Milazzo

The main reason we'd come to Milazzo is because just off the coast here is an archipelago of seven volcanic islands, including two active volcanoes: Stromboli and Vulcano. They've been continually erupting for basically all of recorded history, and are both quite important to the development of the science of volcanology. We were both pretty excited about it, and the weather was looking perfect.

Since the boats only leave at irregular intervals, we got down to the port with plenty of time to spare - around 8:45 for the 9:30 boat. Problem: despite the nice weather and calm appearance, the seas in the strait were very rough and no boats were running. They weren't sure whether the next boat at 12:30 would proceed either!

Disappointed, we returned home and waited around for a couple of hours before returning to the dock. Nope - the 12:30 boat isn't going either. We consoled ourselves with a long lunch before returning home and then driving out to the headland where we could see the seas definitely were rough despite the lovely weather on land.

So we returned home. Decided that although we had to leave tomorrow, visit the vet, Taormina, and then drive to Mount Etna, we'd try and still fit in a visit to the Islands. Called the vet and after some confused chat in broken English and more broken Italian, moved tomorrow's appointment to this afternoon at 5pm. Relaxed at home until then and drove over, where we got Schnitzel's medication done and passport checks filled out.

Back home again where we stayed in for the evening. Fingers crossed the boats are running again tomorrow!Read more