Sicily 2006

Still more to come...

On the way there


Looking out at the Alps from the plane



Catania - Festa di Sant Agata

Festa di Sant Agata candle carrying
I happened to arrive in Catania at the time the annual 'Festa di Sant Agata' celebration was being held. Many people carry vast tree-trunk sized candles, alight, on their shoulders and process up the main street, Via Etnea, ahead of the statue of the saint.





Coast north of Catania


The sea-front and castle of Aci Castello at sunset

Taormina

The Teatro Greco in Taormina with Etna behind
The Teatro Greco in Taormina, with Mount Etna behind.

Teatro Greco in Taormina from above
The Teatro Greco in Taormina from above

Aeolian Islands - Salina


Monte dei Porri, the second of Salina's volcanos, with its head in the clouds, above the village of Leni


Rinella from the end of the pier

Aeolian Islands - Lipari


Lipari Castello from above


A dumped car succumbs to the vegetation. The Aeolian Islands have a long history of human settlement and many archaeological sites - if this car isn't removed soon before it's completely covered up, it'll be being unearthed at a dig several hundred years in the future...

Aeolian Islands - Vulcano


Inside the Gran Cratere crater on Vulcano






The summit

Salina and Lipari from Vulcano
The Aeolian islands of Salina and Lipari from Vulcano. The smoking crater rim can be seen in the lower left.

Close-up of vent on Vulcano
This smoking vent on Vulcano really was as close to the path as it appears, just metres away...


The volcanic islands of Panarea (closer) and Stromboli (in the distance, smoking (it's very much still active)). Here's an enlargement.

Cefalu


A ruin, one of the ubiquitous succulents and the castle on the city of Cefalu's hill 'La Rocca'.

Palermo


Palermo's Cattedrale

Sunset over Palermo
Sunset over Palermo. A world away from the chaotic and run-down city streets.

Agrigento


The Tempio della Concordia in Agrigento


Reconstructed columns of the Tempio di Ercole with the modern town of Agrigento behind


City walls and the Tempio di Giunone

Siracusa

The Teatro Greco in Siracusa
The impressively sized Teatro Greco in Siracusa.


Fonte Aretusa




Sunset from Ortygia

Pantalica

Pantalica hillside
Looking across the gorge to a Pantalica hillside. The many dark rectangles you can see across the picture are some of the 5000 rock-cut tombs in the area.


Pantalica tombs close-up


Looking out of one of the tombs in Pantalica


Inside a house in a Byzantine cave village

Catania, again


Piazza Duomo


It appears that they really do re-plant this flower-bed appropriately every single day... it must be hard work on the first day of a new month...

Copyright © 2006 David R Edgar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
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