27th to 30th October - Ceret

We've happily swung back into our daily routine since our expedition to Sicily. Our daily yoga sessions are coming along a treat, and we are both enjoying it. We've been catching up with friends and acquaintances on a regular basis. Last evening we invited the English couple who bought the apartment immediately below us for apero. We've been getting together for the last 3 years or so, whenever we are in residence at the same time. They tend to come for about 3 weeks every spring and autumn, but are aiming to spend more time here from now on. 

The weather has definitely cooled down but is still a very comfortable 23 odd degrees during the day. The forecast rain almost never arrives, though we did have a brief shower yesterday - the first we have seen this year. 

The market this morning (Saturday) seemed unusually busy. Everyone was out wandering around, enjoying the sun  and socialising. The square below us has been quieter than usual because two of the three restaurants are closed while the owners take a post-summer break. The remaining restaurant was very busy today. It was lovely hearing the chatter of diners plus some local buskers - a guitarist and cellist. 

People out and about on Saturday morning

The soft dappled light is lovely in our square at lunchtime.

Saturday evening was the night of the big match - the All Blacks vs South Africa in the RWC final. Our Aussie friends had invited us to an easy meal at their place pre-match. They also have a bigger TV screen than us. It was a good fun evening, despite the debacle of the match. 

On Sunday evening we had English friends around for apero. We've seen very little of them so far this year, and they're heading back to England in just a week's time. We caught up on a lot of gossip and it's rather scary to hear all the news of the declining health of many of our friends and acquaintances here. We now know of six couples who are selling up because of poor health and two others who are looking to downsize or live on one level only because they can't manage stairs anymore! We are among the youngest in our sphere of friends here, but it is definitely sobering.

John and I are keeping up our daily walks, without the HIIT (high-intensity) sessions. We're enjoying our yoga. The days seem much slower now, and we're doing a lot of reading. John is keen to keep improving his Italian and I've continued to pursue my interest in linguistics and the historical development of different languages. 

We had a surprise encounter with these sheep on our walk today. 

Having been yet again disappointed by French coffee after enjoying the good Italian coffees of Sicily, I looked it up on Google. There seems to be almost universal acceptance that French coffee is poor. Bitter and weak are the two words that come up frequently. It has always seemed very odd that just 10km away from us over the Spanish border, the coffees are almost always excellent. I've always suspected that French coffee makers are a bit miserable with the amount of coffee, but research shows there are historical reasons for the difference. 

France used to get all its coffee beans from their Caribbean and other overseas territories. It turns out that the French territories grew the robusta variety, not the arabica variety that most fresh coffee is now made from. Robusta is high in caffeine, more bitter, and lacks the richness of arabica. It's mostly used for instant coffee. Because the French grew up with robusta-based coffee, that's the flavour they stick with, and the rest of us just have to put up with it. Also, in France many of the cafes are supplied by a limited number of major suppliers who provide the machines for free, and then of course all the coffee they use, which is of course is still at least partially the cheaper robusta. The change to better coffee is very slow; French people are known for sticking for what they are used to!

We actually had a decent rainstorm last night. Short, but a proper storm with wild winds, lightning and thunder. Still not enough to make a difference to the drought which is now more than a year long. We very much miss the tinkle of the fountain below us, and we will be surprised if it gets going before we leave.

22nd - 26th October - Palermo to Ceret

The 11 hour trip back to Ceret went very smoothly. Leaving our accommodation in Palermo at 7.15am on Sunday, four bus rides, three connecting walks and one plane later, we arrived back in Ceret in the evening. The Ryanair flight was exceptionally spacious, with plenty of legroom for John. And on the Barcelona to Perpignan Flixbus we got a wheelchair row which was enormous. We've found travelling with our two small cabin bags very easy, though we also used a small backpack on a daily basis. We even found that our minimal 4kg of baggage included several clothes items each that we never used!

Our trip around Sicily was very enjoyable. It was a good mix of history, culture, siestas and tasty food. Everyone was welcoming, friendly and offered service with a smile. It was a also a good time of year to go - when there weren't many tourists and travel was easy, though the temperatures were higher than normal this year.

Since we've been back in Ceret we've had a pretty quiet time. It's about 35 days until we depart homewards to NZ and we've started a 30 day yoga programme. With a bit of luck we might complete it in time? The temperatures here are very comfortable, at about 23 degrees each day, with cooler nights. Showers are often in the weather forecast now but we haven't had any since we got back. The number of ex-pats in town is definitely decreasing, amongst both the English and the Scandinavian holiday residents. The town feels much quieter and peaceful. 

21 October - Palermo

Our last proper day in Sicily. We had thought to train out to Cefalu, but given the forecast for slightly inclement weather decided to see a bit more of Palermo instead. After a standard Italian breakfast of croissant and coffee, we headed to the Norman Palace (The Royal Palace of Palermo). After its long history of housing the Sicilian kings, it is still the working parliament building for the Sicilian government. The wind and temperature dropped overnight, and we even had a few spits of rain, our first for many, many weeks. It was a pleasure not being hot.

Palermo street

This majolica-style cloth is everywhere

We passed an exact replica of our Ceret car. This is what Palermo does to a 15-year-old car. Ours in France is in perfect condition, not one scratch!

We hadn't left ourselves with as much time to visit the palace as we wanted before a pre-booked tour of another palace, but it turned out fine. The Norman Palace is a lovely big building, with the highlights being the amazing gold-mosaiced chapel, and the palace rooms adjoining a Norman tower. 

The tower, part of the Norman Palace

The chapel is one of the wonders of Italy. The floors are gorgeous geometric patterns of different-coloured marble, and pretty much everything above ground level is covered in mosaics depicting all kinds of scenes from the bible and elsewhere, The effect is amazing. They are in perfect condition, bright, vivid and tell great stories.

The palace rooms were also lovely, but not as spectacular, and a little tricky to get the feel of it as they were full of displays about the Mafia Wars when the Italian government finally got to grips with the mafia problem.

Main hall, now Sicily's parliament

We had about half an hour free before our tour of Palazzo Conte Federico, so we tried desperately to find a granita seller. We couldn't find one, but we did stumble across the Mercato di Ballaro, a crazy winding street market. At 11:30 it was full of locals, tourist, street food vendors, music and activity. great fun, but no granita. Running short of time we picked up a couple of bananas from a vege stall and hot-footed it back to the palace.

The Palazzo Conte Federico was one of our trip highlights for sure. It's a big palazzo built by the original Count Federico in the 17th century, surrounding one of Palermo's original city wall towers. It's now the only tower still standing. The guides are the two sons of the current Count, and are 15th generation. The family still lives in the palace, but opens it to guided tours, presumably to help with its maintenance. Our guide Andrea was great. It felt a real privilege to be able to go through the family's home, seeing all rooms except bedrooms and bathrooms. The family's belongings, mementoes, photos and kit were all there. Father was, and still is, a serious racing driver - at 85 he was away with his favoured vintage car at a rally in Malta. Mother was, and still is, a serious competitive swimmer. Their many hundreds of trophies adorn most rooms. They were also good friends with Garibaldi, the man who founded and combined modern Italy - they've dedicated their kitchen to him.

The Palazzo courtyard

Living room

The current Count's study

The original tower

Each room was full of treasures one or other of the counts had collected some time in the previous four centuries. A fascinating and really enjoyable tour we'd absolutely recommend to any Sicilian visitor.

Coming out an hour later we were well ready for some food. A croissant and a banana don't last terribly long. We went straight back to the street market, found some seafood we liked, ordered it and sat down. It was a great spot just off the market street, and the music, hawkers and visitors made for a lovely noisy and fun environment. The food was excellent. One of the best things about street food is that the turnover is extremely rapid, and you can pretty much count on it being really fresh ingredients to start with, and freshly made just for you. And so it was. One of the tastiest, and cheapest, meals of our Sicily trip.

Lunch!

More market scenes

All we needed afterwards was a final granita to finish the meal off, and we found a spot a bit outside the market as we headed back towards our room. We chose mandorla again, the rich almond flavour being something we haven't met elsewhere in other countries and importantly, it's less sweet than some of the alternatives. Sweetness is a Sicilian theme.

A bit of a relax in our room, some reading and blog, then dinner was some bits we'd saved from lunch, followed by a last Sicilian gelato from the place we'd found close by our room.

Tomorrow there's an early bus trip to the airport, a Ryanair to Barcelona and a Flixbus back to Perpignan.

So, a great trip to Sicily. We'd wanted to visit those parts of Sicily we'd been unable to visit in 2011, and we feel we made a pretty good fist of it. Our favourite town without doubt was Ortigia, the island joined to Syracuse. It was beautiful, fun, and the couple of evenings we had in the main square drinking Aperol and watching the world go by were delightful. The mosaics of Villa Romana del Casale were the best we have ever seen, and the temples and theatres of Agrigento and Segesta were excellent. Todays palazzo tour was fascinating.

The travelling and hire car have all been very easy and simple, no issues of any kind. The food has been delicious, tasty and easy to find - we are definitely going to miss the granita and gelato!

20th October - Erice to Palermo

Neither of us slept very well. The strong wind persisted during the night, or even increased, which meant the shutters and also the glass in the window pane were rattling away. John shoved some paper around the edges of the glass, which helped, but I still wrapped the pillow around my head to try and block my ears. 

Feeling a little bleary in the morning, our croissant with jam picked us up again. I am very much looking forward to eating homemade muesli, yoghurt, milk and fruit from breakfast when we get back to Ceret. Onwards. Our car drop-off was set for 11am at Palermo Airport so we were on the road by 9am. The temperature was already 24 degrees at 7am! Most of the 70 minute trip was on the highway, and, as has typically been the case, there was very little traffic once you are out of any town or population centre. 

Roadside cyclamens

We found the car-hire drop-off place pretty readily, and a petrol station to fill it up just beforehand. The shuttle van was on tap to take us the 5 minute ride to the airport terminal. John had read a few days ago that today is a national strike day in Italy, so we figured that public buses from the terminal into downtown Palermo may not be operating. We'd therefore booked a bus for 11am on one of the private buslines. It was a good move as it was filled to the gunwales. It was just a 40 minute trip into town. We got off at the Via Roma stop. This is not the closest one to our accommodation but the one we will have to use on our return to the airport. The bus route will be disrupted by the Palermo Half-Marathon on Sunday so we thought it wise to find out exactly where our pick-up point will be. Having jumped out at the bus-stop however, there was no immediately obvious pick-up point on the opposite side of the street for the bus heading in the opposite direction for the airport. We wandered up and down the street a bit but couldn't spy one. We will have to do some digging on Google. The temperature was 34 degrees at this stage, and the sun beating down. We didn't want to wander any further.

So, first stop was to eat an arancino, second stop was a pair of almond granite. You can see a clear theme here. Next, we needed to walk the 25 minutes to our accommodation, which we did slowly. Our apartment is fine, and will do us nicely for two nights. We'd been tossing up the option of taking the short train trip along the coast to Cefalu tomorrow, but have opted instead to stick around Palermo and see some of its sights. We were here for a few days in 2011, but some places we might visit for a second time and we're keen to see some new ones. 

I'm writing this while we wait for the temperature to subside a little so we can venture out again. It is 4pm and still 33 degrees. So, I thought I might write down a few observations made during the last week:

• Italian men love to wear blue clothes. Very often, whether sitting at a cafe having their morning espresso, or at a restaurant in the evening, at least 50% (sometimes 80%) of the men are wearing a fully blue shirt or one with dark blue trim. 
• Italians have a very sweet tooth but seem to generally keep in pretty good shape. They also take quite a lot of care in their appearance and clothes. Women are often heavily made up and the younger men sometimes go for the manicured eyebrow look. 
• No-passing lines on the road mean it's probably a good place to overtake because there is slightly less chance someone is doing the same from the other direction.
• Speed limit signs are completely irrelevant.
• Pedestrian crossings and the corner of roads are a good place to park, or just poke your nose in if you can't park alongside the curb. Sicilians don't so much park as just stop.

• Italian drivers are extremely dextrous at manoeuvring their vehicles in and around each other and street furniture. We've found them very good at allowing pedestrians to find their way across the road. You don't have to put your life on the line like you do in New Zealand.
• Roadside vegetation is very likely to have had a fire go through it. More often than not you will see charred trees and shrubs as you drive along a road. This may be from cigarettes being tossed out the window. Often large areas have been burnt, including roadside olive trees and grapevines. We past one spot today where the flames were flicking through vegetation beside the road barrier. I wonder if insurance policies are higher for those property owners who border a road?
• The tossing of litter onto the ground seems the absolute norm, whether in urban areas or in the countryside. The tossing of bags of rubbish in roadside pullover/rest bays is clearly deliberate and in places is prolific. 
• The lifestyle is, as expected, very laid-back and informal. It feels very informal and relaxed, and quite different from travelling through France.
• Sicilians are gregarious, like other Italians we have met, and have been overwhelmingly friendly and welcoming. It's been a lot of fun interacting with them. 
• We've walked beside sites being worked on by archaeologists. I'd love to be involved in an archaeological dig, and excavating a place that has had 2000+ years of occupation holds a huge appeal. I wish I had a metal detector.
• John and I have had a few odd dreams, clearly based on a few of the things that have happened to us. One night John dreamed of transforming pigeon poo-ed buildings and footpaths by blitzing them with a high-powered water-blaster. Another night I helped John find a parking space by lifting up the rear end of a Smart-car and repositioning it, as well as heaving another small car further along the curb to create extra space.

Later in the afternoon we went for a walk around the centre of Palermo. The buildings are typically 4 stories and are a number of centuries old.

One of the famous intersections in Palermo. All four corners display statues like this.

A typical entranceway to a forecourt and palazzo behind

We thoroughly enjoyed our wander before heading back to find something easy for a meal close to our accommodation. We found a small local seafood takeaway place that had options of all manner of fish dishes, plus would make a pasta and fish dish on the spot. We opted for the latter and, with a bottle of wine, took it all back to eat at home. The pasta was freshly cooked and delicious, no steaming vats of overcooked food here.

The local fish-dish takeaway was very popular with the locals

A great day was topped off nicely by the All Blacks beating Argentina in the Rugby World Cup semi-final.

19th October - Segesta and Erice

Today was a superb day, full of unexpected surprises. First, however, was our usual breakfast – an espresso and crème-filled croissant. That got us on the go and we were on the road by 10am. There is no real point heading off before 9am because the travelling distances are pretty small and check-in at our next place of accommodation usually isn’t until around mid-afternoon.

Our first destination today was the Roman site of Segesta, about an hour’s drive away, where there is a large and reasonably intact 5th century BC Greek temple standing in the middle of a field. It is considered to be the best surviving example of Doric architecture in Europe, so well worth a look.

The drive was very easy, through country that was more hilly and scenic than it has been so far. Grapevines abound and the region looked more prosperous. We still can’t understand the incredible number and length of massive engineered viaducts over the land though, land that is often of gentle profile and where perhaps the odd cut and fill would have worked fine, rather than building giant structures and at much lesser cost. They don’t sever the farming land below them though, so that must be a benefit to the farmers.

We arrived at Segesta, expecting to spend about 20 minutes there. However, the interpretation signboards told us that apart from the temple there were substantial remains of a large Roman settlement. This included the ruins of a large agora (public square surrounded by colonnades and shops), amphitheatre, and fort, all built in the 2^nd - 1st century BC. This settlement superseded a town that had earlier been built by the Elymians (who came from Troy) in the 5th century BC, then the Carthaginians. Following the successive pattern of conflict, the Romans were then defeated by the Moors then the Normans. The ruins are therefore multi-layered, but the alignment of the Roman agora, for example, is very clear, even though its main plaza area is now a bus-turning area! 

It was already 33 degrees by 11.30am when we arrived and also a very strong wind, the scirocco from the African deserts. In fact, a strong wind warning had been issued for the northern coast of Sicily. We first visited the temple, which was in a separate location from all the other structures and relatively close. It was amazing, both in its size and also for having all its Doric pillars still standing. Evidence indicates that the temple was never finished, for example the columns hadn't been fluted and the stone tabs that were used to lift the blocks of the base into place were never removed. The very steep cliff-face which provides the backdrop to the temple makes the location a rather special one. 

The 5th century BC Greek temple

The square stone tabs along the two horizontal platforms along the base were used for
construction purposes. These would have been removed if the temple had been finished,

It was so windy my cap wouldn't stay on

Unfortunately, a huge fire had ravaged part of this region, including the archaeological site, in July, just a few months ago. Most of the trees and other vegetation are blackened but there are signs that some species are starting to regrow. The authorities must have been devastated when the fire swept through – it burnt some of the signboard panels, most roadside safety barriers, and the tourist information centre. The local mayor suspects it was caused by arson.

Ruins of the Roman agora

After walking around and inside the temple we set off on the hike up the hill to the other archaeological sights. One of these, the amphitheatre really caught my imagination. Its location, right on the top of the hill, with a 360 degree view for many kms in every direction, was simply spectacular. It is oriented so spectators looked northwards towards the sea. John and I have been lucky enough to see a number of Roman amphitheatres on our travels, and some of these particularly stand out, e.g. Aspendos in Turkey and Taormina on the eastern coast of Sicily (we saw the latter in 2011). I consider the one we saw today at Segesta to be right up there with the most impressive. Though it was small in size, its location and completeness just give it an incredible WOW factor.

The Roman amphitheatre (the snake in the distance is not an aqueduct, it's a recent road viaduct)

View of the surrounding countryside

With the wind whipping up dust and the heat being seriously intense, we hot-footed it (no pun intended) back down the track to the carpark. We’d been exploring the site for over 1.5 hours. Time to head towards Erice and find some lunch. 40 minutes later saw us weaving up the hairpin bends to the hill-top town of Erice. It is situated very high up above the surrounding landscape and the views from the top when we got there went up and down the north-western coastline of Sicily. We fluked a carpark and, just one minute later and just inside the town gate, we sat down to eat a much-needed arancina (filled deep-fried riceball) for lunch. My favourite is the spinach-mozzarella filling, while John samples a variety.

Virtually straight away, at 2.30pm, we met our host for our night’s accommodation and checked into our little apartment, complete with free parking. The immediate next mission was to walk 3 minutes back into town and buy an almond granita. Granitas are absolutely perfect when you want something very cold, wet and highly flavoured.

With some sustenance on board we set off to explore Erice. We’d looked up that it is a nice little town and has a renowned historic centre. What we didn’t realise is that it is virtually vehicle-free, with traffic severely restricted and no doubt just for residents anyway. The buildings are all very well maintained and everything is very clean and tidy, including all the alleys. There were hardly any cigarette butts even, so the council definitely has a seriously good cleaning regime. It was quite some difference to the places we had recently been, where rubbish is a part of every scene, town and country.

Erice

We thoroughly enjoyed wandering through the lanes. A particular delight was finding a large public garden at the very top of the town, next to the castle. The views over the countryside were spectacular. Our host told us that the strong wind is the Scirocco, blowing from the Sahara Desert, hence there is a lot of dust in the air and it’s pretty hazy. However, the view north-westwards from the castle was still very impressive. Erice is a lovely little town, not dissimilar to San Gimignano in Tuscany.

View from the hilltop gardens next to the castle

Once-typical highly decorated old-style cart

A quirky shot - a large black and white photograph in the doorway
shows an older woman peering at something down the lane

On this trip we have typically spent an hour or so in the afternoon in siesta mode, partly because it’s been too hot to keep on exploring and partly because we’ve been knackered. Today, since it was already after 4pm by the time we’d finished walking around town, we thought it might be an idea to just sit down at a bar with an Aperol Soda. The few bars on offer were tourist-priced so we found a little grocery store. The proprietress came up trumps when we asked if she had a cold bottle of Prosecco on offer. She hauled one out from the depths of her fridge and we quickly carried it home to enjoy while resting up on our bed. We ventured out again at 7pm to source a few arancini for an easy dinner but the vendors were all closed up. Instead we bought a few slabs of pizza just as the outlet was closing down. 

Today has been a particularly enjoyable day and, for me, the amphitheatre has been one of the highlights.