Carnivale!

Last night we went to Carnivale in Acireale. It was amazing! We had so much fun. Carnivale takes place up until Fat Tuesday, which is the night before the start of Lent, Ash Wednesday.

People were wall to wall, some dressed up in costumes, much like American Halloween, and tons of little kids running around, all dressed up. They were the ones you had to watch out for. I've never seen so much silly string and confetti in my entire life! There were also amazing floats. Some where made out of paper made out of paper mache, others were made out of flowers. Some had whimsical themes while others were political jabs. Here are some of the pictures from the evening.

Kathy & I with our new masks

Les & David looking for their next silly string victim...

Les, Kathy & David after a silly string attack!

George W. Bush - they were announcing something as this float went by, all I could understand was Americano...

Locked and loaded...

You should have seen the little kid when he was done with him...

Les & I at the end of an awesome evening...and yes, that is confetti on the road

Carnivale was so much fun, I can't wait to go again next year!

Siracusa and Ortygia

This past Sunday we took a trip to Siracusa and the island of Ortygia with our friends, David & Kathy. We had a blast! It was the perfect sightseeing day. Good company, good weather (for the most part) and no crowds! We weren't sure if it was the time of year or the threat of rain that kept everyone else home, but it was amazing.

Our first stop was the Basilica di San Giovanni. We had hoped to go to the catacombs there, but they were closed. Not much is left of the basilica, as you can see - just the outer walls. I was told it is the oldest Catholic church in Sicily. The catacombs are underneath what remains of the basilica.

Basilica di San Giovanni

Next, (after getting raviola & caffe') we visited the Santuario della Madonna Delle Lacrime. It was opened in 1994 and is by far the most modern church I've seen in Italy. We only stepped inside for a moment, mass was in progress so I only took a couple pictures of the exterior.

Santuario della Madonna Delle Lacrime

Our next stop was the Parco Archeologico della Neopolis. It is an archaeological park with all sorts of ruins. Very cool!

Teatro Greco

Cave with a waterfall behind the Teatro Greco

Orecchio di Dioniso (Ear of Dionysius)

Grotta dei Cordari (Rope-makers' Cave)

Necropoli dei Grotticelli (Hellenistic and Byzantine tombs)

Dandelions with the Anfiteatro Romano in the background

Anfiteatro Romano

After we explored the Parco Archeologico we headed to the island of Ortygia. It is connected by bridge to Siracusa. We parked near the ocean and climbed up to the top of the seawall. It was awesome to smell the ocean again. I've missed it.

View of the Ionion Sea and Siracusa from the Island of Ortygia

Tepio di Apollo

Fontana di Diana

As we were wandering around the inside of the Duomo I noticed several massive Doric columns. It was strange to see inside a Catholic cathedral. I pointed them out to my friend, and once we were outside we looked it up in her guidebook, and sure enough, those columns were the remains of a Greek Temple of Athena.

Duomo, built around the original 5th Century Greek Temple of Athena

After we saw the Duomo we found the Fontana Aretusa, a duck pond with an interesting mythological history, and nearby we visited the aquarium which had all sorts of fascinating fishies. We decided to head towards home after the aquarium. We ended the day with margaritas at the Applebees on base.

Once home, I resumed working on my final paper for class. I finished it Monday evening, and in doing so finished the first class in my MBA program! It was extremely challenging, but I'm looking forward to my next class, which luckily doesn't start for two more months. I will enjoy the break immensely.

Hopefully this next weekend we'll be out and about taking in more sights on this amazing island. Viva Sicilia!

Resurfacing...

For those of you who have been wondering if I am still alive, the answer is YES! I've spent most of the last month cooped up in my office studying like crazy. Yes, that means I'm back in school - I've started working on my MBA online through University of Phoenix. It has been a challenge, but I'm just a little over a week from being done with my first class!

In between reading, writing, and trying to get my online "team" to work together Les & I have managed to get out a couple of times and see some sights.

I need to go back a little more than a month to start. The day after Christmas we finally went up to the town of Mineo. We can see Mineo from our upstairs hallway window at home. It is a little town perched up on a hill, like a lot of other Sicilian towns. On this particular visit I left my 18-55 lens at home and took my new 75-300 lens out for a test drive. Yep, my parents ROCK! It was an awesome Christmas present. So, needless to say, all of my pictures are big on the zoom.




Just a random donkey in the streets of Mineo...actually, we later found out that they were doing a live Nativity Scene later that evening.


A Traditional Sicilian Pony Cart


Detail of the painting on the pony cart



Throughout the late part of December and January we got a lot of rain. When the clouds finally lifted this is how the beautiful Mt. Etna looked. These were taken on January 4, 2007.


The view of Mt. Etna from the road to Catania


Another of Mt. Etna with Orange Trees in the foreground. The oranges, especially the blood oranges are awesome!

On January 20, 2007 we took a tour to Agrigento, my new favorite place in Sicily. Agrigento is home to five Greek Doric temples that overlook the Mediterranean. It was truly breathtaking to see structures or pieces of them still standing that are over 2000 years old!


Tiempo di Giunone


Tiempo di Giunone


Tiempo di Giunone


Almond Blossom with Tiempo di Giunone in the background


Tempio della Concordia - undergoing restoration, can't wait to see it without the scaffolding


A bit of the Tempio della Concordia that wasn't shrouded with scaffolding

That pretty much covers anything exciting that we have done in the last month. Hopefully in February we'll get out more!

A Rainy Day in Caltigirone

We live about 20 minutes drive from Caltigirone. One evening a couple of weeks ago, we decided to go explore. We found some great shopping, but after about an hour my hubbie was ready to go. As we tried to find our way out of town we found the old section - absolutely beautiful, but Les didn't feel well and wanted to get home so we didn't stop.

This last Thursday we were able to take a tour of Caltigirone. I was dying to take pictures of the places I had only glimpsed before.

Thursday dawned (I use that term loosely) dark, gloomy and rainy. We debated on which coats to wear and how many umbrellas to take and finally settled on our heavy coats and both umbrellas. It was still pouring when we arrived in Caltigirone. We were fortunate that we brought both umbrellas. The tour turned out to be mainly a walking tour so we sloshed our was around trying to take in the sights and stay as dry as possible. I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I had hoped for, but here are the few that turned out.





Inside the Cathedral



Nativity on the 144 Steps, Each step has beautiful ceramic tiles made in Caltigirone

There area lot of great shops and beautiful sights that I can't wait to go take in when it is SUNNY!

Buon Natale

Monreale and Palermo

Yesterday we finally got out of the house and went on another tour - this time to Palermo. We've been in our new apartment for a few weeks, and now that we are finally settled (for the most part) we decided that it was high time we got out and started having FUN again!

Our first stop was the small town of Monreale, in the hills south of Palermo. Monreale Cathedral is known for its amazing mosaics of both the old and new testaments. It was built, or rather, funded, by King WIlliam II (also known as King William the Good). The cathedral was built started in 1174 and finished in a mere 15 years. The inside of the cathedral is lined with over 2,000 mosaics made of gold, silver and colored glass. Hundreds of craftsmen worked on the mosaics and as a result, several different artistic styles are woven together in this masterpiece.

Moasic of Noah's Ark

Cathedral Cieling





Cathedral Apse

12th Century Political Propaganda, King William II being crowned by Christ

After Monreale we made our way to the Catacombe dei Cappuccini. I wasn't thrilled about this part of the tour, but I figured I should at least see it once. We made our way beneath the Capuchin Monastery where over 7,000 mummified bodies have been laid to rest. No photography was allowed, so I have no pictures, though I'm not sure if I would have wanted to remember it that graphically. It was creepy. Been there, done that, don't need to do it again.

Once everyone was mentally scarred for the rest of their lives we loaded back onto the bus and made our way to the Cathedral of Palermo. From the outside it is an impressive and beautiful, but after being inside Monreale with its sparkling mosaics, the inside of the Palermo Cathedral was a bit more bland. It did, however, have several beautiful paintings.















Once we were finished at the Cathedral it was time to eat. We ended up eating with some of the other members of our tour and had a delightful lunch. After lunch we have about a half hour left and decided to take a walk to the Opera House. It was quite beautiful, all decked out for Christmas. The front stairs were lined with poinsettias.



As we were taking pictures of the opera house I saw several horse drawn carriages, and noticed that the horses were wearing ear muffs! Too funny!



After the Opera House we made our way back to the bus for the long drive back home. It was a great day and I can't wait to see more of Palermo. There is so much to see there and we barely scratched the surface!