Licata and the Marina

Licata

 We had a visit to a local family business who produce olive oil, sundried tomatoes, relishes etc. Excellent produce and lots of tasting opportunities!

 

 Halloween party in the hall at the marina.

 We get amazing sunsets almost every night.

 The view from the boat looking towards the castle on the hill and the lighthouse.

 Dave playing guitar and singing at music night at Las Vegas bar. Next to him is Angelo playing violin. He is a local who heard us and came along to join in.

 The newly built barbecue area at the end of our pontoon.

 The boules / mölky pitches next to the barbecue. Mölky is a Finnish game a bit like skittles. Good fun and any number can play. There is usually at least one game played after the BBQ each week. Boules is played on Wednesday afternoons, or any other time people fancy a game.

 The beach at the marina where we have been doing pilates twice a week up until November 23rd when it was just a bit too chilly to be on the beach so we are now in the hall.

 The view from the reception area of the marina. Serenity is in the distance on the right of this photo.

 Sorry, another sunset!!

 Our pontoon, looking from the back of our boat down towards the quay.

Mantis shrimps - huge things but very difficult to eat as they have spikes on each section of their body and not a lot of meat when you finally get to it!

Around and About in Licata

Licata

Now that Serenity is in Licata for the winter I thought I would do a post about the town and marina.

We went on a guided walking tour of the town, organised by the marina.

 One of the main streets in town with the town hall in the distance.

 A typical narrow street, just about a car width, but how narrow are those flats!!

 Inside the main church, known as the church of the Black Christ. The original church was burned and, although this statue survived, they painted it black in commemoration of the fire.

 The beautiful interior of the same church - decorated just like Wedgewood china!

 This time we were able to go into the castle on the hill above the marina that we had walked up to with Katy. There were several rooms of museum items from everyday life.

 Another of the many churches in town.

 San Angelo's church in San Angelo's square where we went sketching with the art group.

 Detail of a window at the archive centre.

 We were taken into the amazing network of tunnels that we had no idea were under the town. The original tunnels were dug by the Greeks. At one time they provided water to the town as the water passed along the vein of clay you can see behind Dave. The tunnels were more recently used as air raid shelters in the war.

 At the museum in town we saw some anchors that had been found off the coast of Sicily which they have dated back to about 60BC.

Katy's Visit Part 2

Valley of the Temples 

The area just outside Agrigento known as the Valley of the Temples. Actually the temples are built along a ridge to act as beacons for homecoming sailors.

 

 The Temple of Juno (Hera)

 An atmospheric photo!

 The Temple of Concordia

 A modern bronze of Icarus as he fell to earth. 

 The Temple of Concordia was used as a model for Unesco's logo.

It is thought to have survived so well because, beneath the hard rock on which it stands, is a layer of soft clay that acts as a sort of shock absorber, protecting it from earthquake tremors.

 The Temple of Hercules

This is the oldest of the temples dating from the end of the 6th century BC - amazing.

 

 Time for lunch at the beach cafe....

 .....then a walk along the beach around the headland to Scala dei Turchi.

 The very smooth, white rock.

 It has been weathered into giant steps with a hundred foot drop to the turquoise sea.

Mount Etna  

On the way to taking Katy back to the airport, we had an incredible afternoon on Mount Etna.

 The highest point is at 3329m and you can see the smoke drifting amongst the clouds. Mount Etna last erupted in May this year.

We drove part way up, then took the cable car, then took an off-road bus up to 2500m

 There are four main craters and several smaller ones on the flanks of the mountain

 We were so lucky with the weather and, although we were actually above the clouds, we had amazing views through the breaks.

 A panorama showing the highest crater in the background, the largest crater next to that and in the foreground is the crater we walked around. On the ground the red is iron, the yellow is sulphur and the green is copper.

 

 The Button craters - so named because they are in a row like buttonholes.

 An incredible landscape!

 Looking across to another crater.

Action picture!

 

Licata and Katy's visit

Licata 

We have had an amazing year sailing from Turkey, across the Greek islands, through the Corinth canal and on to Sicily - 1,900 miles - not bad considering we average about 5 miles an hour!

We have arrived  at our winter destination - Licata marina on the south coast of Sicily. 

This is the view up to the castle from the front of the boat.

 Kingfishers on the boat next door.

 The  beautiful old Palazza Frangipane in the centre of town, now a bank.

On October 10th Katy flew out to visit us and we had a wonderful few days visiting places around the island. Our first stop after picking her up from the airport was...

Villa Romana del Casale 

This is thought to be the country retreat of Marcus Aurelius Maximianus (AD 286 - 305) and sumptuous even by decadent Roman standards. According to the Lonely Planet guide it is decorated with the finest Roman floor mosaics in existence. Following a landslide in the 12th century, the villa lay under 10m of mud for about 700 years so was protected from the damaging effects of air, wind and rain. The beautiful floors were excavated in the 1950s.

 The "Corridor of the Great Hunt"

This is 64m long and depicts hunting scenes of tigers, elephants, leopards, antelopes, ostriches and a rhino amongst others. These animals were captured for the circus maximus.

Detail of a horse's head. It is incredible how they achieve the shading in mosaic.

 Scenes from the hunt.

 Fish dinner along the coast from the marina. Happy Katy!

 The extraordinary cemetery on our walk up to the castle above the marina.

 The view from the castle looking back over the cemetery to the marina beyond.

We made it to the top!!

Katy's amazing photo of the marina at sunset.