Sicily

We planned to stop in Crotone in Calabria, but the winds were good so we pressed on to Siracusa, the ancient Greek city of Syracuse. Crotone also had a reputation for being Mafia friendly since it is the coven for that particular Brotherhood. So we voted unanimously to put some miles on Amante. Our next destination has one of the best natural harbors in the Med, which means we had an anchorage that was safe and free. For all you cruisers out there, lots of space and a mud bottom!

The old part of this old city is on the island of Ortygia. There are few Greek remnants remaining, in this case the Temple of Apollo. Siracusa was one of those places that was bombed by both the Allies and the Germans.

This wonderful harbor had a fantastic market which we will gladly share with you! Can you beat vine ripened tomatoes at 50 cents a lb? Fresh swordfish at $ 7?

Sicily knows good food. This part of the coast has the mixed-blessing of Mt Etna. The good parts are rich soil, a wide variety of elevations (and hence, growing conditions). The bad parts: volcanic ash and lava flows. Sicilians know their cheeses and smoked meats. Not to mention breads and home made pasta. The couple in the background are stocking up on indigenous vino.

When we hit a new town the first place to get inspected is the fresh produce market. Sicily was no exception and as soon as we tied up the dingy we grabbed our bags and queried the first yachtie . Easy to spot a cruiser. Backpacks loaded as well as shopping bags overflowing. Grubby clothes and worn crocs while sporting the proverbial tattered hat. Hurray for those with new Sperry's!

This block long veggie market included fresh fish and other sea delights including octopi and shrimp. No ink, thank you.

These signs are in euros per kilogram. At the time it was 1.36 euro's per U.S. greenback. Squid tonight?

Being a coastal town everything was brought in fresh daily. Sicilians seemed to enjoy shopping as well as the preparation of an elaborate family dinner. This is just based on observation from what gastronomes were buying.

Every day this open air Whole Foods is recreated from scratch. Pepper anyone?

We are glad we only stayed 2 weeks here. We didn't even begin to enjoy Sicilian gastronomies. We easily could have put on the pasta around hips, thighs and tummies.

The swordfish was tops. grilled with butter and lemons. Did we mention fresh?

The local plums were around a buck a kilogram!

Not buying fresh sardines today. This lady had little competition from yours truly. Cash rules here. Leave the plastic at home..

Not unknown for us to buy a bucket of olives. Just way too much food and everything you can dream of in regards to herbs, spices and other delectable goodies.

Very crowded on a Saturday morning. Tourists flashing away at vendors trying to get that perfect photo.

Mind you, all the prices are for a kg. Pretty cheap in this girl's book.

Here's a shot up an alley which is eerily vacant considering the surrounding market melee. Back to the barco for a sumptuous dinner! Join us, won't you, as we peruse the wharves, harbors and ancient ruins of the Med!

Although the island of Ortygia has few ruins, there is some interesting stuff in Syracuse, it's just that like most ancient cities, the urban center was located a ways inland in a more defensible location. This is the famous theater of Syracuse, where Aeschylus performed his plays. The blue just past the trees on the left is the Great Harbor.

This is the theater entrance. You can see both ancient wagon ruts worn in the soft limestone as well as numerous niches cut into the walls. The conical shape on the horizon is the new Catholic cathedral.

Some of the niches are more like caves, complete with multiple rooms.

One of the more infamous sights in Syracuse are the limestone quarries where the Athenian army was penned up after their surrender in the disastrous Sicilian Expedition during the Peloponnesian War. Some 7,000 were bottled up here to die of starvation and thirst, the fortunate being sold into slavery. Note the large cave on the left.

This is the Ear of Dionysius, an artificial cave with exceptional acoustics. Unfortunately, this means people bring in small children who delight in screaming, which tends to mar the experience.

This is a Roman-period theater. The city fell to Rome in 212BC, leading to the death of Archimedes at the hands of a Roman soldier.

We next made a side trip to climb Mt Etna, which dominates the east coast of Sicily. As you can see, our "climb" involved riding a cable car...

... followed by a short trip in a mining vehicle. The view is spectacular.

The ant-like people and toy trucks in the foreground provide a measure of scale.

The trucks are large Mercedes vans with hydraulic drive. Everywhere you look is covered with a layer of fine black ash, almost like black snow. And yes, at 11,000' (3400m) it's cold up here!

This is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, rivaling Hawaii in its destructive eruptions. The yellowish stuff on the right side of the cone is elemental sulfur. Mt Etna was thought to be the forge of Hephaestus (Vulcan).

We needed to make tracks, so we sailed up the east coast of Sicily to the infamous Straits of Messina. This is the lovely town of Taormina. It had a train following the coast and the scene resembled a model train set. The only downside is very deep water.

Mt Etna dominates this part of Sicily. This was taken in low light and looks a little fuzzy.

A beautiful sight as we approached where Calabria (Italian mainland) meets Sicily. The waves look a bit choppy, with good reason. We left at the right time when we'd transit the Strait, but hit strong (20 knots+) winds as we entered the southern end.

The Strait itself was nothing; guess we timed it right and missed Scylla and Charybdis, thought to be the monsters that inhabited the Strait and caused wrecks and dangerous sailor-swallowing whirlpools. The huge 220KV power pylon was built in the '50s and replaced with a submarine cable. They left the massive pylons as monuments.

Our goal was to reach the Aeolian Islands north of Sicily. This is the famous volcano Stromboli; we wanted to visit, but darkness was looming and the anchorage was iffy.

Our late arrival through the Strait meant we were late arriving at our destination, Isola Vulcano. Here the Capt takes a picture of the admiral and she retaliates. Vulcano is the island to the left, our destination being where the sun is setting. We finally arrived in the dark and the Capt was verbally keel-hauled for his poor planning. Luckily we were able to anchor safely and promptly departed in the morning for errrr..... greener pastures. What does that connote? It smelled like Hell at our midnight bay with sulfur wafting through the boat. Literally, Under the Volcano. We hightailed it to the other side of the island and hung out in deeper water away from the fuming cone.

The next day we moved to the other side of Vulcano. Here we see the cinder cone behind a plethora of boats. A big challenge of sailing in the Med is crowded anchorages, especially during August, when the entire EU goes on holiday.

This is Lipari. We needed fuel for our trip to Sardinia.

The island of Filicudi.

Please join us as we continue to Sardinia!

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