Touring Sicily..hold on tight!

WOW, I will never complain about Sydney traffic ever again! (You can quote me on this!) Phil thought it would be a great idea to hire a car and tour some of Sicily. All organised the night before, and we picked up the car straight after breakfast and headed off towards Palermo. 

We rented an Alfa 147 diesel. It came with only 1/4 of a tank. So, one of the first jobs was to find a petrol station, and fill it up! We were expecting a big bill,, but we filled it for about 22 Euros! We then used the same tank all day, travelled for about 10 hours, and the little car was very impressive (and nice to drive).

The roads are pretty good and the freeway is 2 lanes the entire way. Everyone stays in the slow lanes unless overtaking. However, as you head into Palermo, the lanes widen, and the white lines disappear. 2 lanes mysteriously can become 5 lanes, with cars trying to squeeze in anywhere, as well as motorbikes and mopeds as well! I would have taken a photo or 2, but my hands were firmly embedded in the cushion of my seat! There was no way I could even think about taking any photos out of the window...I was too anxious!

Sicily is really mountainous. the roads are really interesting, instead of winding around the mountains, they have drilled tunnels through the hills and drive through the mountains. It makes for quick driving (as well as driving at high speeds, no speed limit!). They really have the road system figured out and the autobahn type roads were really good to drive on. 

The town of Enna is called the belly button of Sicily. It sits in the middle of Sicily, on top of a mountain. This was the first stop on our 'tour' of Sicily. Enna sits high up on a mountain, and we left the highway and climbed up some narrow, winding roads to the town centre. 

Driving through one-way streets (that would have been narrow for a donkey-cart!) we found a park and toured the town on foot.

We found a lovely old church, a few interesting piazzas , and the Enna Castello (castle). We stopped at a small cafe for a coffee and a rest, then back on with the touring!

We re-joined the highway (always an interesting experience!) and headed for Catania - as we drove down the road we had a wonderful view of Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe. It looks like it is covered in snow, but it is simply the ash and pumice. The boys were fascinated by it. We could see Mount Etna smoking.

We passed Catania and circled around Mount Etna, and stopped for a late lunch at a beautiful little town called Taormina. The town is regarded as a real 'Sicilian Pearl' and has heaps of history. It is set high on an outcrop of rock, and has winding streets and interesting little buildings and piazzas.

A known town for attracting tourists we had to park in a big parking tower at the bottom of the mountain and catch a shuttle bus up to the town. The town was packed with tourists, so stopping cars 

and buses at the bottom of the mountain was probably a good idea. 

 

We had a delicious lunch (although very expensive). We then had a lovely walk around the town and ended up at the ancient Roman ampitheatre. Currently there is some modern seating being added in some sections, on top of the ruins.

Through the columns you can have a super view of the smoking Mount Etna. It really was an amazing sight! 

We left Taomina and continued our drive around the coast. We had planned to make another stop (Cefalu) for ice creams and a sit on the beach, but Sicily is bigger than we realised and we probably bit off more with our tour than we thought! In the end, we decided to drive back to the hotel in time for dinner.