Cinque Fotografie-Catania Day 2

When we were first planning the destinations for our European trip, Sicily was not on the list. I had been wanting to travel to Greece to see the ruins, and Jim C was concerned about the economic and political instability there. When we talking about possible destinations with friends, our friend Jerry recommended that we consider traveling to Sicily. He shared with us that Sicily was home to one of the most significant intact ancient architecture, and we decided to follow his advice. We are so grateful that we did.

We launched the day by going out for a cappuccino and a croissant stuffed with pistachio cream. It was really very decadent, and tasty.

Once we returned to the courtyard of the B&B, we had to navigate getting cars moved around so that we can exit on the street. The game of "musical cars" finally resulted in success when we located the driver who had boxed us in.

As we headed out of Catania, we got our first glimpse of the snow-capped Mount Etna which dominated the landscape about the beautiful fields of green that were dotted with a multitude of red poppies.

We had two planned visits to ancient ruins on our day trip today. Our first stop was to see the Villa Roma del Casale, just outside of the town of Piazza Armerina. This site houses one of the largest collections of intact Roman mosaics inlaid in the excavated flooring and walls. The superb preservation of these artifacts is attributed to flooding and landslides that covered the palace grounds. The detail and colors were really quite remarkable given that this dates back to about 400 A.D.

After leaving this site, we headed to our next stop: Valle dei Templi outside the city of Aggrigento. This archeological park is estimated to date back to between 51O and 430 B.C. The structures were quite colossal as well as the location on top of a cliff as opposed to the misnomer valley.

It was also quite remarkable to see the modern city of Aggrigento on a rise about the ruins and bearing witness to its past.

As we were walking back to the car, I sampled my first granita, an ice slush drink with pomegranate juice. It was quite refreshing and tasty after all of our walking on the grounds of the Templi.

While we were in the ridge, we were allured by the views of the Mediterranean Sea and the town below. We ventured down for a drink and Sicilian pizza. I had the margherita pizza and Jim C. chose spinach. This pizza was characteric of Sicili, as it is quite spongy compared to the thin crust associated with Napoli. I think I'll be likely to prefer the latter.

In choosing the route home, we opted for the slower, but scenic roads that traversed along the coastline before heading inland.

I really want to give kudos to Jim C who did all of the diving. Sicilian drivers are very aggressive, and Jim responded in kind today. He attributes his time driving in New Jersey when he was younger as great preparation for the trip.

We concluded the evening went our first late- night Sicilian dinner. It was really quite fabulous. We particularly enjoyed an appetizer of grilled abalone and an interesting blood orange, anchovy and onion salad. The pasta and fish were fresh and delicious. We wrapped up with a spice cake with ricotta cheese. So good!

It's time for bed. I believe that we're going to check out the fish market and ancient ruins of Siracusa tomorrow. Ciao! 💞Read more