Tuesday 25th April - Cagliari, Sardinia, Itialy

Cagliari is somewhere we’ve been before.  It’s a nice enough place, but I wouldn’t say it was our favourite port, so we weren’t in a hurry, thinking we’d just have a short wander.  We had thought about walking to the Salt Lakes or a nature reserve type park, but they were both a way off, temperatures are rising (finally), and we had to be back on ship for 3.30pm, so we decided to leave it for this visit.  Maybe next time.

Instead, we walked the opposite way around to our last visit.  We knew the layout of the city a little better this time, so we didn’t meander quite so much and made a better job of it.  Today was a bank holiday in Sardinia as they celebrate their Independence Day.  There was a parade going on in the city centre just as we walked through. Police had closed off the roads as the people of Cagliari marched through, waving flags and singing patriotic songs.  There were a lot of people too! All the cars just had to wait.

From there we went on to the Botanical Garden, a cool, pleasant space we’d not visited before; €4 each.  I was really impressed at the way the cactus garden was laid out.

Then on up the hill to the amphitheatre we’d seen last time but couldn’t get into.  Apparently work is still ongoing, but the gates were open this time, and we could go along a path at the top of the site to have a look down.  €3 each.

After taking a few photo’s and watching the hooded crows, we continued uphill until we found a little café for a break. Smoking is much more common than at home in these Mediterranean countries, and the cigarettes have a much stronger, rougher smell, more like cigars.  Not too pleasant to sit next to when eating, but we did find a café and a clear table eventually. And then it was upwards just a little further.  There were quite a lot of view points along our route, but not a very good view to be honest, ports and industrial land mostly.

Eventually we came to a gate inside the old city wall.  Here the streets are very narrow.  Most of the cars that drove through were small, seemingly speeding along narrow streets with pedestrians hopping out of the way to let them pass.   Many of the streets are too narrow even for small cars, with motorbikes and mopeds being the preferred transport.

We arrived at the Cathedral of Santa Maria and Santa Cecilia, which we’ve been to before.  It’s free to visit, inside is absolutely beautiful, and in a condition that I think puts the Basilica in Venice to shame.

A little further on are terraces, sited at the top of the cliff on which the old town is built and giving extensive views of the rest of Cagliari, which looks like a pleasant modern city.

Further along from the terraces, pedestrian walkways slope downhill to a large open square, with a grand arch and more views.  Sadly, there was a lot of graffiti and despite the fact small planted areas were well tended, it looked sort of disused.  A shame really, because it seemed to have so much potential.

From there, it was back to the shuttle bus, the ship and the living room for extra rations of chocolate chip cookies.  Mmm mmm. 

We have a couple of sea days now until Lisbon.......

Read about our last visit to Cagliari here:- 16 June 22 - Cagliari, Sardinia

Sunday 16th April – Syracuse

We like Syracuse. We came here last year and loved it. The ship docked at Porto Grande, within 5 minutes walking of Ortygia, the historical centre of Syracuse. Basically you come out of the port, turn right, go over a couple of bridges and you are there. We spent a day wandering around it during our last visit. Today we have other plans. So today we came out of the port and turned left, with two destinations in mind. The first was the Basilica Santuario Madonna delle Lacrime, a “distinctive church with many chapels”. The reason we wanted to see it was because of that shape, which could be seen from the ship. We had to go look.

It did look grand from the outside, but in all honesty, we weren't that impressed with the interior. It sort of reminded me of a conference centre. Yes, the building was dramatic, but even that reminded me of communist era concrete. But we've seen it now so ...... tick.

From there we made our way to the The Neapolis, an Archaeological Park just 20 minutes walk from the port. I'd researched it from home, and thought it was just our cup of tea. And it was perfect!

The Stone Quarries, or Latomie

OK, so I knew about the caves, and the Ear of Dionysius and the amphitheatres, but no way was I prepared for the Stone Quarries. The area was stunning! Perhaps we were seeing it at it's best, it being spring and all, but the flowers and the smells were wonderful.

I can't recommend this place highly enough. There's quite a lot to see, and if we'd read the guide bookwe'd bought (unusual for us), before walking around, then we would have understood and seen a lot more I suspect. But all that aside, we had a brilliant morning there, and will visit again I think. For info, all of these quarries and caves were carved out by hand, and some date back to the seventh century BC.

Entrance to the Rope Maker's Grotto

The Rope Maker's Grotto, so called because, from the 17th century, rope maker's took advantage of the spring inside to soak their hemp.

The most famous of the quarried caves is The Ear of Dionysius.  The accoustics are incredible.

The Stone Quarries from above

The Greek Ampitheatre, which I think is the better of the two.  Sadly being used for some play or production, which meant much of the original stone was covered.  I'm hoping it's clear if we visit again.

The Roman Amphitheatre. Gladiators fighting? Stories being told in plays? Chariot Racing? Who knows?

I don't know what this flower is, but there were quite a few about, and I thought they were stunning.

After our walk around, we stopped for a late lunch in the park before deciding where to go next. We really liked Ortygia during our last visit, so walked back for another wander around. The fountain of Diana is beautiful, and the little narrow back streets are enchanting.

The Fountain of Diana

For the less able, Tuk-tuks flitted around, the only vehicles small enough to fit down the narrow channels.

Charming narrow streets throughout Ortygia

Finally it was time to get back to the ship. We got back with plenty of time to spare so I took advantage of the fact it was a port day. Normally, a week into the cruise, the 6 washing machines in the two on board launderettes are in full demand. It's difficult to find one empty and get your washing done. But on port days, passengers are busy elsewhere. I walked in with my load of washing and Yesssss, an empty machine. Another job done.

We ended the day by watching another show in The Playhouse - Peter had heard good things about Graffiti Classics - a string quartet, so we went to watch their act. Sooooo funny. The Base player is a bit of a manic, loose cannon. I wouldn't want to be the guy who walked in late (and there was one). A brilliant night.

So that was Syracuse, which we will be very happy to visit again in October, but tomorrow is another sea day. Good, my legs need a rest.

Wednesday 15th June - Mount Pelligrino, Palermo, Sicily

I'd seen it on a walking blog, checked it on Maps.Me, and as the ship docked last night, we saw it from our balcony.  Mount Pelligrino.

At 1,970 feet, it's not really a big mountain but it dominates the port.  You can drive up it, or if you are feeling slightly nuts, like we were, you could walk up the path used by the pilgrims visiting the chapel devoted to Santa Rosalia at the top 

We knew it was going to be hot, so we didn't expect to be able to get to the top, but we thought we'd see how far we could go, so after breakfast, we left the ship at about 9.45 (we never rush anywhere), and turned right out the port.  

We'd sort of been warned by Hazel, the port lecturer, who said in her lecture that if you turned right it could be a bit "gritty".  And it was.  Lots of rubbish piled up on the streets, manic cars with loud complaining horns, push bikes and mopeds everyhere, and the streets and buildings a little tatty and run down. There were trees full of purple flowers though, and their perfume sat on top of the warm busy smell of the city.

It was a mile and three quarters, or 45 minutes walking,  to get from the ship to the bottom of the hill, but there it was, exactly as described in the walking blog I'd read last night.

 

The path is paved or cobbled all the way up, making for an easy route, which it needed to be in the heat. The sun was already high, and we were grateful for the shade offered by the occasional tree.

It really was hot going, and constant breaks were needed.  Bodhan, the pianist on the ship, overtook us  on his mountain bike. 

And we loved it.  The countryside around us was varied and interesting with trees, plants and cactiiT the odd lizard crossed our path and the views were stunning.

We'd already decided that we'd walk until 12.30.  No matter where we were at that point, we'd take a take a break, eat the fruit we'd brought from the ship, and then go back.  At 12.30, with the brow of a hill just ahead I persuaded Peter to go just a tiny bit further.  And I was pleased I had, we'd reached a point where we could see over the other side, and Sferracavallo, a port town on the other side. 

Sferracavallo

 

We rested under the shade of the tree, where a passing Sicillian family stopped to say Hi.  They were curious about the mad English people on a ship who just suddenly decided to climb the hill. 

As expected, going down was much easier, and also much faster.  Much faster in fact than we'd calculated.  We had gone through a lot of water though, and were not looking forward to the walk back through town, expecting it to be a bit of a slog.  It was.  But buyin a couple of ice cold bottles of water from a shop we passed, and guzzling them within minutes sort of made it a little better. 

We were back at the ship by 3, well in time for Covid testing, so a quick cold shower was in order before heading to the Living Room for cold drinks and cookies. 

The rest of the day's highlights included Peter throwing icecream all over himself, the Crew Show, which was OK, and popping in to Joanne who was playing piano in the supper club.

Cagliari (pronounced Cal-i-arr-i) tomorrow, and more heat.  Peter seems to have a vague memory that he liked the place, so I'm looking forward to it.

Monday 13th June - Syracuse, Sicily

Oooooooo!  We like Syracuse.

The only thing we knew about the place was that it had an old town so when we got off the ship, we turned left and headed for it. 

In actual fact, the old town we were looking for is actually the island of Ortigia.  I say island, - it's very, very close to the mainland, and attached by two bridges, and you wouldn't really think about it until you looked on a map.

We loved the atmosphere of the area, the tall buildings and narrow streets lined with little interesting shops which displayed their wares tightly against the walls.  

Our aim was just to wander and take a look at the main attractions which are:

The Temple of Apollo

 

The remains included a couple of columns still at their complete height, with the remnants of the ceiling they would have held up.  I tried to imagine what it would be like walking between those columns. Amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Fontana di Diana

 

Cattedrale della Natività di Maria Santissima

 

 

 

 

We noticed, both outside and inside the cathedral, that it seemed to be built using the foundations and columns of a previous building.  I've just checked, and this was previously the 5th century BC temple of Athena.  So these columns are around 6-7000 years old!

In the square outside the catheral were various busking musicians, the most memorable of which was a monkey playing the xylophone.  (Actually it was a well designed puppet.) Peter has that photo.

 

We took a look at the Fonte Aretusa - a natural spring of fresh water, right alongside the sea. Amongst all the fish was a humongous coy carp (not in the picture though).

 

Amongst the market stalls and I spotted and bought a black pendant, something I had been looking for for a while.  The stall holder told me it was Obsidian from Lipari.

The heat was building up as we made our way to the fort at the end of the island, but decided we were all castled out and left it this time.

It took us a while, but we eventually found our way to gardens alongside the Arethusa Spring for short break. We had fruit and water from the ship to bring our fluid levels back up, and we set off again to walk along the other side of the island.

 It was here that we found the locals using rocky platforms for sunbathing and swimming.  As we were getting hotter and hotter, I was quite jealous.

We worked our way back to the bridges, and found a cafe.  Vanilla icecream and beer for Peter, mine was a coffee and cream concoction which was absolutely delicious. 

We had hoped to to visit a cone shaped cathedral on the mainland, but as always, the heat is exhausting, and we decided we'd leave that for another day. 

Yep.  We like Syracuse.  Hopefully we'll visit again someday.  

 

Sicily, Catania and Mount Etna

So today we were up early, because today we are going to see a volcano!  Mount Etna to be exact. The paperwork said something about being able to see the Silvesti Crater and it was down as the recommended tour.

We were docked In Catania, where Mount Etna dominates the skyline.  The air was clear, and we watched as the mountain belched steam into the sky. All very exciting.

It was a long bus ride, taking us from sea level up the side of the volcano to a height of 2000m. This is nowhere near the top because you need the cable car and a 4 wheel drive to take you the next 700m.  As the coach climbed, our surroundings changed.  The busy city and urban streets disappeared, replaced with the  black splintered rocks and boulders of lava flows.  There were so many of them!  Everywhere you looked you could see another, and be able to follow its route down the mountain.

We learned about the various eruptions from our guide. The most recent happened in 1983 and 2002, and the lava flows that we could see were from those eruptions.  Apparently, it takes 100 years for the vegetation to grow back and cover it up.

A house buried in the lava flow from 1983

We did get to see a small crater left by a previous eruption, but was slightly disappointing not to be able to get closer to the summit, and most of the passengers eyed the cable cars longingly,  Sadly there was no time. The views were awesome though.

Then it was a long bus ride back to the port.  I'm glad we took the tour, now we can say we've been on Mount Etna, I even have a few rock samples to prove it. But, if I get the chance to visit another volcano, we may do things differently.