As I started thinking about this travelogue a couple of weeks ago, I discovered to my chagrin that the file in my brain labeled “Sicily” contained lots of information regarding the first 24 hours of that trip, but after that there was almost nothing . . . . just a short list of words like Mt. Etna . . . lava . . . Monreale . . . mosaics . . . Segesta . . . . salt marshes . . . . . but clearly not enough content to write even a mediocre travelogue. My initial reaction was NOT one of concern. I knew that reading the appropriate section of my Rick Steves book would jog my memory and it would all come back. But then I got out my Rick Steves “Italy” and discovered that there wasn’t one word about Sicily. Yikes! How could that be? Oh, yeah . . . . . . . we used a couple of tour books from the Heidelberg Post Library for that trip. My first attempt to put my hands on another copy of one of those tour books was unsuccessful. And I had doubts as to whether any amount of information Mike might be able to offer would be adequate to get the juices flowing in my* brain again. I thought seriously about just skipping Sicily and moving on to the next trip – Egypt. But then . . . . .I found a souvenir book I had purchased about Mt. Etna and . . . . I started examining my pictures a little more closely . . . . . and I checked out some things online . . . . and sloooooowly things started coming back to me. And then eventually I was able to locate a copy of the one of those tour books in a nearby library. So . . . . . you’ll have to wait a few more weeks for Egypt!
We did actually have travelling companions on this trip, Mike’s chaplain boss from Heidelberg and his wife – Jerry and Cynthia Jones. So if at any point you start thinking that maybe I’m just making things up to cover for myself you can come back to this blog in a few days and see if there are any protests in the comment section at the end.
Since I told you that there was nothing in my Rick Steves “Italy” book about Sicily you might wonder how I came to decide I wanted to go there. That’s easy. My hair stylist in Tacoma was an LDS missionary in Italy for a couple of years. Since I never really did find a good hairstylist in Heidelberg, I always went back to see Edward when I was in Tacoma and he always enjoys reminiscing with me about Italy. He’s the person who told me about the Amalfi Coast and it was an absolute winner, so when Edward said “You’ve got to go to Sicily,” I sat up and took notice. (For more about the Amalfi Coast see September 2006 – “Some Roads Lead to Rome.” It’s been transferred my new blog and has gotten a bit of a facelift since it was first published.)
The logistics of actually getting to Sicily were a little more complicated. Ryanair flies to Sicily, but their schedule doesn’t lend itself to a 4-day weekend. After lots of puttering around online, I came up with a plan: Fly to Rome early on a Thursday morning and rent a car. Do something on the mainland that day and be in Naples in time to board the SNAV ferry for Palermo, Sicily at 8:00PM. Spend the night on the ferry and arrive in Sicily the next morning. Spend Friday through Sunday on the island of Sicily. Be in Trapani (east coast of Sicily) by late Sunday evening to return the rent car and fly back to Frankfurt-Hahn. All that was actually fairly economical but only because (1) Hertz and Ryanair have some sort of unadvertised agreement whereby you don’t have to pay any one-way charges if you rent a car at one Ryanair terminal and return it to another. AND (2) for some unknown reason SNAV, the Italian ferry company that runs the Naples to Palermo route, had some kind of deal going where you could take a car on the ferry for almost nothing. So the only question that remained was what to do during that initial day on the mainland. Lack of options was not the problem; choosing was.My initial thought was to go back to the Amalfi Coast since I REALLY liked it and Mike had not been with me when I was there before. But we had invited the Jones to go with us and Cynthia really, really, really, REALLY wanted to go to Pompeii. So that was a major consideration. We had just been to Pompeii, so I was a little reluctant about going back there at first, but the more I thought about it the more it made sense and I started realizing that there was a lot in Pompeii that we had skipped. So that’s what we decided to do. And it was a good decision – as far as it went. The problem was that Mike and Cynthia and Ch Jones all knew about my interest in the Amalfi Coast and so, when we were ready to call it quits at Pompeii and it was several hours yet before we had to catch the ferry, they all started suggesting that we head down the Amalfi Coast. And since I really wanted to see it again, I agreed . . . . .although I should have known better.
The Amalfi Coast isn’t something you can do in a few hours. I thought I could come up with some sort of a short loop that would get us back to Naples in a timely way, but somehow short wasn’t short enough and next thing I knew we were racing the clock to be back in Naples in time to catch the ferry at 8:00PM. Somewhere along the line Mike decided he was Jehu, the son of Nimshi, and he began driving furiously
(2 Kings 9:20), which was really probably a good thing although at the time it sure didn’t feel like it! (Cynthia came down with a BAD case of shingles when we got home and she swears it was stress induced – the stressor being Mike’s driving!) As the minutes ticked by, things got more and more tense, and the silence in the car became deafening. It was 7:50PM when we finally arrived in the harbor area, and we weren’t sure exactly where our ferry was located or even if they would let us load a car that close to sailing time. And then . . . we missed a turn and the traffic was heavy and there was a 4 or 5 inch high median down the center of the street, so we couldn’t do any kind of a U-turn – legal or illegal. We had to go several blocks to find a place to turn around and by then it was 7:55 and it seemed pretty hopeless. We pulled into the loading area and amazingly enough our ferry was still there . . . . . . with a huge semi-trailer high-centered on its loading ramp . . . unable to move in any direction. It slowly dawned on us that that ship wasn’t going anywhere in the near future!!!! The tension emptied out of our car with one giant swoosh, like air out of a balloon. Unbelievable! Obviously somebody was taking care of us even though we didn’t really deserve it – or at least I didn’t!
They did eventually get the semi moved and our car loaded. There were a couple of residual issues to be worked through once we got on board, but they were fairly minor. For one thing, we were starving. As soon as got checked into our berths we headed for the dining room only to discover that they were about to shut down and what they had left was quite expensive and not very appealing. Oh well, . . . . at least we were there. Not somewhere in Naples searching for a hotel room and trying to figure out what to do next. Then as I was getting ready for bed, I discovered that I couldn’t find my sheaf of papers related to the trip – plane schedules, motel reservations etc, etc, etc. As it turned out, I had left it on the reception desk when we were checking into our berth and Ch Jones had picked it up for me, but he didn’t tell me that and I spent half the night (figuratively speaking!) looking for it and/or worrying about it. I refrained from killing him the next morning when he said “Oh, I have that.” Fortunately, after that the trip entered a smoother phase and there were no more mishaps – at least that I can remember!
Just for the record this was the second of three really close calls during our 4 years of traveling in Europe. Number 1 also involved the Jones. (You can read about it in February 2008 - “The Four Corners of Europe.” Can you believe they went with us again???) Number 3 and by far the worst, you haven’t heard about yet. It happened on the way home from Croatia and also involved a ferry. But it will have to wait for the appropriate travelogue. For now I’ll just say, “It did have a happy ending.” Though I must admit that even now – 9 months later -- it will be a challenge to laugh about it when the time comes to tell the story.
So now about Sicily. Sicily is a triangular shaped island perched off the toe of the boot of Italy. It is a large island. And there is a lot there to see. It’s worth a whole 10 day trip and we were only there for 3 days. We didn’t really DO Sicily. We just scratched the surface. I knew that when we went and I have been reminded of it again as I’ve worked on this travelogue. If any of you reading this have been to Sicily, I can just anticipate the “Did you . . . ? Did you . . . ? Did you . . . ?” questions and the answer to all of them will be “NO.” We just hit a few fairly random sights and at the moment I couldn’t even tell you what the rationale was for our choices, if there was one. We did, however, have a great trip. So here is my UNauthoritative, UNcomprehensive report about Sicily.
Mt. Etna is huge. It is the highest volcano in Europe and one of the largest in the world – much bigger than Vesuvius and A LOT more active. The list of eruptions for the last 50 years or so is fairly long. Several of them have involved the loss of buildings and infrastructure as well as some deaths. Mt. Etna dominates the eastern part of the island of Sicily. Our ferry landed in Palermo, which is a large city on the north coast of Sicily and sort of to the west. As we drove away from the ferry terminal and headed east, we began looking for Mt. Etna in the distance. As luck would have it, the mountain WAS “out” that day . . . . well . . . . sort of. We could see the top (it was snowy and there was some smoke coming out of it), but there was a lot of haze or fog or clouds or something in the air. 
I suspect that there is sort of a shock effect related to Mt. Etna that we missed -- like waking up in Tacoma, WA and seeing Rainier for the first time or being in Alaska for the first time when Denali is “out.”. Mt. Etna WAS impressive – don’t get me wrong -- but somehow I don’t think we got the full effect. In fact, when I looked at my pictures later, I almost deleted a couple of the first ones I took (when we were still quite a distance away), not noticing that there was a HUGE mountain in the picture!We approached Mt. Etna from the northwest and circled around to the east and then the south, stopping at various points along the way. On the north side, the road passes through some huge lava fields and eventually ends at a parking lot, about at the snow line, quite a ways below the summit. The lava fields were reminiscent of the Big Island in Hawaii.
The green foliage and the black lava right next to each other are very striking.
There was also some interesting wildlife along the road, both in the wooded area leading up to the lava fields
And in the lava fields themselves.
Oooops! OK, so Cynthia and I began comparing notes at the end of that first day and discovered that we had had the same ornery notion earlier in the day. I won’t show you her picture (though I actually have it on my computer!), because it is a little more revealing and . . . uh . . . . well . . . . I’m not married to the subject of her picture and I do have some sense of propriety. But this picture was irresistible.Anyway, we spent some time on the south side of Mt. Etna at a place called Refugio Sapienza. A cable car runs from there up to one of the four summit craters . . . . .
but not the day we were there. And it was no small wonder why. It was incredibly windy. Since I made a similar comment about Pointe du Hoc in my last travelogue you’re probably wondering if I’m just impressionable when it comes to wind. I’m here to tell you that I grew up in Colorado and Mike in Oklahoma and we lived in southern Arizona for 4 years. We know about wind. It takes a fair amount to impress me in that area. It just was REALLY windy at Refugio Sapienza. Like that day at Pointe du Hoc it was a struggle to just to walk. Ch Jones and Cynthia are not just trying to be silly in this picture. They are fighting to stay upright.
The landscape around Refugio Sapeinza is unique, to say the least. On the north side, Mt. Etna has some commonalities with Mt Rainier in Washington. On the south side, it is in a league all of it’s own. I’ve never seen anything like it . . . surreal . . . . or eerie . . . . or lunar . . . . maybe?
Here's a picture that illustrates pretty well the idea of a lava flow.
Supposedly there are about 200 individual volcano cones to the south of Mt. Etna in addition to the four main ones at the summit.
Now, just so you don’t think eastern Sicily is just a big pile of lava rocks, here's a picture of one of the valleys just below those lava fields.
Our second day in Sicily we drove to a town above Palermo called Monreale (as in Montreal, Canada without the “t”). The attraction there was a cathedral known for its mosaics. Again, just when I think all the possible styles of cathedral architecture have been exhausted, the next one is yet again unique – this time both on the outside
and on the inside. Almost every square inch of the inside was covered with mosaics -- walls, floors, ceilings, altar rails, everything. 
Mosaics are something about which I AM easily impressed. Sometime during our 4 years in Europe, I discovered that I just really like mosaics. Something about them appeals to the detailed organized aspect of my personality. If I ever had enough money to decorate my house extravagantly and my conscience would allow me to do so (neither of which is likely!), I probably wouldn’t spend a dime on original paintings or statues, but I would commission some classical artisan to do some mosaics for me. The unique thing about the mosaics in Monreale is that the individual pieces are A LOT smaller than anything else I’ve seen in Europe. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures that seem to demonstrate that really well.Here’s Noah building his ark, all in mosaic.
If you double click on this picture, you can actually see the individual pieces.
And all this is mosaic too. (Double clicking probably won’t work here – you’ll just have to takemy word for it!)
Notice the icon of Christ Pantocrator at the top of each of these pictures. It’s a dead give away that this is a Greek Orthodox Cathedral. In fact almost all Orthodox churches have an icon of Christ Pantocrator either in the central dome of the church or, as in this case, on the ceiling, over the nave. Pantocrator is the word that was used in the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew word El Shaddai. Early Christians ascribed this title to Jesus of Nazareth. It means “almighty, all-powerful” or, more loosely, "Ruler of All" or "Sustainer of the World." So now you know.
Outside the cathedral were some shops selling mosaics that were being created right there on the spot and we watched this guy at work. I typically don’t spend much on souvenirs when we travel – pictures, postcards and refrigerator magnets are pretty much it for me. But here I was sorely tempted to lay down a chunk of money – in retrospect maybe I should have done it.
Monreale is really into mosaics. Even the signs are mosaic.
And here’s just a neat side street near the cathedral – I like all the plants and the red shutters.
The views from Monreale looking down on Palermo are spectacular.
We spent the afternoon in Palermo. The cathedral there has an architectural style similar to Monreale, at least on the outside.
And there were a couple of other interesting churches in Palermo.
And an unusual fountain called the Fountain of Shame. Apparently this was built by a Florentine sculpture in the 1500’s and was originally intended for a private villa in Tuscany. When the owner’s son inherited the villa, he decided the fountain was a little too risqué for his tastes and sold it to the City of Palermo. Supposedly it created quite a scandal in Palermo when it was first unveiled. Eventually the citizens got over their outrage although they continue to refer to it as the Fountain of Shame. Reminds me of a statue that was erected in Loveland, Colorado (our pre-Army hometown) a number of years ago which was eventually moved to a more obscure part of town because of a similar reaction.
Here are some of those colorful painted ox carts for which Sicily is known.
We ended Day Three of our trip by driving to an overlook west of Palermo for some good views of the area.
This seems to be a rather well-planned cemetery.
Our last day in Sicily, we headed for a place called Segesta. This was probably my favorite spot in Sicily. Segesta is a huge Doric temple ruin and a theater in a beautiful country setting. Apparently there are other ruins in Sicily that are similarly situated. I wish we’d had time to check them out. Something about ruins surrounded by green fields and flowers is really appealing to me – especially BIG, Parthenon size ruins.
Segesta was built by the Elymians in the 5th century BC. The Elymians were indigenous to Sicily – pre-Greek and pre-Roman. If their choice of town sites is any indication, they must have had great aesthetic taste. Apparently the town of Segesta was destroyed by the Vandals (early 5th century AD) and never rebuilt. The Doric temple, which was actually never finished, is in a valley, off by itself. Above it, on the top of a hill is the theater and what remains of the town. The theater is being used today for various productions.
The view from the theater is incredible.
It was early April when we were in Sicily. It was very green and the flowers were spectacular. There were fields of poppies around Segesta -- 
also lots of purple thistle and a couple of other flowers whose names I don’t know.
I really wanted a good picture of some wisteria before we left the island and I’m not sure I was terribly successful, but here’s a couple of attempts.
I know that these yellow things are probably weeds, but they are colorful nonetheless and I liked them.
While I’m on the subject of flora and fauna . . . . . . the climate in Sicily is fairly arid, so cacti and succulents of all kinds do well. When we lived in southern Arizona, I just really took a liking to cacti. At one time I knew the difference between an agave and a century plant, but it has since escaped me. One or the other of them is very common in Sicily.
We had a piece of this stuff in our house in Colorado that moved with us to Kentucky and back before it got moldy and finally died. We were really proud of it because it was only a couple feet tall when we acquired it from a friend and it was about 5 ft tall when it died. When we moved to Hawaii, I discovered that this stuff actually grows wild and our 5 feet piece was actually pretty insignificant in terms of size.
Here’s a variety of sheep we’ve not seen before in all our wanderings. Look at how long the hair is!
Our last stop in Sicily was a place on the west coast just south of the Trapani airport where there is a salt harvesting operation that’s been going on since the 12th century. Apparently the idea is that you built a grid of levees near the sea and then flood the areas in between the levees with seawater. Eventually the water evaporates, leaving the salt lying on the ground where it can be collected up rather easily. Obviously the climate has to be such that evaporation exceeds precipitation for this to work.
Here are some giant piles of salt waiting to be ground up and sold. Presumably the tiles on top are just to keep it from blowing away. 
At Saline di Trapani, wind power has traditionally been use to grind up the salt and so it is today. Supposedly the salt from Saline di Trapani is the best in Italy although production has tapered off radically in recent years and only a small operation remains.Hopefully, that gives you a taste of Sicily. Again, there's not much in the way of family news. Mike is caught up in a "media event" and I keep expecting that one morning he will take his sleeping bag to work with him and not come home again until it's over. I'll refrain from saying any more than that. Deanna is in Tacoma, as I post this, enjoying her Spring Break. Amy is counting herons somewhere and being paid to do it. Alan is amusing himself by learning Arabic, compliments of Google but at his own initiative. And I am stubbornly wading through thousands of pictures on my computer with minimal progress. Such is life at the moment.
Stay posted for Egypt.
Nancy
