Friday 26th May

Our Sosta at Catania turned out to be a bit of a compromise. On the one hand it was only €10 a night, on the other, the toilets and showers were unusable and the emptying facilities left much to be desired. The whole parking area was covered in volcanic rocks, of varying sizes, expelled over the years from Mount Etna. The largest ones were about the size of a large cherry tomato and I wouldn’t want to be around when they were raining from the skies!

Having spoken to an English camper on the Sosta he was opting to take a ferry from Palermo to Livorno, in Northern Italy, rather than undertake the long drive up Italy. We investigated the possibilities and have booked the same route for 1st June. We have a four berth external cabin and it’s dog friendly!

After the heat of the midday sun had cooled somewhat, we set off on foot, to Catania. Initially we tried walking on the main road, but the pavement was so narrow if felt unsafe and so we headed in to the streets less trodden.

You may have already gathered from previous posts that Italy, and Sicily in particular, is not good at keeping itself clean, but what we saw as we made our way to central Catania was on another level. Mountains of trash dumped in the street; dog mess everywhere; derelict buildings and a very unpleasant smell. One mitigating factor may be that we were walking through the port area and areas around docks do not have the best reputation the world over.

By the time we reached the centre of Catania Sarah was looking shell shocked. Having travelled all over the world together I have rarely, if ever, seen Sarah look so traumatised.

But being British we donned our best stiff upper lip and started to look round the city. I can’t say anything in Catania seemed to me, worth the effort of getting there. There was a pleasant Cathedral, an incomplete Greek theatre and a barely existent Roman Odeon. There were the inevitable Baroque churches, since Catania had been mostly flattened by the 1693 earthquake, but in the middle of a big city they lacked the impact of those Baroque masterpieces we have seen earlier in this trip.

I also came across another religious parade where dozens of small boys pulled along a religious tableau by means of two enormous ropes. It seemed more informal than the one we saw in Modica, but I am again unable to ascertain its particular purpose.

Our time in Catania was enlivened somewhat by the presence of literally hundreds of police. Streets were sealed off and access to other parts controlled. The centre of all the fuss was a rally of the “Fratelli d’Italia” the extreme right wing party of the current Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni. Subsequently we found out that the extreme security was due to Ms. Meloni herself making a speech at the rally at 6pm, by which time we were elsewhere enjoying an aperitivo.

We had dinner in Catania but Sarah, understandably, did not want to walk back to Sosta. We knew that dogs of Skye’s size are not supposed to go on buses, but on the basis that most rules in Italy are there to be broken, we thought we would give it a try.

Within a couple of minutes of us arriving at the bus stop our bus arrived. Sarah walked straight on with Skye and I attempted to pay. The driver waived me away, presumably not wanting the hassle of sorting out payment with a foreigner, and within 10 minutes we alighted next to our Sosta.

Saturday 28th May

We decided that since there was nothing major we still wished to see in Sicily, we would drive to our favourite campsite of the holiday so far and spend five nights relaxing prior to our ferry.

Fortunately there was a good motorway from Catania to Sicily’s north coast and apart from a quick LIDL stop, our journey to Camping Costa Ponente, near to Cefalu was smooth an uneventful. It is worth noting that the wild flowers that proliferated in our first couple of weeks in Sicily have now all but disappeared.

Unless something of particular interest occurs there may not be another post until we arrive in Livorno to start our journey northwards.