On the last day of my trip to Sicily We travelled up to about 1900m to visit Crateri Silvestri on Mt Etna. It had been formed in 1892. I walked part of the way round it, but as I am not great with heights and it was quite breezy I chose not to do the whole walk ( Read more... )

The last hotel we stayed in was in Letojanni .... and one place we stopped at to take photos was Zafferana Etnea which is famous for it's honey production.

On our last night we went to Barone di Villagrande Winery ... and if ever you fancy a bottle of white, it got the universay thumbs up ... and we tried, 2 reds and a rose, as well.

Letojanni

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Last week when I posted the photos of Syracuse I did say it was my favourite place I visited on Sicily ... however Taormina came a close second.

A Greek Theatre, a Roman Temple, assorted Churches, and roads so steep and narrow that they were designed as stairs ... what's not to like?

Town sign -

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There were 2 favourite towns that I visited when I was on Sicily ... the first of the two was Syracuse, which was also visited by St Paul (in the book of Acts). And, one of my favourite places that I visited when I was on Sicily was The Cathedral of SyracuseAmazing to see how it had survived earthquakes (you can see the twisted pillar of the 5th ( Read more... )

We visited the city of Noto as another of our rainy day visits. We didn't manage to get to as much of it as planned as it was a fiesta day ... the first day of their 5 day flower festival. So we got to see some of the town, the duomo, as well as some of the parade ( Read more... )

One of the places I went to when I was in Sicily was Villa Romana del Casale. It is a Roman villa, that was eventually buried by volcanic ash, and because of that, much of it's beauty has been saved. A vast villa, with some truly amazing mosaics ... hard to capture here


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We may have been in southern Europe, at the end of May ... but it rained, and rained on day 2. We had rain on day 1 in the late afternoon, but we were back at the hotel by then ... but on our trip to Ragusa Ibla we all got "slightly damp".

However it was still a fascinating town ....

On our way -

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On day 1 I went to Agrigento ... the Valley of the Temples

These first 2 pictures are especially for curiouswombat ... this is the national symbol (seen here on a 19th century light) ... hope she sees something similar! The second image is the earliest item found ... dated to the 7th century BC

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I have very few memories of my first trip to Rome, back in 1981 (when I was 20) .... I fell down, head over heals, a section of the the Spanish Steps.  I was totally un-injured, despite coming down 15 steps, but logic has since pointed out, that I was probably in a slight state of shock ( Read more... )

After we had left the Cistine Chapel we walked across and into St Peter's. I have been to Rome before (more about that in another post) ... but I only have a couple of memories of the city. One is the sheer height of this building, the other is the statue of St Peter that has a damaged foot ... just where people go and kiss it.

( Judge for yourself what it is like )