Another ferry

After an interesting couple of hours in the ports commercial parking area, where a steady stream of cars with single people inside cruised past inquisitively but only one wound down her window to offer me take-aways or something, (my Italian is not too fluent,) I found a pleasant spot in a quiet lane beside the hospital to spend the night before catching a ferry from Villa San Giovanni Caronte to Messina. 60 Euros for an half hour crossing makes it nearly 4 times more expensive than crossing the channel!
Crossing the terrain would be like sitting on a merry-go-round horse were it not for the many viaducts built everywhere.
My hopes for warm temperatures were raised by the latitude, about the same as Andalucia, and by the smouldering Mount Etna which had been farting for a few days (and still is). Alas, no sooner did I arrive at my destination, Caltagirone, than it snowed heavily. Watching the cars in town sliding around in nearly 50 cm of white stuff was mildly amusing but luckily it all melted within 24 hrs.
Incidentally, Stromboli has just erupted unexpectedly but since it is not linked to Etna, that doesn't signify much to me, though I suppose the people evacuated from their homes were not too happy.Read more