Travelling to Sicily and first sight of an active volcano

Travelling to Sicily

Monday 15th April.

We planned to leave Pompeii quite early but by the time we had done our food shop, bought the post cards for family and serviced the van it was time for lunch. Once we on our way we decided, very wisely, to go onto the toll roads for the first time. The journey to Pompeii had been treacherous, to say the least, and how we never managed to either hit another car or smash a shock absorber I will never know. Clearly Buster is built of stronger stuff than we thought. All went well until we reached the end of the Parco Nazionale del Cilento. Our satnav had ideas above her station and took us off the motorway but I can thank her in one breath as the route she took us,  was again breath-taking, perfect Italian villages perched high in the mountains, beautiful lush green vegetation and awe-inspiring views. However, the sharp bend, steep climbs and slow progress was something we wanted to avoid as we had a long drive. We were travelling alongside the Parco Nazionale del Pollino but eventually we arrived at our first over night stop on our way to Sicily at Cirella.

We could not believe our luck. This site was right on the edge of the sea with its own beach and was run by a lovely old  Italian guy who wandered around the site with his eight cats in tow. He spoke no English, we spoke no Italian but somehow we got on well and both understood that we wanted - to stay for two nights and we needed WiFi. We were made very welcome by the local German campers, we were the only English again, they came over and chatted when we arrived and on the following afternoon brought round some of their homemade cake for us to eat with our afternoon tea/coffee. At sun set everyone picked up the chairs and made their way to the beach to watch the sun go down. We all communicated as best we could and it was a very enjoyable.

Tuesday. 16th April

Jacqui got down to work again today for a couple of hours. But after that we decided to slow down and enjoy the glorious sunshine reaching 30 degrees. This is what we had wanted for a few weeks. The weather had been great for sight-seeing but now we wanted Sun. We sat on the beach or around the site for most of the day and Jacqui went for a swim. Again we all convened on the beach to watch the sun go down, drink our wine or beer and eat nibbles. What a beautiful spot!! Our host, the old Italian site owner wandered onto the beach with his cats and joined us sun watching spectators. I had now managed to finish a further two books called “Worst Case Scenario” survival hand books. I can now

·         Escape a sinking car

·         Jump from a cliff into a river

·         Make a fire without matches

·         Survive when lost in a desert and jungle

·         Perform a tracheotomy

·         Land a plane in an emergency

And lots of useful things like that. Two good books, thanks Rita Anne & Paul. I am my now reading Clare Balding’s “My Animals and other Family” which is very entertaining. Lighter reading than the last two.

Wednesday. 17th April

Not a good start to the day. Again we had set ourselves up to get off early but everything we tried to do did not go quite to plan. We booked Millie and Liam’s flights to Corfu so they could join us for a week in May but we entered the wrong email address onto the booking which caused such a problem to change. I then spoke to my property agents only to find out when they installed the new boiler into the Old Stables, they had to remove part of the antique pine unit and under the instruction of the tenant, left the unit outside, which will result in it being weather damaged.  Well all was eventually sorted and we set off on our way. Not sure when the next fuel station was, we decided to top up with both LPG and diesel at a garage 2 km back down the road. Feeling a little better with ourselves we set the satnav to Tropea, another long 170km drive down Italy’s southern  west coast. Our better feelings were short lived when we had only travelled 20km when we found a garage that sold diesel for 18 cents less than what we had just paid. On a full tank that is 10 euros less than what we had just paid. Don’t you just hate that!!! The trip to Tropea took us through the narrowest part of Italy, about 50km east coast to west coast. It was a good trip and we soon reached Tropea. I entered the town from the top of the hill and our stop for the night was on the marina at the bottom of the hill. So we took Buster down a very windy, narrow road and due to the undulation of the road we bottomed the van’s back end a couple of times. Not a good move! We arrived at the bottom and parked up the van. Just a few metres from us a fishing boat had just landed its catch and all the locals were there to buy up the fresh fish. Not to be out done and with Jacqui’s love for fresh fish we purchased eight medium sized red skinned fish which we ate later that night, delicious. But before the evening set in we went up to the village to have a wander around. We found the café with Tropea’s  best view of the sea and the volcanic island, Stromboli so Jacqui could enjoy the local Cassata Sicilian and I the Tartufo Nero, Ice creams to die for. We were both fascinated by Stromboli. Every twenty minutes or so it would belch out a plume of smoke reminding you it was still  the most active volcano in the region.

Thursday 18th April

We were disappointed to find out in the morning that the night time trips to see Stromboli (at its best) did not start until May but were advised that we could visit by taking the boat from Milazzo in Sicily. We had been undecided about going as far south as Sicily but this made up our mind. We had a good trip down to Villa san Giovanni and we were able to get a ferry almost immediately to Messina.  It was not a long trip and we thought it was expensive at 95 Euros. Milazzo was on the other side of the island and our journey there was beautiful if not convoluted - see next blog.