Sicily Summary!

Hello all! Sorry it has taken me so long to be able to do another post, but this is the first time I’ve been on the internet since I left Rome last week. This week in Sicily has been so indescribably amazing, my brief recap could never do it justice. From tasting cannolis in the town where they were first created to hiking to the largest volcano in Europe (less than 24 hours after an eruption!) to swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, every single part of the week could not have been more perfect.

On Monday, we visited the Colosseum and Forum, and took a sightseeing bus tour around the city. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day…

Colosseum.

This is my new friend Kenedie, the girl from UA who ventured all over Rome with me on Sunday. One of the Italian men wanting to sell us something tried to flatter us by yelling “Shakira and Beyonce! I make you very good deal!”. We didn’t buy anything from him, but boy did we get a good chuckle out of his selling tactics!

After an overnight train ride from Rome, we arrived in Taormina, a coastal town on the northeast side of Sicily. We were met by a 70-year-old man named Salvador (Salvo for short), who was our tour guide for the rest of the week. Let me just take a moment to say that Salvo was the cutest, funniest, most stereotypical old Italian man I have ever met. Although he hardly spoke a word of English, he felt like our long lost best friend by the end of the week! I can’t wait to get back to the States and do some Salvo impersonations! :) He gave us a walking tour of the city, where we got to see a ton of old buildings, churches, fountains, and even a Greek theater. Because the town is on the side of the mountain, the view was incredible. The beach and mountains went as far as you could see, and the ocean provided a constant breeze!

 Me and the other two girls in our group, Lindsay and Liza, trying our very first authentic cannoli! They filled it for us just be for we ate it, and so far it was my favorite thing I’ve eaten in Italy. The filling is a sheep’s milk ricotta (nothing like the stuff we have in America), a pinch of sugar, and fresh pistachios, piped into a freshly fried shell. So simple, yet so divine!

Orchids growing out of a little window box outside of a 1000+ year old church! So beautiful!

 

This was the view pretty much everywhere we went in Sicily! It was so surreal to be surrounded by such beauty everywhere.

Salvo!

 

After Taormina, we drove to Siracua (Syracuse) where the hotel we would stay in for the rest of the week was located. Wednesday, we visited several archaeological sites in Siracusa, the walked to Ortigia (a nearby island) to visit a local market and take a historic walking tour of the city. After lunch, we took a boat ride through the Mediterranean!

Outside of the catacombs in Siracusa. This is the second largest and most famous catacombs in the world, behind the one in Rome. And yes, you can be jealous of how blue the sky is here!

Fresh cheese at the seaside market in Ortigia. Did I mention that they let you sample as much as you want?

This is the Duomo in Ortigia, one of my favorite buildings I’ve seen so far. I am continually amazed by the beauty of the churches here and how much pride the Italians take in preserving historical sites. This was directly across from the café where we ate lunch.

Boat tour!

 

It’s the Italian version of my Koda! Seeing him was such a blessing to me that day.

On Thursday, we drove to Pachino to visit a pomodoro di Pachino (cherry tomato) consortium and a vineyard called Farma Deluca. We got to pick the organic tomatoes right off the vine and eat them, and after visiting the vineyard we had a wine tasting! The tomatoes were the best I’ve ever eaten, no contest! If only I could take some back to America for my tomato-lovin’ Momma and boyfriend to try!

Interesting fact: Pachino is further south than the northernmost point of Africa!

In the afternoon, we traveled to a tiny beach town called Avola where we spent the afternoon relaxing and swimming in the gorgeous, crystal clear, FREEZING Mediterranean!

As if all of that weren’t enough, on Friday we visited the largest volcano in all of Europe, Mount Etna. It had just erupted on Thursday night and was still steaming when we got to the top!

Etna!

This was one of the steam vents near the volcano and the path we hiked (click on the image to see it bigger).

Me posing with one of the many mounds of snow around the volcano! The ground looked black, but it was actually just ash-covered snow because of the recent eruption. Not only that, but we had a view of all the mountains and beach!

On the way back to the hotel, I got a piece of Nutella pie (YUM!) AND got to see a fox on the side of the road! We stopped on the side of the road (in a huge van. on the side of a mountain. on a one and a half lane road. yes, it was totally safe. why do you ask?) and honked and revved the engine, and out the little fox came! He comes to the sound of buses because he lives off of scraps from humans! We waited for about a minute, and out he came. I'm pretty sure that falls into the category of wicked awesome, if I do say so myself.

That night, we had our farewell dinner at a restaurant in Oritgia and went out as a group to the Sicilian pub Salvo had been telling us about all week. On Saturday, we were on our own, so we went back to the market, got lunch, and did a little shopping before getting on the train for a 15 hour ride to Florence.

My time in Sicily was better than I ever imagined it could be. The Lord used every aspect of my trip as a blessing to me and to glorify His name in a way that only He can. Our God is so awesome, and already in just one week of being in Italy, He has opened my eyes to so many things not only about the world around me, but about Him and who I am in Him.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my blog and post comments. It is such an encouragement to me to hear from all of you. Thank you to everyone who wrote me letters to read; more than a few have made me cry! Last but certainly not least, thank you to my parents for forking over the time and money it took to make all of this possible; I love you to the moon and back.