Sicilia: Taormina, Catania, Siracusa, & Noto.

Sono vivo!!! I am alive!!! This time, that actually means something! I've just returned from my 8 days in Sicily and I have so much to tell you all! Here's a little background information to get your minds oriented. Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean and inhabited by 5 million people. Palermo, the capital of the region has 1 million people, and is located on the western side of the island. We flew into Catania, which is on the eastern side of the island, close to the southern tip of "the boot". Catania is the second largest city after Palermo and was founded by the Greeks in 729 BC, and was built on top of the lava. In 1669, part of the city was destroyed by the worst eruption Mt. Etna has had, so that part of the city is newer than the rest.  Sicily is obviously very well known for many things including cannoli (which originated on the western side of the island) as well as the Godfather.

Alright, now that you have a little bit of background, I'm sure you're all dying to know what I did and to see my pictures!
Last Sunday, on the 7th, I met up with my group at the train station in Florence, where we then took taxis together to the airport. When I was about to go through security I had to hand my passport and boarding pass to one of the security guards. He saw my last name and was said "Oh, you're Italian." I told him that I was, and then he wanted to know where I was from. So then I had to explain that I was half from the north and half from the south, which is strange for Italians, so of course he was interested and kept talking to me, meanwhile in the back of my mind I'm thinking, "okay I need to get going, have to get to my gate." Finally I was able to walk through the security scanner, I took off my watch and my belt and walked through. I set the alarm off, so I went back through and the woman had me take my shoes off. I went back through and set it off again. I went through 3 times and kept setting it off. So finally she patted me down- which was the most patting down I have ever gotten. Good thing it was a woman because she was all up in my business if you know what I mean. I got my cleavage checked and she ran her hands around the inside of the waistline of my pants. I have no idea why I was setting it off, but eventually she let me go. Other than that, we had an uneventful plane ride and arrived in Catania around 2 pm. Inside the airport there were the signs that had the symbol of the commune of Catania, which I got extremely excited about, because it's an elephant! There were elephants all over Catania, I was like a little kid in an amusement park. After waiting around, for what felt like an eternity, we finally got our suitcases, met our tour guide, and got onto our bus, which happened to be a Mercedes-Benz. We all were making comments about how we travel in style. After a short drive we arrived in the city center of Catania, where we got out for a tour and to grab some lunch. One food that Sicily is known for is arancini, which are rice balls that have various fillings and are fried. They are huge, delicious, and very filling!

The comune of Catania's symbol.

My first arancini! I chose chicken. It tasted like Thanksgiving in my mouth. I was in heaven. There was chicken and a sort of stuffing inside, surrounded by rice, and then fried up! This was definitely the best arancini I had all week.

The main fountain in the city center. Another elephant!

Being that the area was built on top of lava, they had a lot of material available for building. The bottom layer of this building has a foundation made from lava. Using the lava for building material gave the city a kind of dark look to it, so I wasn't a huge fan of Catania. Our tour guide mentioned that Catania often is referred to as "the black city" for that reason.

On our tour we stoped at a large park in Catania that was absolutely beautiful. We had a lot of fun goofing around and taking group pictures.

The entire group. It only took 3 months, but we finally got a group picture.

Another elephant! This one was made out of the rocks along the path in the park. (It was not very comfortable to walk on.)

Inside the park there is a calendar, made out of rocks, that they change the date on everyday.

After a little bit longer in Catania we headed back to our bus and drove to Taormina, which is where we would be staying for the week.

We had absolutely beautiful views on our drive to Taormina.

The island on the right is Isola Bella (beautiful island) and is very famous. As you will see, we spent a few days at the beach by the island, but this is a good view of the island from up above.

This was our view from the balcony of our hotel room. We couldn't see much of the sea from our balcony, but the view of Taormina was beautiful nonetheless. After checking into the hotel and everyone getting unpacked and situated we met up for dinner as a group. We went to a place that is known for very good arancini, so as to make sure we got to try some typical Sicilian food. (Not everyone got arancini for lunch.) It took a while for all of us to get through the line, but after we all had our food we headed out to the piazza nearby and sat around the fountain eating and hanging out, which included having a game of garbage jenga. (Instead of taking pieces out, you had to add your garbage without knocking over the pile.) After that we headed to the world famous Bam Bar for granita. Granita is a typical Sicilian drink. It is made with ice, sugar, and fruit. This may sound like a slushy or fruit smoothie to you, but trust me, it is SO much better. And if you are ever in Sicily, Bam Bar is the place to go for granite. I tried a few others at different places when we weren't in Taormina, and they did not even compare. I went several times over the week and was never disappointed.

My pizza and arancini 'al burro'. It was like a ham and cheese inside the rice. It was good, but very rich. My pizza had spicy sausage and cheese on it. Yum!

My lemon and strawberry granita with cream!

Garbage jenga!

After dessert we walked around town for a little bit before heading back to our hotel to rest up for clas the next morning.

Monday:  We met in the lobby a little after 8 am on Monday so that we could walk to school together. We were going to Babilonia Language school, which is very well known. Upon walking into the school, all of our jaws dropped. It was absolutely beautiful! I honestly felt like I was in paradise and was so excited that I would get to be there everyday that week. Once we got there we took a seat in the garden and had a little welcome from the director. Then, those of us that were not beginners in Italian had to have a short little oral conversation with one of the instructors so that we could get placed into the proper class for the week. I got placed into one of the advanced classes with one other girl from my program, and 3 students who were probably in their late 50s or early 60s and were from Germany. I really enjoyed our class that we had, I definitely felt challenged, but not completely lost, and I feel like I learned a lot in just a week.

You walked down these absolutely beautiful steps, and then off to the left of one of the landings is this arch that opens up to a mini paradise.

There was a main corridor, that had wisteria growing above it. The smell was wonderfully intoxicating. Many times we all stood under them after class, taking in the sun and the smell, in total disbelief that it wasn't a dream.

Inside the arches were a bunch of little rooms where classes were held.

There was also a garden, which had wifi and little tables and chairs scattered around. There was a cafe and kitchen in the school so we often sat around having a cappuccino or eating lunch, or simply just enjoying the tranquility of it all.

There was also a room inside that had a few computers, tables, and couches to hang out at.

After our first day of class we headed out with our tour guide again for a tour and history of Taormina.
First we went and saw one of the Greek/Roman theaters, which was very big and had some great views of the area.

It's a little fuzzy, but the city on top of the hill in the picture is the town where parts of the Godfather were filmed, including the wedding scenes.

The symbol of Sicily.

If produce in Italy is amazing, produce from Sicily is out of this world. Here are some of the enormous lemons!

A beautiful park that we stopped at.

My first authentic Sicilian cannoli! I chose a chocolate filling, which tasted like a rich chocolate pudding. It was delicious. After out tour was over we were free for the rest of the day, so of course we all headed down to the beach! There is a lift that takes you up and down to the beach, which costs 3 euro each way. So we decided that we would walk down the first time, and then take the lift back up. We definitely should have taken the lift going down. It probably took about 20 minutes, at least, to walk down all of the stairs! By the time we got to the bottom my legs and calf muscles in particular were shaking when I stood still. It was madness, but definitely worth it once we got to the beach. Unfortunately, the beach wasn't a sand beach, but rather a rock beach, which was very very painful on your feet!

This is Isola Bella. You could walk across to the island, depending on the tide each day. When we were there the water only came up to a little over your knees but it was extremely cold!

I was extremely happy that I was at the beach while everyone else was shoveling snow back home!

After a while, and a few drinks, we decided to build a fire. There was no shortage of rocks, so a ring was built, and some sticks and kindling were gathered up. Before you knew it we had a roaring fire!

The lift stopped running at 8 pm, so around 7 we started packing everything up, put out the fire, and headed back to the lift. Then we all got ready for the evening and made plans for dinner. I went out to dinner with 4 friends to a little restaurant that had some tables outside along the steps. It was the cutest little thing.

I'm not a big fan of seafood, so I ordered linguine in a pesto sauce. I did eat it all, however it definitely had a fishy taste to it. I'm not really sure where it came from, but it was there!

After dinner we walked through the main street of the city and got some dessert. I went with a chocolate granita.

Tuesday:

Tuesday we had our Italian class from 9:30-11am and then we were free until 2 pm when we had a lecture on the geology of Mt. Etna. For lunch I had an arancini and then relaxed in the sun and read for a little bit at school.

After our lecture we all headed up to the terrace of our hotel and lounged around for a while. We tanned, did some reading, and played some card games. We were living the life! That night at 6 pm there was an optional lecture on the gesti (gestures) of Italians that I decided to go to. It's important I know these things! I left the hotel around 5:30 and decided to stop and get a little snack. I got a typical Sicilian brioche, which is in the shape of a breast. This is because their patron Saint is St. Lucy, who had her breast chopped off. (We all thought this was an odd way to honor your saint, but it was delicious anyway.)

After the lecture everyone met up at the school because we were all going to a homestay dinner with Sicilian families. They divided us up into small groups and our families came to meet us and walk us to their homes. I went with 3 other people from my program with a woman named Antonella. We had dinner with her, her two sons who were 17 and 19, and her two foreign exchange students (16 and 32) that were also going to the same language school as us. We had quite the feast! During out conversation we learned that one of the sons (the 17 y/o) was a model for Dolce and Gabbana. Their big ad campaign lately is presenting the big Sicilian family, so to find models they went into the city and found real Sicilians in stores or on the streets, asked if they were interested, took their picture, and chose models from those they talked to. It was actually quite funny because his brother wanted to be a model, but they said no, and chose him instead.

This was his catwalk photo.

For dinner we had bread, pasta with egg plants, olives, mushrooms, a potato/pepper/onion dish, and a lot of delicious desserts! We had fruit, colomba, and a sampling of mini desserts from a local bakery D'Amore (which I then went to quite a bit the rest of the week).

After dinner Antonella had us write in a book that she has, which she has everyone who has ever come to her house for a dinner or a home-stay write in. It was a big book, and was very full! Then we said our goodbyes, and headed back to our hotel where we all hung out for a little bit and compared stories of our dinners before heading off to bed.

Wednesday:
Because of what I did today, I can say that I survived Sicily.
After another delicious breakfast at our hotel, with a beautiful view overlooking the sea, we headed off to our school. After our class was over we all headed off to have lunch before meeting back up at the school at 1:30 pm for our big excursion!
I headed into a little roasticceria near our hotel that had pane e panelle, a typical dish from Palermo. Pane e panelle is a sandwich that has patties made out of chickpeas that have been ground up. It was amazingly delicious! We drizzled a little bit of fresh lemon juice on it and ate the entire thing right up! It was very filling and kept me full all the way through our big excursion. It didn't even really take like chickpeas, so even if you don't like chickpeas, you would probably like this.

So you're probably wondering what our big excursion was. Well, after lunch we headed back to the hotel to pack a backpack for the afternoon, because we were going hiking up Mount Etna!!! It was absolutely one of the hardest hikes I have ever done, but it was totally worth it once we got up there. The views were incredible and the wind was cold, and so strong I thought I was going to fall off the mountain! The first part of the hike was really hard because it was incredibly steep and the trail was made up of odd shaped rocks that weren't very easy to walk on. Then the hike got a little bit easier because the path turned into volcanic ash, which was more comfortable to walk on, but still difficult because you would take one step forward and slide back down. The last part of the hike up got a little harder because the path became kind of non-existent. It became really thin and you had to be careful not to fall or brush up against the plants, which had thorns everywhere. Quite a few people got stuck with them all over. I almost fell once and caught myself on my hand, it was not pleasant. I worked for about a half hour later that night trying to get out the last little bits of the thorns. While we were up on there we got to see Etna erupting with black smoke, which was really exciting and a bit terrifying at the same time. The most exciting part of the hike was the way down. There were slopes that were completely volcanic ash, that it is pointless to walk down, so you basically just run, which is a lot of fun because you're half running, half sliding and by the time you get to the bottom your shoes are completely full of ash. There was only one hard part on the way down, where we had to walk across a steep slope that was full of snow, which was very slippery. I could just see myself slipping and sliding down the snow. Luckily I made it across okay, with only a few minor little slips.

Everyone was taking roommate pictures, so we took a homestay picture. The five of us are in homestays.

The first part of the hike with all the horrible rocks!

Etna erupting black smoke!

A large area of dried lava.

As one of my friends put it, it resembled the badlands from The Lion King.

Me and Etna!

This is Chris with his bag of popcorn that was ready to explode from the air pressure!

It looked like God was ready to reach his hand down to us and help us up. I felt so close to the clouds.

The non existent trails. All of those plants are evil!

Very steep climb through ash and prickly bushes. This is where I almost fell and needed to put my hand on them to keep my balance.    :(

This was one of the coolest parts. We stopped here before we started going back down. (We didn't go down the way we came up though.) We were standing along the top of the ridge where the the mountain sloped down on both sides of us. This was when I was afraid I'd blow right off!

Me with Catania and the sea in the background.

The slippery slope of snow!

The volcanic ash that we got to run down. It was so much fun, luckily there were two of them that we got to run down.

After about two hours of a hike, we finally reached our bus which took us back to Taormina. We were all exhausted and the bus was pretty quiet on the ride back.

Most of us took a shower because we were covered in Volcanic ash, I desperately needed to brush my teeth because I could feel the grittiness in my mouth. Then after we were all cleaned up we headed out for dinner.

A group of us wandered around, walked up a staircase and found a pizza place for dinner.

They had Coke in bottles!

My delicious pizza. It had mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce, arugula, prosciutto, and parmeggiano. It was wonderful.

It was still pretty early after dinner so we decided to head out somewhere for a drink. I tried a new kind of mixed drink,which was very good!

The bar/lounge we went to was really cool.

Then we strolled the streets on our way back to the hotel. It was a really cool site to see the streets empty.

Thursday:

We had our usual morning class until 11am and a few of us decided to get lunch at the school. The school had a little cafeteria where you could get breakfast or lunch. If you wanted lunch they had little order slips that you turned in by 11:30 am and then you could pick up your lunch at 1pm. (We only had class from 9:30-11, but there are other classes all day, so the lunch break was at 1.) There were 3 options that you could pick for lunch: the plate of the day, a salad that you could then add meat or cheese to for a little extra, or your choice of a panino.  So we worked on some homework for our projects that we got from our teachers back in Florence. Most of them were to take pictures or videos, interview people, and compare the differences between Sicily and Florence.

My lunch. I chose a salad, which had different kinds of greens, corn, peppers, tomatoes, and carrots and then I added provolone cheese for .50 cents. The salad also came with a little basket with a couple pieces of bread, and I bought a lemon soda for my drink. Just an FYI: lemon soda is amazing! It isn't like sprite or 7-up, it is basically carbonated lemonade, and I love it.

Delicious lunch in a beautiful garden.

After lunch we headed down to the beach and met up with a bunch of other people from our group who were already down there. Today I went prepared to go in the water and I ended up walking across to Isola Bella. The water was EXTREMELY cold, but it was very hot out, so it helped cool me off a little bit.

After a few hours at the beach we all headed back up the lift and went back to our hotel to get ready for dinner. We went to a restaurant that a few other people had been to earlier in the week, and the food was delicious. Most people got pizza, but  a few of us got their burger. It was absolutely delicious. You can't see the actual hamburger in the picture, but it was in there! The burger had mayo, a soft cheese, tomatoes, burger and lettuce on it. I ate every single bite, including the tomatoes!

Towards the end of our dinner a group of musicians came walking through the streets and played for us for a little bit. They were really good, and I found it funny, because this is exactly what people imagine when they think of Italy.

After dinner I stopped at the delicious bakery D'amore for a cannoli. It was late at night so they filled them fresh for us!

Honestly the best cannoli I have had. It didn't taste too much like ricotta and had a perfect balance of sweetness. I ate my cannoli as I walked back to my hotel room. I was feeling a little tired and was ready to head to bed when I got a text from someone in my group saying that Mt. Etna was erupting! So I quick headed back out of my hotel and practically ran to the piazza where a bunch of people from my group were hanging out watching.

Etna erupting lava!

Finally, after an exciting night we all headed back to the hotel and went to bed.

Friday:

On Friday morning we had our last class at school, and afterwards we each received a certificate for our completion of whatever level class we were in. It was like a mini graduation day! :) Afterwards we all headed back to get changed and head down to the beach! We had no activities planned on Friday so it was a complete beach day. A few of us went into a little deli that was near our hotel and got them to make us a panini that we took down to the beach with us for our lunch.

We decided to try a different beach today that wasn't supposed to be as rocky. It definitely was less rocky, but it was infested with jellyfish! (Meduse - the plural of Medusa- in Italian.)

While we were laying on the beach I noticed that a rock island that was a little ways out had stairs on it, and I really wanted to swim out to it and climb it. So I was surveying the shore trying to find where there were the least amount of jellyfish so that I could swim out in that direction. I was kind of freaking out a little bit, but I really wanted to climb that rock. In the meantime, a Sicilian paddled over to us and asked us if we wanted to rent a paddle board or a boat from him. The paddle board was 5 euro for an hour. So of course we said yes! A bunch of us just threw in a euro and we all took turns. Now, it wasn't an official paddle board because his hadn't come in yet. It was actually the board for wind surfing without the sail. So, a few people had their turn and they paddled pretty far out, and were saying how scary it was because there were jellyfish everywhere and they were afraid to fall in, plus the water got really deep pretty fast. So I wanted to paddle out to the rock, however there wouldn't be a place to put the paddle board, so I was going to have someone else paddle out with me so that they could stay on it while I climbed up. While right before it was my turn, two other girls tried doing a double on the board and the board was sinking, so we decided that was a no go! Eventually it was my turn and I went out alone. I was really wobbly on the board when I first got on it and decided that if I couldn't stay balanced in 2 ft of water there was no way I was going to try it in 20 ft! So I decided to sit instead. So I was paddling along out there, having some fun, when the paddle board guy comes over and asks me if I'm doing okay and if I was having fun. I told him yes, and then asked him if people climb up the rock. He said yes, that people use it to dive off of. So I asked him if I could climb up it. He said yes, but that I would lose the board because there was no where to put it while I climbed up.

Then he paddled away and I was circling the rock trying to decide what I wanted to do. I wanted to climb it so badly! Finally I pulled up close to it and decided I was going to do it. Everyone in my group back on shore was yelling at me telling me not to do it and that I'd lose the board, but I knew that I had to try! So, I managed to pull up along side the rock where the stairs were. It took me a minute or two to maneuver off the board with out falling in or making it tip, and the first few steps were really slippery because of algae growing on them. Carefully, I finally made it up to a step that wasn't slippery and I sat there thinking okay, now what do I do with the board. It was pretty heavy and there was no way I could pull it out of the water. Luckily, I saw that there was a string on the front of the board, which I managed to grab, but then where was I going to tie it? There weren't any hooks, it was just a giant rock! I looked around and tried wrapping the rope around one part of the rock, but it kept slipping off. Luckily I finally spotted a spot that had a little over hang so that the rope wouldn't slip off. So I wrapped the rope around and made a little knot and hoped that it would stay! After telling the board not to go anywhere, (it couldn't hurt right?) I quick climbed up the rock and posed for my friends back on shore who were taking pictures. I was so happy. Then I quick climbed back down, luckily my board didn't float away, but I had to decide how best to get back on. It was a bit scary for a moment, and I got a little wet when I initially sat back down on the board. Luckily there weren't any jellies at the moment! Then I proudly paddled back into shore and hopped off, back to safety. I'm really proud of myself that I had the courage to do it and managed to pull it off. No one else from my group dared try it after me, so I declared that it was officially my island for the day. :)

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay at the beach all day, because I had to register for my fall classes at 4pm Italy time. So I headed back up to the hotel a little after 3 by myself. I managed to register for all of my classes for next semester and can officially apply for graduation now! After I registered for my classes I changed back into some normal clothes and went shopping around Taormina for the afternoon. I bought a few little things to remember my trip, and of course I had to stop and get a granita!

This time I got chocolate and almond, and it was definitely the best combination I had all week. I could have had 4 more of them and it wouldn't have been enough. I would go back to Sicily just for another granita. Then that night a group of us went to a restaurant that a local told us about. They make all of their pasta homemade at the restaurant. I ordered a pasta with a red sauce and eggplants. We had a lot of eggplant during the week because they were in season, and they were absolutely out of this world.

On our walk back through town to our hotel we stopped to get Italian popsicles. They aren't even really popsicles, but thats the best way I can describe them. They are less watery than popsicles and use real fruit and chocolate, which makes them amazing. If you wanted you could get them dipped in different things like white or dark chocolate. I ordered just a plain nutella one and it was heaven. I could say it was kind of like a fudge-sicle but even better because it was nutella.

Saturday:

So, today we had to be up extremely early because we had a little over an hour drive down to Syracuse and then Noto for guided tours. The cities were pretty, but honestly, we were all pretty bored. Our tour guide was not the greatest, he had a lot of information, but just wasn't good at presenting it in an interesting way. On top of that, it was extremely hot out and all of us were tired and hot and just wanted to be inside, sitting down. We did get to see a lot of ancient Greek and Roman ruins, so that was cool. I honestly couldn't tell you that much information about them, because everything our tour guide was saying went in one ear and out the other. I can tell you that the Greek theater in Syracuse is the largest Greek theater in the world, even larger that those in Athens, and it could seat over 15,000 people. As you can see in the pictures, construction was going on. They still use the theater every summer to perform the traditional Greek plays, so they build a stage as well as seating on top of the theatre to protect it from all of the wear and tear during the performances.

A pretty fountain/spring that was up at the top of the theatre where they had altars and sacrifices.

This is the ear of Dionysus. Caravaggio made this really famous.

This is a Roman theatre, which definitely does not compare to the Colosseum.

The water was so pretty!

This was inside the Duomo of Syracuse. They built the church around the existing Greek temple, as you can see the columns still present.

For lunch I had the best margherita pizza during my entire trip. Words cannot describe the sauce. It was pure perfection and was not too oily. I ate the entire thing and if we had more time I probably would've ordered a second.
For dinner that night I went back to get another pane e panelle  along with some french fries with a few people from my group. It was delicious, just like the last one. Then we walked next door to D'amore and I got a few little treats for dessert.

I got a mini cannoli, which looked like it had a carmel covered shell. It was a little strange when you looked at it, but it was amazing when I ate it. Then I got a mini cassata (the green dessert) which has ricotta inside with a sponge cake and marzipan outside, and candied fruit on top. Delicious. Finally I had what was kind of like a cream puff, but the filling was piped in, unlike a cream puff that is cut in half. Earlier in the week I had a lemon filled one and so this time I decided to try a chocolate one. Obviously it was amazing because it was chocolate. Definitely better than regular cream puffs.
I took my little bag of desserts to the hotel where I ate them as we were all sitting around the pool enjoying our last night in Taormina. Then I packed up all of my stuff and got ready to leave in the morning.

Sunday:

Our final day in Sicily. It was really sad, because no one wanted to leave. After I got ready, and had breakfast I checked out of my room and left my luggage down in the storage room with the rest of my group. I decided to enjoy the last hour and a half by walking the streets and getting one last granita. I was pretty tired so I got coffee and almond, which was wonderful.

Last views of Etna and the sea.

This is the narrow street. There are stairs that lead up to actual restaurants and businesses. You may have to walk up sideways! I'd been trying to get a picture of it all week but there were always massive crowds. I finally got one just before we left!

At 11:45 we all met back at our hotel and took a bus to the airport. We arrived into Florence around 4:30 and then we got taxis back to our houses. The first thing my host family said when I got home was that I was tan!

The picture isn't very clear, but it does the job. You can see how dark I got. Oh, and Stella is pretty cute too.

Stella and Megan were very excited when I got home. I definitely think they missed me. Unfortunately, the next time I leave I won't be coming back. I've left twice for a week and came back, so they're probably going to think I'll be coming back again. :(

Anyways, I had a wonderful time in Sicily and definitely will be planning a trip back there soon. Hopefully when the currents aren't making all the jellyfish come close to shore, so that I can swim. I'm sorry for such the delay in getting the blog posted. I had 5 projects due this past week and it was a very stressful week getting them all done and turned in on time.

Nothing too exciting happened, other than beautiful and HOT weather, that was in the 80s this week. I honestly was thinking it was too hot because there wasn't much breeze. Yes, I know, you all would gladly swap with me.

This week I went to two museums, one of which was the Accademia with my art class, where we talked about THE David. I know you are probably all wiped from reading such a long blog, so I will save the info for later next week, when I'm sure I will be too busy studying to have anything exciting happen and will need to beef up by blogs a little bit.

A dopo. E. Giulia.

P.S. Sorry for any typos- It took long enough to write the whole thing, I think I would die if I had to go back and fix it all right now.