Sicily | FindPenguins

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Trip start
April 7, 2025
Sicily
Genoa, Italy
April 7, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 57 °F
After 39 days on the ship, we finally arrived in Italy. Bittersweet, because on one hand, it's great to be off the ship, but on the other, it means carrying our bags again.
Our train out of town didn't leave until 10 pm, so we stayed on the ship as long as possible. But upon leaving the ship, we found no immigration officials to stamp our passports. We were told to come back at 3pm. Two hours later. We went and stored arriving bags at a local hostel and had a cappucino in a cute coffee shop. We wandered for a bit before arriving back at 2:30 so as not to be late. We then waited for an hour. We then decided to take matters into our own hands and go to immigration ourselves. It would have worked fine, but another passenger waited even longer to disembark, and that was just too many people trying to check in outside normal operating hours.
Costa had to be called. Because of the other lady, no one believed we had disembarked at 12:30. Oh well, they stamped our passports and were off to see the town.
We walked around through the narrow streets and alleys admiring the architecture. We found the town elevator and ascended to enjoy views of the city. After enjoying the views, we descended down a second elevator and found an Italian place with delicious vegan ravioli. Then I wanted to have my drivers license translated for a car rental, so in the process of trying to loacate the translation service we snuck into an office building where we rode the antique elevator before giving up on the service. We then walked some more before heading back to our bag storing hostel near the train station.Read more
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Sicily
Train to Sicily
April 8, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 50 °F
It's a nineteen hour overnight train ride to Catania on the island of Sicily.
We didn't spring for a sleeper car, so even though the seats were comfortable for a six hour ride, not so much for 19. Oh well. We changed trains in Naples, so we had a chance to look out around the station.
The exciting part of the trip was when they loaded the train onto a ferry to make the crossing to the island.Read more
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Sicily
Catania
April 8, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F
After our long overnight train ride, we finally made it to Catania. We then caught a bus to the airport to pick up our rental car. From there it was off to dinner. We found a restaurant that had some historical cave. And from there to our hotel.
Of course, we had to find parking in the dark on these narrow over crowded streets. It's NOT fun getting yelled at in Italian when you're already stressed enough about the situation. Hmmm, on second thought, it was pretty funny. I didn't understand a word he said, so I wasn't offended at all.Read more
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Sicily
Campofranco
April 9, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F
We drove to Campofranco passing fields of beautiful wildflowers. G.maps took us some back way in, and I started to wonder if the road would stay paved. It did, barely. We traveled to Campofranco so Anna could schmooze the local officials into letting her apply for citizenship. It almost worked. But in the process of finding accommodations for the night, we mentioned that Anna was looking for distant relatives. We obviously talked to the right person. We found a room, and later, the mayor found us.
He brought us back to and opened up the government building, called in some help, and we (or he) internet searched for relatives. After a bit of searching and posing for pictures, we shared an apertivo agreed to return in the morning and went to our respective homes.
Unfortunately, the law changed recently, so no matter how much schmoozing, she still couldn't apply.Read more
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Sicily
Valley of the Temples
April 11, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F
About 40 minutes from Campofranco in Agrigento are some ancient Greek ruins. There are temples dedicated to specific God's, tombs, and statues.
From there, we went to Empedocle on the beach for the next couple nights.Read more
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Sicily
Scala dei turchi
April 12, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F
Why this is called the Turkish Staircase, I don't know, but the white cliffs were impressive.
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Sicily
Sirculina,
April 12, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F
We went to a store after the Turkish stairs, and when leaving, we saw this cool looking town up on the hillside with a huge church. We decided to explore.
The village claims to be all about couples and relationships because of a legend of two lovers that came from there.
It was fun finding the stand-ups around town depicting the lovers and other aspects of their relationship.Read more
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Sicily
Ponte Romano
April 13, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 68 °F
On our first visit to Campofranco, we were invited on a hike the following Sunday to an ancient Roman bridge near town. Being how Anna was trying to schmooze her way into a citizenship, she, of course, said yes.
It required driving back up to the village, but we had a great time in the walk and meeting and mingling with the locals.
The bridge unfortunately had collapsed a few years back, but you could still see both ends of it.
We also learned that the mountain on the other side has a huge underground lake.
After the hike, we made our way to San Cono and our next lodging. On our way we passed acres of prickly pear cactus fields.
Once we were checked in, we made our way down and then back up a long set of stairs through town so we could have a real Italian pizza. In Italy. It was delicious.Read more
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Sicily
Villa Romano del Casale
April 14, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 61 °F
A short distance from our place in San Como is the remains of 4th-century AD residential villa & estate, rich with Roman mosaics & wall paintings.
The pictures don't do it justice. The mosaics are absolutely stunning.Read more
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Sicily
Piazza Amarino
April 14, 2025 in Italy
After the Roman Villa, we headed into the closest town for some lunch.
The village was loaded with historic buildings, squares, and streets.
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Sicily
Enna
April 15, 2025 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 63 °F
On our way back to Catania and the airport, we detoured through the famous historical town of Enna.
It was cloudy and cold. In fact, we couldn't even really see the fortezza because it was engulfed in the clouds.
But we saw other cool buildings and had a delicious vegan dessert.Read more
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Trip end
April 17, 2025