Category: Europe Fall 2022

In September and October 2022 Duke and I are travelling through Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania and Greece.

Palermo to Agrigenta

This morning before we left Palermo we walked down to the waterfront to see all the yachts and cruise ships. We also saw the mural of Giovanni Falcone and Paola Borsellino, two Italian judges who took on the mafia and were assassinated in 1992.

Palermo harbor
Falcone and Borsellino mural.

We drove south out of Palermo to our agritourismo near Agrigento where we are tonight. When our rooms were ready we went for a swim in the pool. It felt great because it is very hot here today.

Cooling off in the swimming pool

About 5:00 we visited the valley of the temples to see the temples that were built there in the fifth century BC.

Temple in the Valley of the Temples
Temple in the Valley of the Temples

We had dinner at our agriturismo.

Antipasto
Canollo for desert

Pergusa to Palermo

It was a big day today as we headed to Palermo. First we had a lovely breakfast at Villa Pastorelli.

Breakfast at Villa Pastorelli

Our first stop of the day was at Villa Romana Del Casale. It is a large Roman Villa with extensive mosaics dating from the early 4th century AD.

An elephant being loaded on to a ship
Women athletes Competing
Fisherman

According to Wikipedia the mosaics are so well preserved because the site was covered by a flood and landslide in the twelfth century. The Villa is enormous. It covers 3500 square meters.

From Casale we drove to the capital of Sicily, Palermo. Palermo is the fourth biggest city in Italy. Driving to our hotel in the middle of Palermo was a challenge but we made it!

After a brief rest we walked to the opera house across from our hotel and took a tour. The opera house is the third biggest in the world after Paris and Vienna. Parts of Godfather III were filmed there.

The Palermo Opera House
Inside the Palermo Opera house

Next we stopped for a mid afternoon snack.

A snack

After our rest we walked to the Palermo Cathedral.

Palermo Cathedral

We had a great dinner just around the corner from our hotel.

Duke’s fish
My pesto pasta with pistachios and shrimp

Ficarra to Pergusa

We ate breakfast outside on the terrace of Villa Genevra before starting our exploring for today.

Breakfast at Villa Genevra

After breakfast we drove south and a bit west over the top of Sicily. There are excellent main roads around the outside of the island but we chose to drive the back roads through the center of the island.

Back roads of Sicily

We finally saw some cattle for Brian to study and identify. This one has a massive cow bell.

Cow with cow bell

We also saw a lot of wild blackberries. They were very tasty.

Blackberries
Wild blackberries

As we came over the top of the mountains we had some great views of Mt Etna spewing steam.

Mount Etna

Not far from our destination for tonight we just happen upon a Canadian War Cemetery.

Canadian War Cemetery
One of the 490 graves in the cemetery

Tonight we are staying at Villa Pastorelli in Pergusa. Armando and his dog Chromo greeted us. Armando offered us tea, coffee or beer. We opted for beer and sat and talked before he showed us around. Chromo played fetch with us using a pine cone.

Playing cards at Villa Pastorelli

Before dinner we went into the little town of Pergusa and parked near the lake to take a walk. Pergusa Lake is the only natural lake in Sicily. Until we got there we didn’t realize that a motorcycle and car racing track goes around the lake.

Enna-Pergusa Race Track
Pergusa Lake

For dinner we ate at a nearby restaurant, Ristorante Di Carlo. People eat quite late in Italy. By the time we left at about 9 it was very busy, and they don’t close until 3am! We ate outside as we have done for about half our meals in Italy. I’m pretty sure we were the only tourists in the restaurant.

Bruschetta to share
Duke’s seafood mix
My fish
My tiramisu

San Lucido to Ficcarra on Sicily

Today we continued down the Italian coast to the ‘toe’ of Italy where we caught a ferry across to Sicily. A separate ferry was loading big trucks as our ferry was loading cars. It was impressive to see the giant semis making a 90 degree turn onto their ferry.

A truck ready to get on the ferry

The whole operation was very efficient. They were loading and unloading our ferry at the same time. It was all very fast.

Loading our ferry

It is a beautiful day so the views as we cruised the Mediterranean were great. It actually was a very short ride

Crossing from the ‘toe’ of Italy to Sicily.
Duke and I on the ferry

We are staying up in the mountains above the north coast of Sicily. The place is called Villa Ginevra.

The view from our room
Best spot yet to play cards

For dinner the hotel made us a reservation at a restaurant even farther up in the mountains. It was a good thing we had a reservation because there were two big parties going on there too.

Al Boscheto where we ate dinner
Brian, Jo Ann and Duke at dinner
My pasta with fennel, raisins and local sausage

Omignano Scalo to San Lucido

The place we stayed last night, Iumara Relax Resort, was fantastic. It’s quite new. The property manager, Paolo, was very friendly and helpful.

Iumara Relax Resort
Paolo, the property manager, Duke and Jo Ann

Paolo offered to set up a tour of the owner’s water buffalo farm for us. We jumped at the chance and got to do the tour this morning. The water buffalo are raised to be milked. The milk is used to make mozzarella cheese.

Water buffalo
Milena, the co-owner of the farm gave us the tour.

One interesting thing that we learned is that they use the waste from the cows to make all their own electricity! We all thoroughly enjoyed the tour.

After our tour we drove south further along the Calabrian coast. We stopped often to stretch and enjoy the views. Once we even stopped to eat gelato.

The Calabrian Coast
Eating gelato.

We are staying in a small B and B in San Lucido. We played cards before dinner and then walked around the town and found a coast side restaurant for dinner.

Playing cards
San Lucido
Dinner
Our dinner spot.