Reporting from Sicily!
Ok, I'm finally up to share my last adventure in the mysterious lands of Italy XD This time I'll entertain you with a quick report on my trip to Sicily!
So, for this trip my parents decided to come too, meaning that we went by car (for a total of 1000+ Kms o_o) and I got to see waaaay more places, as we had the chance to pass them by.
So, leaving out the trip from Rome to Sicily crossing more than half Italy, I'll rush to our first stop, the lovely city of Giardini Naxos-- Just saying, this was the view from our B&B :D
Unfortunately we happened in a week of TERRIBLE WEATHER, which is quite rare for a place like Sicily-- but I'm used to it by now =_= I assume I'm one of those "rainmen" (the locals suggested me to visit on summer, as in that period there are some extreme cases of drought! LOL)
Anyway, I never noticed how extremely "rocky" this region was... One thinks of Sicily and thinks of sea and beach, but I've never seen such mountainous landscapes all cluttered together, not even in places that are build OVER mountains!
It was quite hard to go around, and I can see from where so many logistic and technologic problems arise-- Yet, the contrast was indeed awe-inspiring, when not extremely disturbing--
The day after we visited the close-by and delightful Taormina:
--What a lovely little city!
Touristic sightseeing!
First of all, the lovely middle-age Duomo, rendered like a little castle:
The peculiar Baroque Church of San Giuseppe with its vanitas:
This shot is dedicated to the contrasting architectures of the Arabic Palazzo Corvaja and the "rusty" Baroque of the Church of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria d'Egitto:
Dulcis in fundo, the glorious Ancient Theatre!
From here it is possible to get a great view over the Mount Etna but-- Guess what? The clouds just covered everything >_< !! It's the same exact thing that happened in Kofu while checking out Mount Fuji! Of course these damn mountains feel my spite, avoiding my inquiring glances XD !
As this was one of the few places that I could get to visit properly due to a truce from raining, I took my time exploring it.
After Taormina our next stop was Porto Empedocle, where we stayed for the night.
There wasn't much to see as the weather was terrible, but I still managed to enjoy a walk around the little town.
It was quite fun to find a bronze statue of Inspector Montalbano in the middle of the main street XD
The "imaginary" town of Vigata, where the novels are set, is in fact Porto Empedocle :D
The next day was dedicated to the close-by Agrigento!
THERE WAS SO MUCH THAT I WANTED TO SEE, BUT THE WEATHER WAS REALLY TERRIBLE TOT !
So, our first stop was the house of Luigi Pirandello, which was under a safe roof XD
It was a really interesting visit!!
Some rooms of the house where reconstructed to their original look, while other preserved some family treasures or belongings and prizes related to the popular author:
Quite interesting this picture featuring the "four generations" of Pirandello Family: Luigi, his father, his son and his granson-- LOL at him signing "4" with his hand XD
This ancient krater was used to move his ashes back to his birthplace:
His tomb is placed right behind his house, on a hill facing the sea:
Here you can read his last will: to place his ashes in one of the "naked rocks" of his bithplace.
;_;
The weather got a little better, so we tried to approach the Valle dei Templi, but we arrived at the entrance and it started pouring again XD
I still got to take a few pictures of cute blooming almond trees! Agrigento is famous for them and I really wanted to see them, so I was glad that I got to see a good deal, even if under a freaking storm (fortunately Almond blossoms are waaaaaay more resilient than sakura!)!
As we got a little truce from rain, we could take a walk around the city after lunch!
Here is the Baroque Basilica of San Francesco... From there you can spot its tiny Chiaramontan convent∼
After this, the spectacular Church of San Lorenzo:
And the Church of San Domenico, sharing its facade with the Palazzo dei Giganti:
While leaving the city we noticed some nice view on the temples from the road and stopped to take pictures-- LOL!
The weather got a bit better, so we decided to take a peek to a close-by attraction, the Scala dei Turchi :D
--IT WAS ONE HELL OF A WALK!
...And while leaving the place, we realized that, again, the spot was easily and nicely enjoyable from the road too XD
As the weather was horrible, we skipped our visit to Trapani ;_; and headed directly to Palermo :DDD
I was told that Palermo was quite beauty, but I wasn't expecting it to be so charming and fascinating-- For some reasons, its "diversity" reminded me of my beloved Rome:
It was raining again T^T so we couldn' see everything on our list, but fortunately we didn't miss the most important spots :3
First on our way, the mysterious Church of Santa Maria della Catena:
Another interesting spot is the park of Piazza della Marina... It's just a puny park, but it has the feel of a Botanical Garden because of its huge trees!
The "big star" of the park is the giant magnolia, a shockingly huge tree (I remind you that we're in the middle of a city, not in a jungle!):
--Here is a Dae (=175 cms) for comparison!
We kept our walk on the main Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, and we reached the lovely Quattro Canti square :D
Right behind it, Pretoria Square with its osè fountain, nicknamed by the locals as "the Fountain of Shame" XD
On a side of the fountain I found this disturbing thing D':
No idea about what is it, probably part of some ceremony, but it's really scary D': !!
Finally we reached the awesome Cathedral!!
How cooool!
Again, I visited the whole thing trying to protect myself from the rain :D I loved the relics of Santa Rosalia, the crypt and to look at the treasures of the Cathedral and the tombs of the Norman Kings :3 !
Proceeding onwards, we crossed Porta Nuova, where one can still notice the devotion to the kingdom:
After this we walked around the Palazzo dei Normanni and went to have lunch XD
On our way back to the hotel, we got to see the pretty Teatro Massimo:
And the absurdly cute Teatro Politeama! For those of you who read my Rome blog, you can see in it the big brother of the Acquario Romano:
On a parting note, some pictures of the Street art promoted by the hotel where we were staying ^^
MWAHAAAAAH, I want to go again on a sunny day >_< *stomps feet* !!
--Well then, baciamo le mani!
Originally posted at http://daeva-neesan.dreamwidth.org/567918.html
If you want, please comment there :3
So, for this trip my parents decided to come too, meaning that we went by car (for a total of 1000+ Kms o_o) and I got to see waaaay more places, as we had the chance to pass them by.
So, leaving out the trip from Rome to Sicily crossing more than half Italy, I'll rush to our first stop, the lovely city of Giardini Naxos-- Just saying, this was the view from our B&B :D
Unfortunately we happened in a week of TERRIBLE WEATHER, which is quite rare for a place like Sicily-- but I'm used to it by now =_= I assume I'm one of those "rainmen" (the locals suggested me to visit on summer, as in that period there are some extreme cases of drought! LOL)
Anyway, I never noticed how extremely "rocky" this region was... One thinks of Sicily and thinks of sea and beach, but I've never seen such mountainous landscapes all cluttered together, not even in places that are build OVER mountains!
It was quite hard to go around, and I can see from where so many logistic and technologic problems arise-- Yet, the contrast was indeed awe-inspiring, when not extremely disturbing--
The day after we visited the close-by and delightful Taormina:
--What a lovely little city!
Touristic sightseeing!
First of all, the lovely middle-age Duomo, rendered like a little castle:
The peculiar Baroque Church of San Giuseppe with its vanitas:
This shot is dedicated to the contrasting architectures of the Arabic Palazzo Corvaja and the "rusty" Baroque of the Church of Santa Caterina d'Alessandria d'Egitto:
Dulcis in fundo, the glorious Ancient Theatre!
From here it is possible to get a great view over the Mount Etna but-- Guess what? The clouds just covered everything >_< !! It's the same exact thing that happened in Kofu while checking out Mount Fuji! Of course these damn mountains feel my spite, avoiding my inquiring glances XD !
As this was one of the few places that I could get to visit properly due to a truce from raining, I took my time exploring it.
After Taormina our next stop was Porto Empedocle, where we stayed for the night.
There wasn't much to see as the weather was terrible, but I still managed to enjoy a walk around the little town.
It was quite fun to find a bronze statue of Inspector Montalbano in the middle of the main street XD
The "imaginary" town of Vigata, where the novels are set, is in fact Porto Empedocle :D
The next day was dedicated to the close-by Agrigento!
THERE WAS SO MUCH THAT I WANTED TO SEE, BUT THE WEATHER WAS REALLY TERRIBLE TOT !
So, our first stop was the house of Luigi Pirandello, which was under a safe roof XD
It was a really interesting visit!!
Some rooms of the house where reconstructed to their original look, while other preserved some family treasures or belongings and prizes related to the popular author:
Quite interesting this picture featuring the "four generations" of Pirandello Family: Luigi, his father, his son and his granson-- LOL at him signing "4" with his hand XD
This ancient krater was used to move his ashes back to his birthplace:
His tomb is placed right behind his house, on a hill facing the sea:
Here you can read his last will: to place his ashes in one of the "naked rocks" of his bithplace.
;_;
The weather got a little better, so we tried to approach the Valle dei Templi, but we arrived at the entrance and it started pouring again XD
I still got to take a few pictures of cute blooming almond trees! Agrigento is famous for them and I really wanted to see them, so I was glad that I got to see a good deal, even if under a freaking storm (fortunately Almond blossoms are waaaaaay more resilient than sakura!)!
As we got a little truce from rain, we could take a walk around the city after lunch!
Here is the Baroque Basilica of San Francesco... From there you can spot its tiny Chiaramontan convent∼
After this, the spectacular Church of San Lorenzo:
And the Church of San Domenico, sharing its facade with the Palazzo dei Giganti:
While leaving the city we noticed some nice view on the temples from the road and stopped to take pictures-- LOL!
The weather got a bit better, so we decided to take a peek to a close-by attraction, the Scala dei Turchi :D
--IT WAS ONE HELL OF A WALK!
...And while leaving the place, we realized that, again, the spot was easily and nicely enjoyable from the road too XD
As the weather was horrible, we skipped our visit to Trapani ;_; and headed directly to Palermo :DDD
I was told that Palermo was quite beauty, but I wasn't expecting it to be so charming and fascinating-- For some reasons, its "diversity" reminded me of my beloved Rome:
It was raining again T^T so we couldn' see everything on our list, but fortunately we didn't miss the most important spots :3
First on our way, the mysterious Church of Santa Maria della Catena:
Another interesting spot is the park of Piazza della Marina... It's just a puny park, but it has the feel of a Botanical Garden because of its huge trees!
The "big star" of the park is the giant magnolia, a shockingly huge tree (I remind you that we're in the middle of a city, not in a jungle!):
--Here is a Dae (=175 cms) for comparison!
We kept our walk on the main Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, and we reached the lovely Quattro Canti square :D
Right behind it, Pretoria Square with its osè fountain, nicknamed by the locals as "the Fountain of Shame" XD
On a side of the fountain I found this disturbing thing D':
No idea about what is it, probably part of some ceremony, but it's really scary D': !!
Finally we reached the awesome Cathedral!!
How cooool!
Again, I visited the whole thing trying to protect myself from the rain :D I loved the relics of Santa Rosalia, the crypt and to look at the treasures of the Cathedral and the tombs of the Norman Kings :3 !
Proceeding onwards, we crossed Porta Nuova, where one can still notice the devotion to the kingdom:
After this we walked around the Palazzo dei Normanni and went to have lunch XD
On our way back to the hotel, we got to see the pretty Teatro Massimo:
And the absurdly cute Teatro Politeama! For those of you who read my Rome blog, you can see in it the big brother of the Acquario Romano:
On a parting note, some pictures of the Street art promoted by the hotel where we were staying ^^
MWAHAAAAAH, I want to go again on a sunny day >_< *stomps feet* !!
--Well then, baciamo le mani!
Originally posted at http://daeva-neesan.dreamwidth.org/567918.html
If you want, please comment there :3