London Temple Shutdown Travels Leg #1--Sicily

The London Temple is shutdown for 6 weeks for maintenance and cleaning. 

We got permission to visit family and temples so on Monday, August 5 we headed to Sicily. 

Valerie and her family are stationed near Catania.  We flew direct from London to Catania, 

checked into our B&B, Oasi di Francesca. It is only 5 minutes from the base.

It is an agriturismo which is a combination of agriculture and tourism.  A farm designed to receive guests for food or accommodation, or a combination of the two. Francesca takes great pride in her establishment and was very proud of the things she made us for breakfast.  There was definitely a language barrier (thankfully Val could help a bit with that) but she was a warm and friendly hostess.

This was the view from our room of Mt Etna.  She was spewing a little smoke.

After we were all checked in we headed over to

Val's to have some pizza from Umbertos.

 It tasted even better than it looks. 

On Tuesday morning we headed into Catania to go to the market.

Of course in the the center of town is a piazza, the Piazza del Duomo.
This is the Cathedral of Sant'Agata.  It was built over the Roman Baths of Archilles on the place where the female martyr Agatha was killed in 251 for her determined profession of faith.

The emblem of the city is an elephant and there is one right in the center of the piazza.
This is the smiling Fontana dell'Elefante, built in 1736.  It stands guard over the city as a
symbol of strength to protect it from enemies, misfortune and natural disaster.

Back behind this fountain at Fontana Dei 10 Canali is the fish market.

Here the fish are bought and sold and bartered.

The ground was covered in fish muck.  We had no desire to go down and walk around,
but you can see great from above.

In a part of the market the umbrellas provide much needed shade.

Lots of colorful fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses, dried fruits and nuts.

We spent a super fun day walking the old streets of Catania.

We ran across this funny shelf with the 3 legs in a circle.  Turns out that symbol was first put on the Sicily flag in 1282.  The legs represent the three points of the triangular shape of the island.
Ironically, it is similar to the flag of the Isle of Man, UK.
They too have 3 bent legs in this shape on their flag.

We drove up to Motta to have lunch.  We had arancini, deep fried rice balls stuffed with cheese.
This is not our picture, but Motta has a castle that was built around 1070.  We bought some yummy things at a market in Motta for dinner; chicken rolls, spring onions with bacon some sausages and cheese.  Val added some ravioli and bruschetta and we had a delicious meal!  On Wednesday we were hoping to have dinner at a food truck nearby, but it was August...which means holiday...truck not open. We ended up at the mall, had some dinner and gelato to top it off.

 Thursday afternoon we headed north to Taormina.  It is a beautiful little tourist destination.

 It has a narrow walking street with shops and cafes

 and designer popsicles.

 Yummy!

 

 We ate our popsicles sitting on the side of the fountain at Taormina Piazza de Duomo San Nicolo di Bari.  The Duomo di San Nicola is the church that was built in the 13th century.

 Lots of pots and Pinocchios (he is Italian, right?)

 Beautiful views of the Ionian Sea.
 

 This is Church of St Joseph built at the end of the 17th century. It sits in a piazza that has the amazing views of he sea.

 Wonderful to see the grandkids!

 This is the view from the restaurant we ate dinner.
Granduca Garden Ristorante-Pizzeria

Amazing seafood pizza!

The gorgeous stairs leading back up from the deck we had dinner.

On the way back to the car we stopped for more goodies...cannoli, gelato and granita!
Sicily has the best of all of those!

On Friday, August 9 we drove a little over 2 hours to the southern coast to Agrigento

 to visit the Valle dei Templi or Valley of the Temples.
Greek architecture and largest archaeological sites in the world.

Juno Lacinia built in 450 BC

 Ancient olive tree

 Temple of Concordia built 440-430 BC

 
 The sunset was gorgeous and the ruins were even more beautiful lit up at night.

Temple of Heracles

On our final night in Sicily we went on a MWR trip to another agriturismo in Mineo,
Borgo Antico Agriturismo, for a traditional Italian meal that lasted for hours.

The table was set with beautiful plates and glassware.
We've never seen so many plates!  It was all served family style.

The food just kept coming out, plate after plate after plate.  It was in a lovely setting outdoors,
the food was delicious and we had great company!
We love this little family! Grateful for their travels and our chance to visit them.
It was a very late night, but we had a plane to catch the next morning...
on to our next destination...