Masseria San Marco Bari

... condizionata, tutte le comodità per
trascorrere durante la permanenza gradevoli e rilassanti momenti,
all'interno del cuore di Catania, le nostre stanze, curate nei minimi
particolari, rendono perfettamente il nostro concetto di ospitalità,
dove pulizia e accuratezza permettono una piacevole permanenza, ed è
questo a renderci tra i migliori B&B di questa stupenda città.

... in the 1669 eruption in which nearly 12 000 people lost their lives. It is not a brilliant black it kind of gives the city a dirty look.

Our early morning tour of Catania started with 'La Pescheria' (fish market), followed by the chaos of the produce market were we brought fresh fruit and some amazing panini, bread stuffed with tomato, mozzarella and a spicy olive paste. From there we headed up to the Castello Ursino and some Roman ruins (something ...

... motorway we noticed many weird and somewhat disturbing things... firstly there was a kid sitting in the back of a car with a zimmer (aluminium walking frame) placed over them in the back seat... not so much dangerous as just weird... but the one that took the cake today was the little hatchback car with 2 adults in the front (not wearing seatbelts) grandma in the back lying across all 3 seats and the young kid lying across the back of the boot hatch!! Now the ...

... das sei halt einfach in dieser 2.grössten sizilianischen stadt der fall (später mussten wir merken, dass dies überall so ist).
übrigens: schaut euch unter den fotos vorallem den video-zusammenschnitt an über die vespa-fahrer auf sizilien (die krassesten szenen sind aber halt nicht darauf,weil man ja nicht immer alles gleich filmen kann unterwegs).



Toll war aber einerseits der food-markt in einem stadtteil, voll mit verschiedensten frischen ...

A lovely quaint very old area. Stayed in a lovely hotel with great attentive staff would recommend it to any couple looking for a romantic break or second honeymoon. Just off the main shopping street of Corso Umberto but found that the shopping was over priced so don't go expecting any bargains.

... an emotional bunch. In fact, they pride themselves on their emotions, their passion.

This emotional bent is also apparent by the many idols – statues of Mary, churches, looming dominance of God, crosses nearly everywhere you look. A sign of devotion as part of the Italian Culture.

Refugio

We stayed at a Refuge on Mount Etna – menu scant.

... a beautiful Abbey in a local fishing port, I'm greeted by the local mangy moggey and have a great mooch about. I also find the local orchards and vineyards, a lot of which are covered in mesh at the moment to protect them from the weather, which I have to say today is extremely sunny, a balmy 14º C. Beside an orchard I set up kitchen and cook the remainder of my delicious hand made pasta, had a sleep ...

... Which was horrible, because it was so hot, and Erin and i were both feeling a little sick from that spaghetti. (we wont go into details....) but then we foubnd our hostel in Athens, and had showers, took our laundry to be done, and then found food, and water, and internet. Then we tried to go to bed, but its really hard when you feel like your cooking from the outside in. And the hostel claims it had air conditioning....LIARS!!! but thats about all for the ride here... onto actual Athens!

After one day in Rome it's another non-stop travel day which takes us to Bari where we have a 10pm overnight ferry which takes us to Dubrovnik, Croatia. (AKA: long day). However we had a couple hours to kill in Bari and had to find ways to occupy our time. I like Bari because it's authentic Italy. A coastal city which only sees the random traveler because of its ferry ...

... to attend school and learn Italian. Anyway they are good guys and I might meet up with them they I get to Florance. We walked around Bari for a few hours waiting for our ferries and had a couple bottles of wine. Bari was a real surprise, it is clean, the people are friendly and it had a good vibe to it. I have to close this log before my time runs out.