Sicily - June 26 - Mt Etna

The air was thick with heat and smoke as we departed bright (or not so bright) and early for Mt. Etna (Europe's tallest active volcano) and the seaside town of Taormina. Much of the route on the highway retraced our path to Agrigento, and this time we were able to see the "Madonie after they burned" or the "Madonie on fire," as was the case when we literally drove through flames on both sides of the highway. Several times the driver actually had to slow down because the smoke was too thick.

After about three hours on the bus, we arrived at Mt Etna. Sweetie and I had toyed with the idea of doing the extra cable car/jeep trip to a higher elevation, but I started to have flashbacks to my near-death experience on a cable car in Venezuela. When I thought of the similarities in attitude between Italians and Venezuelans, I was downright panicked. Luckilly, Sweetie felt much the same way and we decided to just tool around in the "village" (ie: tourist trap heaven) for 2 1/2 hours while others did the tour.

We headed straight toward a nearby crater which had a path around the rim. The entire crater was just black ash. We started up the crater side, but it was soooo windy that I became completely terrified of being blown off the side. It didn't matter that there were numerous 40-pound children walking around the rim and not being blown off. So, Sweetie had to escort me back down to the "safe zone" (ie: the point where terrified four-year old girls were cowering with their mothers) while he forged ahead and bravely circled the rim. When he returned, he decided he also wanted to go IN the crater, so that's what he did. When he safely returned, he somehow was able to convince me that I should also descend into the crater because it was perfectly fine and un-windy there (he was right).

Once that was out of the way, we bought the required snack at one of the restaurants in order to use the bathrooms without attracting attention (that was one ice cream bar I could have done without, but oh well, sometimes we have to make sacrifices).

We were grateful for the cooler temperatures at the higher altitude.

We headed to Taormina after that. Taormina was sooooo lovely. I could have wondered its scenic shop-lines streets for hours. It was very pictureque and charming. The Greek theater there had stunning views from the top -- along the coast both north and south of Taormina. There was even a huge cruise ship in the harbor.

We had a rather late return to Calanica, and nearly missed the "special dinner" night. But Domenico at the front desk admonished us that our food was waiting at the restuarant, so off we went, unshowered and unchanged from our day trip. Oh well. We enjoyed the dinner, but I swear if I have another dish of grilled eggplant in this lifetime.....That was almost always the vegetarian option...