Sicily

After our Roadtrip, this was our first real holiday and because of all the stress which was involved in moving from Germany to Holland and our unexpected living conditions, we just needed this holiday very badly.

On the 8th. October 2010 we flew from Eindhoven airport to Trapani on the island of Siciliy. We landed at 20:30 pm and after picking up our Fiat Panda we had to drive immediately to our first campsite before it closes down. Next morning our holiday really started with a self made hot cup of coffee in front of our tent.

We had planned one week to drive around Siciliy and to see the highlights this island has to offer.

First destination was Erice. This old town lies on Monte San Giuliano (750m) and because of its altitude, the views from here are just excellent.
While driving around we passed very nice landscapes and on the way we did some walks. One of them was on the northern tip at San Vito Lo Capo.
We camped at Isola delle Femmine for our citytrip to Palermo. It's the capital of Siciliy and with a population of 725.000 people, it makes it the 4th biggest city of Italy.
Palermo was heavily damaged during the 2nd. World War, but the city centre still has a lot to offer. Arabs, Romans, Norman and Byzantiers have inhabit this place and this becomes obvious when studying the architecture of the city.
We visited the town of Monreale which lies just 8 km from Palermo. Monreale attracts many tourist because of the Cathedral which is a beautiful example of Norman architecture. It was built in the 12th. century and is one of the main highlights of Siciliy.

After Palermo and a nice swim in the Med. Sea near Cefalu, we drove through the heartland towards the medieval towns of Noto and Modica. The place itself is UNESCO World Heritage because of the many palaces and churches build in Sicilian baroque back in the 18th. century. The place of Modica lies just 40 km away from Noto and survived two major earthquakes and floods, but is still a good place to see how life was 200 years ago. Major sight here is the cathedral of San Giorgio.

Cities and nature were alternated and with a stopover in Siracusa, we drove to Parco Regionale dell'Etna.
The Etna is with its 3.329 mt. the tallest active vulcano in Europe. It is also one of the most active vulcanoes in the world and because of the fertile vulcanic soil, the mountain is surrounded by many vineyards and orchards which makes it a nice place to explore.

We had planned to visit the vulcanic island of Stromboli, but because high season was already over, it was quite complicated to find a useful ferry which would put us there and back so we skipped this.