We journeyed 2 hours to Geneva airport arriving in plenty of time for our flight..... new for us! We have found a new method of parking there, which is hassle free....... It is called ParkMyCar. It is necessary to prebook, but then one just drives to a stand at the arrival area, pulls in, gives them the key and you are immediately ready to check in. They have details of the return flight so have the car ready and waiting. Great!!
We were a little taken aback to find that the EasyJet flight we were booked on to Catania had no gate info... and it was almost check in time. The Info desk wasn't much help either.....didn't know where the plane was. We assumed it was held up on the inbound flight......but no.....there had been a Mt Etna eruption!
The volcano is quite active so we assumed this was just a temporary hold up. However once we were on the plane we were told that the flight was now going to Palermo as there was too much ash in the air around Catania. We didn't realise at that time that this was a much more serious Mt Etna event.....
We decided to get our rental car in Palermo....indeed it was suggested to us that we might want to do so as the Catania airport was closing at dusk and we might be unable to get a car on arrival.. So we ditched the bus....we would have had to wait for people collecting baggage. In any case, we only had carry-on.... However not far out of Palermo the Easyjet buses easily overtook us. They were going 130 kms/hr. We were going about a 100km/hr in a non familiar car on a non familiar road! We did spend some time regretting not taking the bus....however not for long! The road through the center of Sicily seems to be on stilts and we wondered how high up we were.... with 3 meter high fences on either side! So we clanked our way across in numerous 200ft sections.... and were happy we were not hurtling along on the bus!
Finally we arrived at our villa......obviously late and dark! We had communicated en route and they said they would leave the key to the door.... under a book, near the door. We get there...... but where was the door. Twice around the house and we find an upside down ceramic pot inside one of the grilled areas .... keys to the double locked doors underneath it!
Find the door......
its actually the second grilled space on the left.....difficult to deduce in the dark!
The house, Casa Vaddeddi, was as described.... really nice. However we wouldn't have minded a welcoming bottle of wine! Local gas stations were closed and so we couldn't pick up anything. And as we were tired we soon went to bed. However.....no soap!!! Now we have two rental properties, one in Provence & the other in Switzerland.........
In the Provence one we leave a red, white and pink bottle of wine, plus soap in all bathrooms. In the Swiss chalet we just leave white and red wine......pink seems a little optimistic! And of course soap!
So it would have been nice......
The area around the villa is delightful........olive trees in abundance.
outside dining areas......
and the pool looked inviting..... shallow but hopefully that means warm...ish!
We set off in the morning to have breakfast in Noto....to the well recommended Cafe Sicilia.
As it was quite close to the Doumo we did pop in...... but there was a Mass on at the time... Sunday morning!
Noto is a Baroque town rebuilt after a very major earthquake in 1693...
Then on to shop at the local InterSpar.... to get basics.....like soap!
Then on to lunch at Marzamemi. This is a beautiful little fishing village, which used to have a thriving tuna industry before over fishing happened!
We had intended having lunch at La Cialoma, well recommended in tourist guides.
It is on the main square which is beautiful. However the predominant language was English....heard on the other side of the square! So we opted instead for a small rooftop restaurant we spied, next to the church ! It looked as though it might have a sea view.....
Il Principino......
did indeed have a fantastic sea view....
And the food was excellent!
We can highly recommend!
We were a little taken aback to find that the EasyJet flight we were booked on to Catania had no gate info... and it was almost check in time. The Info desk wasn't much help either.....didn't know where the plane was. We assumed it was held up on the inbound flight......but no.....there had been a Mt Etna eruption!
The volcano is quite active so we assumed this was just a temporary hold up. However once we were on the plane we were told that the flight was now going to Palermo as there was too much ash in the air around Catania. We didn't realise at that time that this was a much more serious Mt Etna event.....
We decided to get our rental car in Palermo....indeed it was suggested to us that we might want to do so as the Catania airport was closing at dusk and we might be unable to get a car on arrival.. So we ditched the bus....we would have had to wait for people collecting baggage. In any case, we only had carry-on.... However not far out of Palermo the Easyjet buses easily overtook us. They were going 130 kms/hr. We were going about a 100km/hr in a non familiar car on a non familiar road! We did spend some time regretting not taking the bus....however not for long! The road through the center of Sicily seems to be on stilts and we wondered how high up we were.... with 3 meter high fences on either side! So we clanked our way across in numerous 200ft sections.... and were happy we were not hurtling along on the bus!
Finally we arrived at our villa......obviously late and dark! We had communicated en route and they said they would leave the key to the door.... under a book, near the door. We get there...... but where was the door. Twice around the house and we find an upside down ceramic pot inside one of the grilled areas .... keys to the double locked doors underneath it!
Find the door......
The house, Casa Vaddeddi, was as described.... really nice. However we wouldn't have minded a welcoming bottle of wine! Local gas stations were closed and so we couldn't pick up anything. And as we were tired we soon went to bed. However.....no soap!!! Now we have two rental properties, one in Provence & the other in Switzerland.........
In the Provence one we leave a red, white and pink bottle of wine, plus soap in all bathrooms. In the Swiss chalet we just leave white and red wine......pink seems a little optimistic! And of course soap!
So it would have been nice......
The area around the villa is delightful........olive trees in abundance.
outside dining areas......
and the pool looked inviting..... shallow but hopefully that means warm...ish!
We set off in the morning to have breakfast in Noto....to the well recommended Cafe Sicilia.
Then on to shop at the local InterSpar.... to get basics.....like soap!
Then on to lunch at Marzamemi. This is a beautiful little fishing village, which used to have a thriving tuna industry before over fishing happened!
We had intended having lunch at La Cialoma, well recommended in tourist guides.
It is on the main square which is beautiful. However the predominant language was English....heard on the other side of the square! So we opted instead for a small rooftop restaurant we spied, next to the church ! It looked as though it might have a sea view.....
Il Principino......
did indeed have a fantastic sea view....
And the food was excellent!
We can highly recommend!
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