Ton
van Zutphen / first time ever trip traveling / walking the Eastern part of SICILY, Italy (2015) / including Etna and Stromboli volcanoes / Oct. 31 – Nov. 6
How
to start…Italy and certainly Sicily, has a name and fame…for beauty, weather,
its charm, the food…the Italian way of doing and moving. These days one has to
look for it…certainly in Sicily, which has become an island where tourism beats
all drums; significant economic activity is hard to observe. Still lots of
small traders around which conveys a pleasant feeling. Obviously I had to ply the tourist spots but
then…even in the normal towns like Catania and Milazzo, I found it difficult to
find simple, straightforward old fashioned authenticity. I had trouble finding the good restaurants
where the locals go…. although my Italian is good enough.
There
is a daily flight from Istanbul to Catania and upon arrival I decided to walk
into town. Always good to sniff the air…along the derelict industrial area and
the port. Two thoughts came up:
1
in my development/humanitarian work donors always talk about
sustainability…long term expected results…well the EU/State supported
industrialisation of Sicily has led to a vast, barren and non-operational area
for hundreds of hectares between the airport and the town of Catania…Could it
be like this all over Sicily? I trust not but yes I saw quite a bit of it later
from the train rides I took; 2. Suddenly I started to compare the yachting port of Coconut Grove in Miami with its neatly stacked freshly painted boats, to the leisure port in Catania….unfortunately worlds and decennia’s apart.
The Southern part of Italy I learned at my university classes was called the Mezzagiorno (meaning the ‘afternoon’)…a region where life goes on but not too fast and where the climate and culture were dominating the life and work ethics. It is clearly still there. Indeed it has its charm. On the other hand, poverty resulted as early as 1850 that thousands of Sicilians left for greener pastures, some of them becoming quite successful in the US / famous like Frankie ‘boy’ Sinatra's family…others notorious like Al Capone in Chicago.
I
checked into the Agathae hotel on the Via Etnea 229 a central location in Catania
(I found out later that I was often
welcomed as the guest who had the pleasure to find the last room available…and
then never saw any other guests around…haha). Had a Bangladeshi meal of dal,
bhat, curry and my Dhaka days came back. Washed it down with half a litre of
dark Sicilian red ‘Nero d’Avola’ in a trattoria just off the main street where
the weekly weekend market takes place with mostly (illegal) immigrants selling
things that I am surprised will find a large clientele. Anyway that is Italy
for you: a lot of street life and selling stuff all over.
By
the way…the dark ‘black-nero’ red Avola wine was suggested so precious in the
past it was called in the Netherlands the ‘tears of Christ’.The next morning on All Saints Day I went to the cathedral and loved the quietness of this vast Baroch style building. Mass was said for about 40 devotees. It had started to rain and that is why I decided to travel to Ragusa and Noto first. Also in Ragusa a few hours later the ‘John the Baptist’ cathedral was impressive with mass ongoing until 13 hours.
The whole day upto 15 hours in Ragusa…the only people on the street seemed to be coming from church or those buying cigarettes from the vending machines. It was eerie to be in such a large town without people. I found the secluded ‘Trattoria Tinchita’, managed by young people on the Via Sant’Anna and had the best Campari soda in my life! Sitting outside in the coolness under a veranda I enjoyed the simple and good home cooked food while the rain continued...the few passers-by must have considered me mentally deranged…or alcoholic! Who knows, perhaps both. I was immensely enjoying myself. In the end there was no bus nor train to take me out of town so I checked into the anonymous Best Western (which wasn’t a B.W. anymore…but to attract customers they had kept the signs…). The once beautiful bridge over the river Santa Benedicta has been totally spoilt by an ugly iron railing to keep the jumpers off. Incredible…how burocracy can kill beauty.
On
‘All Souls Day’, very early I boarded the commuter train to Noto. Painted all
over with graffiti… even the windows inside…A very quiet ride of over two hours
through tunnels and valleys fielding the typical Mediterranean landscape (olive
trees, orchards with millions of oranges, and bush). Now here is a pretty town:
Noto is not to miss! I wandered a few
hours through this beautiful Baroque town with its churches, some of them huge!,
with scores of ill kept monasteries and palaces and everywhere 18th
century built houses to admire. A real treat for the eye. Featuring a piazza
and market where the old (male) city dwellers talk, drink coffee and ‘aperitivos’,
amidst clouds of cigarette smoke. Just imagine to have been borne here and
return upon retirement and meet the old family and friends again. And settle in
this unique town until heaven calls you. Bought a large chunk of mortadella,
bread and black olives for lunch and sat munching in a park. Then late afternoon moved
on with the bus to Catania and switched onto another bus to Nicolosi Sud. Interestingly
the privatisation of the public bus system in Sicily has led to a plethora of
bus companies, some of them without parking places…it is really go and look for
which company goes where at what time. The bus stopped at 19 hours and I
checked into the only hotel…again anonymous…something like Pin Ain…again I was the
only customer in this non eventful place. Although I did purchase the famous and high quality per barba and pre barba ProRaso shaving soap and creme at very favorable prices....definitely good stuff! www.proraso.com.
Morning
3rd November I continued with the bus to the foot of the ETNA,
active volcano, rode the cable car upto 2500 metres and then walked for about 90
minutes to 2920 metres to enjoy the world famous ETNA crater and all its beauty
in the snow. Yes, again this was worthwhile: snow, lava rocks, lava sands and ash
and a nice hilly climb and descent; air pure again with astonishing vistas and the
cloud patterns changing all the time! The full climb to the summit at 3329
metres is doable without great exercise throughout the summer. Not this time
for me without a guide nor winter gear. Nevertheless…it is a barren volcano,
unlike the STROMBOLI where one walks more through the clover and bushes.
Tourists were ferried to the 2900 metres viewpoint in large IVECO Unimog type
trucks. Impressive. When I came down I had to wait for 4 hours to catch the
return bus so I started walking and got a ride from some Germans who took me to
Catania where I had my first and best ‘Arancini’ in a local trattoria. Very
tasteful and it reminded me of the Dutch/Indonesian ‘nasi-bal’ that you only
find in the Netherlands. I never looked for the other typical Sicilian snack ‘Cannoli’,
anticipating it to fatty, sugary and sweet for my taste.
ETNA volcano at 2920 metres
On
to Messina with a very slow train and then change to Milazzo, the port, where I
walked from the railway station into town and checked into a B&B and had
roast chicken and potatoes / and a good sleep in the best room of the house at
50 euros. Breakfast was so disgusting I never ate it…cakes and Nescafe without
milk…yeek…not for me.
Then
the fast boat to Stromboli island the morning anchoring briefly at the islands of Volcano,
Lipara, Panarea and finally Stromboli's main port. Now inhabited in November by let’s
guess max. 2.000 people. In the summer I guess tripling that number. In the old
days of the Bergmann/Rossellini movie making couple, this trip must have taken upto
six hours with old steamboats…1949…was the time…with technology used that pre
dates the 2nd World War. Must have been indeed a very isolated place
to live…only fishermen catching tuna, and a few shepherds in those days and all
young males gone off to Napoli, Messina, Palermo or the USA. The two fell in
love while the movie ‘Stromboli, terra di Dio’’ was made (a raw ‘naturalist style’
movie showing a real eruption, though small, of the volcano!). Ingrid and Roberto, although both married, had
a child, divorced their spouses and then married each other…it created a
scandal in the USA…even in Hollywood! I passed the house, nicely painted
sandy-rose colour…where it all happened.
Stromboli volcano from San Bertolo village
I
checked into a pension ‘La Pergola’; good enough and the nice thing is that it
is all walking on the island. Streets are too narrow for cars…only the short 300
metres coastal road at the harbour is fit for vehicles…the usual Vespa scooters
and Aprilia tricycles run the race here with a lot of noise. In the afternoon
at around three o’clock we walked up the volcano for about 3 hours with a guide
called Antonio and a group of 28 participants each of which was charged 28
euros. Antonio made a nice income for himself that day…tax free as well I suppose;
no bills, no receipts: cash in his hands. He did not explain anything just was
busy in a nice and professional manner to keep the group together…only one
Italian called Andrea in the group by
the way…many Germans, Belgians, French this time. Several had to go back
because they were not fit. Nice climb / hilly not difficult; really worth it
and then the peak of the mountain at 926 metres was astonishing: we arrived in
the dark and had an hour to look/film the eruptions of the volcano…more like hiccups
every 7 minutes…with lava and ash spouting in the air at a distance of less
than 80 metres as the crow flies. By ANY standards this is impressive,
colourful and something to experience. It was also pretty cold and windy. Going
down was different and reminded me of the Kilimanjaro…shuffling through the
loose lava sands at high speed; this time in the dark although we all had
torches. ‘Look out Ton…here is where you
fall and break a leg’. A sweaty rundown…all
the way to the village in 2 hours…must have lost 2 litres of water. Very tiring
for me …and afterwards that ‘sweet pain feeling’ of accomplishment feeling your
muscles all over. Walked over to the pension and showered, then slept like a
log.
Good
breakfast next morning and a stroll across the coast and village of san
Bartolo; most houses empty; went to church and bought some bread/mortadella
again. Then the long boat trip back to Milazzo; bus to Messina and slow train
again to Giardini Naxos where I arrived around 6pm; dark again. I decided to
walk up the hill to Taormina (the big touristic attraction along Sicily’s eastern
coast…I wonder really why…) and nearly had myself driven over by the local ‘Schuhmachers’
that race up and down the large Via Crocefisso that is unlit! But the reward
was nice…suddenly I ended up in the centre of the old medieval city where the
rich tourists from all over the world think they can do bargain shopping. Factually
one restaurant, one shop selling high-end fashion accessories, one ristorante,
one shop and so on. I managed to book a room outside the city walls, in the
very very nice Hotel Natalina where the owner and his daughter Eva welcomed me with
a Sicilian red. Bottle came complementary. Grazie mille! A perfect drink to
start the evening. I followed Eva’s
advice and really dined well at ‘Trattoria da Nino’ just up the hill toward the
bus station… marinated mussels this time.
Still
in Taormina next day I descended the Via Madonna delle Grazie (one dangerous
passage with loose rocks) and walked all the way to the resort town of Giardino
Naxos to buy a cable for my I-phone. In the church I found a small exposition
about the ‘sindona’, Christ’s burial garment…with reference to Edessa…now Urfa
in Turkey where I travel regularly. Coincidence…perhaps. Then continued to the Isola
Bella where people were still swimming and walked up again the hill to
Taormina; finished my bottle of red and had a good siesta. Really not much to
see/do in Taormina other than watching shops and people…and the Greek theatre
which was closed when I arrived at 4pm. Aggrh! I walked again around town had a
sandwich, went to bed early and took the first bus out of town to Catania and
was there in time to see the famous fish
market in operation. Good! Very good products; fresh and a lot of hullaballoo…just
like a market should be. Unfortunately I choose again the wrong restaurant…food
was ok but the horse steak not juicy nor tender. Around noon I started to walk to
the airport and flew back to Istanbul in time.
Then
back to Gaziantep and home. Really
a good time; could have been much better with MSF by myside. Alone is alone. I
did meet quite a lot of travelers but we all are individuals…the itinerary has
been planned and very few travelers these days…(only these days?) opt for joining
a fellow traveller.
Back
to work for the last haul..with travels to various parts in Turkey (Mardin,
Istanbul, Ankara) and Iraq (Erbil and Dohuk). Change of employer as of January
2016…..coming up soon!
This
Sicily parcours I managed by bus, train, ship, hitchhiking and walking: Catania-Ragusa-Noto-Avola-Nicolosi
Sud-Etna-Catania-Milazzo-Stromboli-Milazzo-Messina-Giardini Naxos-Taormina-Catania
and its airport.
Always
shouldered my 35 litres Vaude backpack bought in 2009 / with 9kgs in it
Walking
sticks Leki titaniumTotal of 148.543 steps = about 104 kms in 7 days…is 15 kms daily average; actually walked really only a couple of hours a day…lots of sitting in trains/buses
Sicily has no substantial long distance trekking routes.
