Mt Etna, Sortino and Pantalica

Success! We "conquered" Mt Etna. A lovely day when we woke and Stefano had been able yesterday to negotiate that we could re-use our tickets to go up the cable car (then the 4x4 buses for the last part to the top).

The views were very good and we were able to experience the volcanic landscape, even feeling the heat still in the rocks. The Cratere Centrale is at 3345m high.

As we descended back down, the clouds were already coming back in so I think we were very lucky! Molto fortunati! We returned to the hotel to collect our bags and enroute to Sortino in the bus Stefano bought us fichi d'India (prickly pear - peeled!) to taste.

We wound our way down the mountain, past lava flows, via Nicolosi and around the outskirts of Catania. Our destination is the ancient necropolis of Pantalica via the small town of Sortino.








Sortino is a lovely Baroque town inland and south of Mt Etna. We stopped here for a quick coffee and the others bought lunch but we had fruit still in our day pack which was enough as we are going out to a flash restaurant in Ragusa tonight.

Pantalica, a short drive from Sortino and close to Syracuse, is an ancient necropolis dating from the 13th to 7th centuries B.C., along with the Anaktoron positioned at the top of a hill, but which we didn't get to see unfortunately due to lack of time. This is a very significant archaelogical site, artefacts of which we would see later when we visited the Archaelogical Museum in Syracuse. Paolo Orsi, an archaeologist, recognized this importance and started excavation activities, and in 2005, it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Around 1300 B.C., the Sicans tribe left their coastal settlements and settled down in the valley between the rivers Fiume Anapo in the south and Fiume Calcinara in the north. As dwellings, they used natural limestone caves in existing slopes and carved artificial caves in the mountain. Probably around 1100 B.C., the Anaktoron (palace) was built. From the settlement, over 5000 constructed cave tombs are left. In 665 B.C., during the Hellenistic colonization of Syracase, the settlement was destroyed. In the early Christian and Byzantine period, new tombs were created. The Pantalica became a retreatment place during the Arab invasions; they named the place Buntarigah (caves). After the valley was inhabited by the Normans, it was abandoned.

We really should have had a guide for this area it being such a key archeological site.

We arrived into Ragusa about 6 p.m. (with a little damage to the bus yet again when Christian backed into a wall after going up a road the wrong way and required a 20-point turn to reverse out); nevertheless, his dexterity in negotiating the bus through the narrow streets of Ragusa could not be faulted as the intake of breaths in unison as we turned corners, met oncoming traffic and somehow, somehow (!) managed: not to a) knock over vespas (grazie, Bill; not "vespers" - ha ha) parked crazily on tight intersections; b) take out the side mirrors of vehicles as we squeeeezed past - left us in admiration of his skills (at age 22!) and grateful that it wasn't us having to drive.

We had the most wonderful meal at Il Duomo - Michelin-starred. I had booked before leaving Australia for the 2 of us but ended up with a party of 8 - superb! We walked there and back - across town. What a beautiful place!