Catania, Sicily

(This post is from April 8th. Somehow it got deleted, but thankfully I had a backup.....enjoy!)

Such an interesting Italian city, classicly Italian, and yet different than Rome, Florence, Venice and other iconic Italian cities. I think the "different" part was how few plazas there were....just a couple. Having lived in Spain, which is also very plaza-centric, it was odd to see an italian city laid out differently. But other than that, it was classic in every other way. While I love the architecture and food of Italian cities, I'm not a fan of how dirty they can be. Sicily was no different. But it was only a minor distraction.

In each city, I like to focus on something unique, a theme for my pictures. Sometimes, it doesn't work out but today it did. I was struck by how different all the finials, pediments and corbels were building to building.....and even at times within the same building. The corbels (brackets) ranged from ornate to simple, curved to straight-lined, decorative to structural. In the last 2 pics, notice it's the same building but different corbels, different doors and frames and different iron work. Small details and intentional.

We started out getting a hop on hop off for 15 euro each right at the port. Good deal. The first loop took 90 minutes and gave us a broad overview. We traversed along the coast for most of it up to Castello Normanno. We didn't go in through there were 3 geocaches on the site. I regret that. 😪 .

We headed back toward the main plaza Duomo, where we got off and explored.

The weather was great today, mid 60s and sunny, a nice change from the cooler Temps we've had in the last few ports.

Another facet of European life are statues....everywhere. I was impressed with the different materials used, limestone, basalt, Bronze and marble to name a few.

We headed up their version of Rodeo Drive with all the high end shops, but took a detour when we spotted an open air market and a Farmers market. I wanted to take pics of the former but it was literally so packed with people that I could barely get my phone out. Not exaggerating. The farmers market was only slightly better. But we did manage to snag a few cannolis, made fresh when we ordered them. Just 1.5 euro each. That was a GREAT treat.

We admired so many of the buildings and churches that line the mostly stone streets.

Like some other ports, the town is fairly compact so it really didn't take long to explore it, absorb it, experience it, enjoy it. As always, to add a little color to the beige on beige color scheme of these old cities, I picked out a few colorful moments.

We reboarded the ship about 3pm and got a text from our good friend Hasida. She learned yesterday that her grandson is having some issues and therefore, made the difficult decision to fly home from Rome on Monday, ending her cruise about 2 weeks early. So the 6 of us got together for dinner and made plans to stay in touch.

Tonight the show was a singer impersonator. Quite interesting. Did Barbara Streisand, Janice Joplin, Tanya tucker, Stevie nicks, julie andrews, Tina turner and others. Quite the array, but she pulled it off. Very few performers get standing ovations but she did.

And thus ended the evening. Tomorrow is Easter in Naples. We'll find a church service, then lunch with 2 other couples.