Sweet Sicily

Ciao! We had a great 3 days in Sicily - what an amazing island!

We arrived in Palermo on Saturday morning, and headed to Monreale to explore the very fancy cathedral there. Then we hit the road again and drove to Cefalu, on the north coast. It was a very pretty seaside town, but very busy, noisy, and lots of crazy drivers trying to kill pedestrians.

We headed to our b&b in the hills above Cefalu, and enjoyed our fantastic seaside view for a while. We still had time to spend time on the beach and hit up a tiny pizzeria in a wee local village for dinner. It was a great day.

Sunday we hopped in the car early and drove inland to explore the amazing village of Castlebueno. It was one of the nicest places we've been with a beautiful castle, and fantastic scenery. By far one of the best stops of the trip. We then headed along the coast and drove towards Taormina.

Our hotel just below Taormina was not quite as peaceful and spacious as the previous night, but it was just opposite the beach, and a few steps away from the funicular up to Taormina, which is way up a hillside. We scoped out the town, and enjoyed some nice views of Mount Etna, before having yet MORE pizza, and heading to bed.

Monday morning we went back up to Taormina to explore more of its tiny streets and public squares, and then drove around the south side of Mount Etna. We stopped at a few more inland towns, and drove to Agira to visit a Canadian Military Cemetary from WW2. It was such a beautiful spot - up the hill from a lake, and surrounded by fields of yellow and purple flowers, and wee cows with cowbells that were dinging. Soooo nice, but sad of course too.

We headed back to the airport inland, and stopped on the coast for one final dinner (yes, pizza again!) and then caught our flight back to London. And we were all as weary as you might imagine from reading about our hectic schedule! Rob was weariest of all because he was the driver all weekend, as he was the only one brave enought to take on Sicily's suicide insane drivers. I've never seen roads like it - every car was dented and battered, and people drive like they have a death wish. Rob was our hero for getting us around 792km of Sicily totally unscathed (though the side mirrors took a bit of a beating!).

We're now recovering, and my parents have been having a nice few days exploring St Albans and London. We might head to Devon for the weekend, but haven't decided yet. We're definitely all still having dreams of beautiful, crazy Sicily.