Monday 25th December 2017
As most people will be aware today is a very special day.
When we got up this morning we could see that Mount Etna was doing a lot more than it was doing yesterday.
The wind had dropped and the sea was much calmer than it was when we arrived yesterday.
We set off east - firstly along a heavily built up coast - and then over a high pass from where we could look down to the sea far below.
We descended into the city of Messina and arrived at the ferry terminal where we bought a ticket to cross to Villa San Giovani in Calabria on the Italian mainland - another rip off fare - 55 euros for a 20 minute crossing! Here's the ferry arriving in Messina to pick us up.
We travelled north along the west coast of Calabria - it's a very scenic and challenging road to drive with many steep hairpin bends - sensible people pay to use the motorway!
We stopped for a cup of tea at this viewpoint high above the sea.
We headed for the Aire at the village of Tauriana near Palmi. However when we got there we realised that there would be no views from inside the Aire so we gave it a miss. We found water at the marina in the village and settled for this car park by the sea for the rest of the day and night.
Here's the view from the sliding door on the side of our van.
As the sun got low there were some marvellous views looking back towards Sicily across the Strait of Messina. Here you can see the plume of smoke?/steam?/gas?/ash? being blown westwards from the summit craters of Mount Etna.
Here's a closer view.
Here's an even closer view.
There was a marvellous sunset which this photo unfortunately does not do justice to. The two horizontal lines across the top of the picture are the plumes of whatever coming out of the summit craters of Mount Etna and being blown to the west.
After it got dark we had the traditional Richards/Haworth family Christmas Dinner. Very fine indeed and imported to Italy from Lidl in Newton Abbot.
Today we travelled 65 miles (105 kilometres) excluding the distance travelled on the ferry across the Strait of Messina. We are at N38.39625 E15.86366
5 comments:
A very merry beansmas to you both. The smoke you can see is the breath of the red dragon who has come to wish you beansolig hapus from me. J cymru xx
Hi Judy,
There's certainly a dragon up there in some form or another!
Many thanks for following our blog and commenting.
Roger and Ann xx
Dear Roger and Ann, best wishes for Christmas and the New Year in your sunny Italian destination. Also the best for your birthdays, which slipped past me. We are all well here, and enjoying vicariously the scenery and monuments you bring us the pictures of. I liked the Nuraghe of Sardinia, but the temples of Agrigento were stupendous. Are you familiar with the line of the song:” When you’ve been havin’ steak for a long time, beans, beans taste fine!” .
Richard
Looks like you had a lovely day and a good meal. Look forward to following you around the Italian mainland. Forgot to tell you Roger that as usual we had the mandarin game following the Christmas meal and Leslie won, very close to Frances, about one second. Contrary to all the careful records you kept over the years, the blue candles did not do well.
Anne-Marie
Hi Richard and Anne-Marie,
Many thanks for your messages. I'd completely forgotten that I had been keeping records of which coloured candles lasted longest at EFF Christmas Dinners! However it's the kind of thing that might well have appealed to me!
No - I'm not familiar with the song about steak and beans. Sounds like it makes sense though.
I'm really glad that you've been interested in my travel blog. This is turning into a bit of an epic journey. I'm wondering which way to take when we get to the Alps now one of our snow chains is broken.
I've more or less given up on you ever coming to visit us in Devon so I'm thinking that maybe we could come to see you at Laracor in the springtime if that would be okay.
With love and best wishes, Roger.
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