Sicily

[naath]

We went to Sicily onna TRAIN and they put the TRAIN onna BOAT. And that was AMAZINGLY COOL. I LOVE TRAINS. And it was amasingly, wonderfully, WARM oh so NICE to not be COLD.

And I swam in the Tyrennian and the Mediteranean Seas and they were warm a clear and beautiful. And I had the most amazing Turkish bath in Palermo, and the most wonderful FOOD omg the FOOD, glorious fish and pizza and oh! you can do pizza with pumpkin instead of tomato and that's so amazing I must figure out how to do it right. And we saw stunning Norman and Baroque cathedrals, and Greek temples. And the ICE CREAM, and oh, the pastries. OM NOMNOMNOM. Food HEAVEN.

And we went to Pompeii and saw all sorts of amazing Roman things. Naples though is just as much a dump as advertised.

http://www.osteriadeivespri.it/ is one of the best places I have ever eaten. Absolutely amazing. And a VAST wine list.

http://www.bagliodellaluna.com/ is a lovely hotel as is http://www.hotelvecchioborgo.eu/ but although http://www.ilprincipehotel.com/eng/ has a nice cocktail bar it couldn't manage hot water...

Local trains in Sicily sucked, being bustituted badly. But busses were good (except for the one to Monreale which didn't exist).

Comments

[sidheag.livejournal.com]

Wow, we want to go to Sicily one of these years soon, and I didn't know you could go by train... Hmm. HMM!

[naath.livejournal.com]

Yes you can. AND THEY PUT THE TRAIN ON A BOAT. It is so AMAZING.

It is not, however, cheap. Bah.

[naath.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Sicily is amazing too!

Apparently very VERY hot in July/August. September was a very pleasant time to go. (as a child I went to Luxor, Egypt in August one year, because Mum is a teacher so we really couldn't go out of term... I didn't mind the 40-in-the-shade heat, but others coped rather less well)

[sidheag.livejournal.com]

I went to Sicily while pregnant with C, for a conference in Taormina. I remember the hotel having baskets of oranges round the place from its own orange trees, and that being heaven, as it was about all I could eat due to "morning" sickness. Would love to go back and see more; but yes, both timing and cost are issues. We have accidentally been living a little beyond our means - we twigged after already committed to skiing this winter! - so next summer we may be holidaying in Edinburgh* (how terrible! :-); and in any case, it's more sensible to go somewhere that makes sense in the middle of the long school holiday... but we'll square the circle some time. C wants to see a volcano, and Etna is rather the obvious one, although also, DH wants to go to Iceland some time...

*Or possibly Loughborough...

[naath.livejournal.com]

Edinburgh is nicer than Loughborough I'm sure :)

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

Out of all my travels, Italy has the best ice cream. I must go back sometime.