Catania

This morning we decided to experience part of the climb to Mt Etna, the 11,000 ft. volcano that dominates the landscape just north of Catania. Mt Etna is an active volcano that has erupted over 200 times since 1500 B.C. according to best estimates. The local airport in Catania was closed as recently as February due to Etna's spewing of ash and smoke.

We traveled up as far as the base of the tram where we reached an elevation of nearly 6200 ft. As I recall, that elevation is about the same as Rock Springs, WY, where I went to high school and returned to teach.

During our trip up the mountain, we saw considerable evidence of previous eruptions, and the sea of rock reminded us of our previous trip to the Big Island of Hawaii on the Kona side where you feel like you've landed on the moon.

The aerial tram takes visitors another 2000 ft up the volcano, but we opted to skip that due to its hefty price (50€) and the hazy sky. Visitors who want to travel beyond the upper tram stop to the summit must also have an experienced guide to lead them for that final steep climb on foot.

We departed Mt. Etna and tried to find some wineries nearby in Nicolosi. We were unsuccessful in locating open establishments, but we did enjoy driving through the communities and noticed how the residents incorporated retaining walls from volcanic rock.

We then made our way to Taormina, a beautiful hillside city that looms over the spectacular coast. Similar to our trip to Etna we traversed several switchbacks to arrive at the area where we found parking. My tongue-in-cheek English translation for Taormina is "beautiful hillside town where pedestrians will likely die". There are very few sidewalks on several of the main roads and it's important to be quite vigilant avoiding speeding cars, busses and motorbikes who seem to enjoy high-speed street slalom racing.

A light lunch of shrimp and tuna ceviche, some raw oysters and a few glasses of Vino Blanco calmed our nerves while we enjoyed the spectacular views of the bay.

We meandered through a street peppered with restaurants and souvenir shores and we noticed signs for a public park, Villa Comunale di Taormina. The park was quite lush with several intriguing sections and many beautiful views to the coast below. We first noticed an area with several exercise machines stationed in a circuit. Next we discovered military artillery and a monument honoring fallen soldiers from World Wars I & II.

Throughout the park several unusual buildings caught our attention. Upon further research, I learned that the structures were designed by a Scottish woman, Florence Trevelyan, who constructed these buildings with stones, wood and bricks and they are called “the beehives” or Victorian follies.

After we left the park, we decided to get cappuccinos and an early dinner. We found a lovely restaurant nestled high above the bay and Isola Bella, a small island that can be reached by a sandbar during low tide. We noticed that several sunbathers were wandering there, and we also observed that they none were wading or swimming in the sea.

We concluded our journey back to Catania, and dodged the ever chaotic traffic to our lodging house. We are grateful for yet another beautiful day of beautiful sights, great food and wine and a chance to enjoy our time together.

Late-night addendum:
I will just call this last thought as "Adventures in Ordering Food When You Don't Speak the Language and Google Translate Isn't Opening"

We took a fairly long nap after our return from the day's travels and we thought we'd grab a drink and a small snack. We passed an establishment labeled Oyster Bar and we thought red wine and some oysters might be the perfect ending of the day. It turns out that no one spoke more than a few words of English. Our attempt to order oysters and fried gnocchi morphed into the delivery of a pile of sliced bologna style meat, a basket filled with sopapillas or beignet-like fried dough pillows, a basket of bread, two whole grain croissants, and, as an extra bonus, the cook fried up whole artichokes.

We had to laugh at ourselves at our goof, but the most powerful part of the exchange was the opportunity to stumble through a conversation with Amal, the cook, . We learned that he is originally from Bangladesh, that he had a wife and two daughters aged five and ten. He described life in Sicily as very difficult, and despite living here for eighteen years, he still wasn't able to get the documents together to become a citizen.

He showed us photos of his daughters who were back home in Bangladesh to observe Ramadan. His daughters were dressed in festive traditional clothing to celebrate EID. We showed him a photo of Olive.

We talked about different foods and the names. Displayed on the counter was a baked good that he referred to as American Chocolate Cheesecake. He said that it was a lot more popular and less cumbersome to make than the cheesecake from his country. I showed Amal a photo of a chocolate cheesecake that I baked for a family gathering right before we left for our trip.

After we paid the bill, we left him a tip and thanked him for our dialogue and meal.

Our food ordering mishap became a very powerful exchange between strangers trying to find common ground despite different language, culture and experience. It was a beautiful experience.Read more