Thursday
16th October
Taormina
It
was overcast and wet this morning and so our request for directions
to Mount Etna was met with a certain amount of incredulity by the
hotel staff. Nevertheless we pressed on.
The
trip to Etna was filled with storms and driving rain. We too began
to think that this was a bit of a quixotic quest, but it was our last
chance to get up close and personal with a live volcano. The gods
seems to be against it!
As
we began to climb towards the mountain, we were pleased that the rain
eased off. We got as far as the crater about two thirds of the way
up, 1924 m above sea level. This is as far as you can go by car,
then you have to take a gondola to the rim. Unfortunately, the said
gondola was not running due to the inclement weather but still the
vista was exciting. We were surrounded by black lava flows of past
eruptions and were surprised about all the beautiful foliage and
small villages. As we looked to the summit we were able to see that
it was covered in snow ... didn't expect that either. We had coffee
in a chalet and then decided to visit the nearby city of Catania,
which we had researched and found had a gay boy-town. We arrived
late in the afternoon, found it and left in the early evening, really
not worth the visit! It was a slight diversion on a wet, cold day.
Getting into Catania was pretty easy, getting out was not. We spent
about half an hour driving around trying to find directions to the
autostrada to get us back to Taormina. Finally, arrived home
safely, happy to have had a bit of a glimpse of the famous Mount
Etna. Pizza takeaway out on the lanai then off to ZZ land.
