Tuesday 2nd May
The packed car park in Siracusa eventually emptied and we had a quiet night’s sleep. Sarah took Skye for her morning walk back into the old town and it was as empty as it was busy yesterday.
Today we headed to inland Sicily. I think most tourists stick to the coast but since we are in Sicily for about a month I thought a few days inland would give us an added perspective.
Much of our initial journey was uphill, because the area we were visiting sits on a plateau with an altitude of about 700m (2,200 feet). The road was one of the best we’ve come across in Italy and although it had few hairpins it wasn’t anything to frighten Basil.
The two primary observations we made on our journey was firstly how spectacularly beautiful inland Sicily is at this time of year. Wild flowers in a multitude of hues carpet the ground. Most of the terrain is rocky and so large scale agriculture has not taken hold. Just a few cows and sheep with the odd field of grain squeezed in where possible.
Our second observation was not so pleasant. Fly tipping. The sides of many of the roads in Sicily are littered with deliberate or negligent fly tipping. We have found the same, in towns, with dog mess. Although most pavements are clear any small patches of grass is covered with canine faeces. The Sicilians do not appear to have much civic pride.
Our first stop was the town of Palazzolo Acreide. It is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage towns in this part of Sicily along with Ragusa, Noto, Modica and others. In 1692 a massive earthquake destroyed much of this part of Sicily with the result that when reconstruction took place there was a unique Baroque architectural conformity. Sarah and I have visited the area, without Basil, a few years ago but had not visited this town before.
We parked Basil in a big, empty car park and walked up the steep streets to the main square. The principal building of note was the extravagant Basilica. Fronted by a large flight of stairs it soared into the sky like a giant wedding cake with Baroque exuberance. The interior was much the same. As ornate as some of the Norman Cathedrals we’ve seen in Southern Italy were plain.
The overall feeling of the town was somewhat spoilt by the proliferation of cars on the narrow streets. I know that all towns cannot have the luxury of pedestrianising their centre, but when they do it certainly makes a big difference to their appeal.
While Sarah was looking round the Cathedral and I was dog minding, I realised it was lunchtime and had a look round for somewhere to buy a sandwich. On the main square a small restaurant had a chalk board advertising paninis. The board read as follows: “Panini – Horse, Foal, Donkey, Chicken”! I didn’t think we would be buying our sandwiches there.
After an hour wandering around the overall rather disappointing old town, we returned to Basil and set off for our second stop of the day, Caltagirone. It was another one hour journey and we parked up in a slightly scruffy car park next to two other motorhomes (37.238146, 14.516660. Free). As we had lunch storm clouds gathered and after consulting the Italian weather service, we decided to postpone our explorations until tomorrow. This turned out to be a good decision, because at 4pm there was an enormous thunderstorm which would have left us soaked. With luck that should have cleared the air.
