Journal

Last morning in Giardini Naxos, waiting for the trip out the airport. Walked to the town museum, which is a bit patchy, but was intrigued to learn of the slipways archaeologists have found that were used to repair triremes. Would love to have found out more.

The best book I have read on that era of shipbuilding and warfare is John R. Hale’s Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy.

After Etna, back to Taormina, for a visit to the Greek theatre and then on the verandah of the Hotel Villa Schuler – where we had a glorious farewell evening enjoying their Etna-grown house wine. Toasting Taormina and other wonders across this extraordinary island. Would love to come back here. Huge thanks to Rosaria.

Something I have wanted to do for a fair while, climb an active volcano. So here we are on the flanks of Mama Etna. The panoramas are out of this world. Didn’t go to the peak, knowing that the height would probably be a problem, given my low heart rate. Totally uplifting, even if the clinkerscape slightly shredded my old shoes.

Would have loved to have got up onto the mountain top behind Cefalù, to see the ruins, given that that was where the town was once located, but Elaine and I did have a wonderful lunch on a verandah overlooking the sea.

Then a stop, en route to Taormina, to view Calabria across the straits from Messina.

Wonderful Norman gothic cathedral today in Monreale, the Moon pale and distant overhead.