Sunday 30th April
The owner at the campsite gave us some sage advice on getting the ferry to Sicily. Don’t buy tickets in advance, because you will have to arrive at the port 2 hours before sailing. Buy the tickets at the port and they will usually put you on the next ferry, which sail every 40 minutes.
Team Basil were sad to leave Camping Mimosa and drove about an hour to Villa San Giovani, which is the departure point for the shortest, 20 minute, crossing to Sicily. We bought our single ticket, which was about €50 and joined the three queues for the next ferry.
Skye had to stay in the motorhome for the short crossing and because we didn’t know how she would react, Sarah hid in our bedroom so she would be on hand.
Embarkation was hilariously Italian. They had carefully organised three lines of vehicles with a barrier at the front of each row. In the UK they would raise one barrier and let that queue clear before raising the next barrier. Not the Italians. They raised all three barriers simultaneously leading to an unseemly scrum onto the car deck. Basil, being bigger than everyone, had a distinct advantage and at one point, as an Italian car came round the side, trying to cut in, it appeared his only options was to drive into the harbour! At that point he gave up! All this had me in stitches and Sarah, from her bed, could hear me chortling away in the drivers seat.
On board I left Sarah and Skye in Basil as I nipped upstairs. Of course an Italian ship has a full espresso machine and I had just managed to finish my small dark coffee before we docked.
We crawled our way out of Messina and onto the motorway, but were dismayed to find heavy rain and low cloud. The temperature had dropped from 21ºC to 15ºC! We couldn’t see Europe’s biggest volcano, Etna.
We arrived at Giardini Naxos at the OK Eden Parking (€15 without electric. 37.8211,15.2674). Taking it in turns we walked Skye and Sarah found a small beach for her. Just outside the gates of our encampment is a large archeological park, the site of the Ancient Greek settlement of Naxos. It is not open to the public at the moment, but in the grounds there is a large tower built to defend the area from pirates. Apparently the last pirate raid occurred as late as 1830.
We discovered from the receptionist at the campsite that Skye is too big to go on the local buses and so our only option for visiting Taormina tomorrow is a private minibus at €30. We quickly decided that if the weather hadn’t improved, we would give Taormina a miss, because much of its charm comes from the fantastic views!
Finally we went out to eat for the first time in a few days. It was again cheap and delicious.
Monday 1st May
Morning broke, cold, wet, grey and with very low cloud cover. Our minds were made up. We are heading to Siracusa where the weather looks more favourable.
First a stop at LIDL. It looks like our last LIDL shop until we return to the mainland. The only LIDLs seem to be on the eastern coast of Sicily and after tomorrow we will not be returning.
The drive to Siracusa was just over an hour and we wound ourselves down now familiar narrow streets to a huge parking space near the old town (37.0644, 15.2862. €17 24h). The car park was packed, but fortunately we found three Italian motorhomes who had parked in small coach spaces and there was one left! It is €17 for 24 hours, which is expensive for a car park, but it is only 200 metres from one of Sicily’s biggest tourist attractions.
Siracusa is another very ancient Greek city, which, like all of Sicily has been under the control of numerous rulers ever since.
It is a public holiday today and so the crowds were dense as we walked towards the beautiful Baroque Cathedral square, which is magnificent. But we soon found that if you turned off any of the main streets the crowds disappeared and as usual many of the prettiest parts of Italian towns can be found by exploring the streets and alleys less trodden.
We are now back in Basil and will probably go into Siracusa old town to eat tonight. The old town is known as Ortigia and is, in fact, an island, presumably, in the past, making it more easily defendable.
