, and ended up in a town called Zefferana Etnea, on the east slope of the volcano.
Completely dead. Like seriously, apart from a few grandpas, absolutely nobody around.
Duomo with a huge-ass volcano behind it.
Looking east towards the sea.
Statue of some dude, who I'm sure was an upstanding gentleman.
They put up notices of people who have "disappeared". At first I took it literally and thought they were mafia related. But they just use that word to describe naturally deceased people.
Next stop: Forza D'agro', a small mountaintop town a few km north of Taormina. The latter is a massive tourist town (in all fairness, it's extremely cool), but we had both been there, so we came here instead.
This place has no people in it at all, and is known for having had some Godfather scenes shot here.
It's nearly completely abandoned.
Godfather church.
I love these ancient medieval towns where you can wander around and get peeks of the surrounding scenery.
That's actually mainland Italy there in the distance
Messina is also just up north there.
At the highest point in town is a castle.
But it's closed. Lame.
The third church in town.
This is the BEST. SIGN. EVER.
That's the duomo at the other end of town where we had parked our car.
Duomo up close.
All of the local bars and restaurants are full of old guys playing cards and pictures from the filming of the various Godfather movies.
And weird Hello Kitty junk
Sunset
Volcano at sunset.
That night we wandered around town, had some dinner with the family, and got some drinks.
Gorgeous 48 hour whirlwind tour of the place!