After Santorini and the buried ruins of Akrotiri and then Pompeii, we had to complete the three and go to Mt Etna when in Sicily.
But instead of terrified people fleeing a volcanic eruption as in the past, we saw the opposite
.
Messina was the first place where we saw evidence of the migrant crisis with a ship-load of illegal migrants coming from Africa mooring next to us.
Apparently 6000 arrived that day alone. With high unemployment this constant inflow is causing a lot of resentment and frustration.
Another thing we noticed was the amount of rubbish in every nook and cranny.
Our guide told us that there's no sense of community in Sicily after centuries of foreign domination and this, apparently, is the reason for not giving a stuff about living with trash.
Even on Mt Etna there were plastic bottles, tyres and assorted rubbish strewn around the craters and old lava flows.
So the Mt Etna experience was somewhat disappointing from that respect.
I should add the tatty tourist trinkets like madonnas carved from lava stone sprinkled with purple glitter and the garish tourist train carrying people about to the list of things the Italians have done to reduce a place of primal energy to one of a yawn
.
This place will go with a bang at some stage but for now it's definitely a whimper.
It was worth going though. We'd have always regretted it if we'd given it a miss.
Taormina though, where we spent the afternoon, was quite a different kettle of fish.
For a start, we had no expectations as we knew absolutely nothing about it.
Being high up on a steep cliff, the coastal views were wonderful but the town itself was full of interest, with impressive old buildings and intriguing steep little lanes running off the main road.
We made a silly mistake by spending way too long at an Internet cafe and then finding ourselves running about trying to see the place before the coach left.
A lesson learned about priorities!
We had no idea how interesting Taormina would be, so frittered away our valuable time on seductive electronic time-wasters.
Perhaps another time -- with a longer stay.
Venturing to Mt Etna and Discovering Taormina
Wednesday, October 05, 2016
Messina, Sicily, Italy
Other Entries
-
1Making Landfall
Aug 3135 days priorNewark, United Statesphoto_camera2videocam 0comment 1 -
2Millersburg, PA
Sep 0134 days priorMillersburg, United Statesphoto_camera11videocam 0comment 0 -
3DC Capers
Sep 0530 days priorWashington DC, United Statesphoto_camera11videocam 0comment 1 -
4Going Troppo
Sep 1421 days priorKey West Florida, United Statesphoto_camera24videocam 0comment 0 -
5Last Plane to London
Sep 1421 days priorNewark, United Statesphoto_camera1videocam 0comment 0 -
6Stopover UK
Sep 1619 days priorGatwick, United Kingdomphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 0 -
7Santorini Sunset
Sep 2411 days priorMegalochori, Greecephoto_camera22videocam 0comment 0 -
8Bon Voyage
Sep 278 days priorSouthampton, United Kingdomphoto_camera2videocam 0comment 4 -
9On board the Emerald Princess
Oct 023 days priorGibraltar, United Kingdomphoto_camera0videocam 0comment 0 -
10Leaving England
Oct 032 days priorCivitavecchia, Italyphoto_camera4videocam 0comment 0 -
11An Etruscan Feast
Oct 032 days priorCivitavecchia, Italyphoto_camera3videocam 0comment 0 -
12Down to Earth in Naples
Oct 041 day priorNaples, Italyphoto_camera13videocam 0comment 2 -
13Venturing to Mt Etna and Discovering Taormina
Oct 05Messina, Italyphoto_camera9videocam 0comment 0 -
14Transiting Suez Canal
Oct 083 days laterSuez Canal, Egyptphoto_camera2videocam 0comment 0 -
15Archaeological Feast
Oct 105 days laterPetra, Jordanphoto_camera7videocam 0comment 1 -
16Desert Malls
Oct 1813 days laterDubai, United Arab Emiratesphoto_camera8videocam 0comment 1 -
17Living on the Edge
Oct 2217 days laterKerala, Indiaphoto_camera7videocam 0comment 1 -
18Asian Waters
Oct 3126 days laterMuang Pattaya, Thailandphoto_camera28videocam 0comment 1 -
19Back to Bali
Nov 0430 days laterBali, Indonesiaphoto_camera13videocam 0comment 3
2025-02-10