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Etna is now exploding!! Pressure is building up so I’m waiting patiently for The Big One!!

Despite the wonderful variety of vegetables in the local markets they are not served in the restaurants! It is considered peasant food. However surprisingly we were offered raw broad beans for breakfast in one of our hotels!

When asked where I live back home many people (my generation & older) know the Isle of Wight as a 60’s Italian band called Dik Dik released a popular song about the Pop Festivals of the late 60’s/1970 & every other word is Hippies!!

Sicily now has a new president, Berlusconie. The last one was a naughty boy & his term finished two years early. Elections were held peacefully on 13th & 14th April.

The sirocco wind has been blowing from the SE (Sahara) which brings with it a fine pink coloured sand which obscures the views but brings the heat. Fortunately it doesn’t often last for long. Then the Mistral blows from the NW bringing clearer but cooler weather.

Since I first arrived I’ve been asked directions in Italiano! Must be that tour leader look on my face! The other day I discovered how to say nudist beach as I was asked where the spiaggia nudista was!!

May is the season of weddings. Couples get married every day of the week except Sundays. Saw several weddings in Syracuse & Taormina with brides wearing beautiful dresses & bridegrooms in flashy Italiano label suits.

On Oritiga Island (the original settlement of Syracuse) we also witnessed an Initiation Ceremony in a church for the Knights of St John.

The durum wheat which is grown everywhere is now being harvested so the lushness of the island is disappearing. The spring flowers are also beginning to fade although the poppies are now at their best, such a vivid red.

Although it’s been a great time of year to visit Sicilia with the flowers, blossom, lushness & reasonably good weather it’s also the time of incredibly noisy school groups!!

The education system in Sicilia is the same as mainland Italia except the schools have a longer summer holiday due to the long hot summers so they break up end of June for 3 months!! This means they have shorter Easter & Christmas holidays & no week off in February for skiing!

Several Greek theatres are used from May. In Syracuse the season of Greek plays began on 8th May until end of June. In Taormina the famous Film Festival is held from June plus many different concerts for all musical tastes. In recent years Elton John & Lisa Minelli have performed here.

Occasionally the audience is treated to an amazing concert in a Greek theatre with Mt Etna erupting in the background!

Went up Etna again Saturday morning. The guide told us how a week ago the volcanoligists thought there may be an eruption due to the build up of pressure but she had calmed down. There was a lot of white steam being emitted but we were told when it’s white it’s OK. You only start panicking when it turns blue!

Later that evening we enjoyed our Last Supper on the seafront of Giardini Naxos. At 21.30 volcanic ash started raining from the sky! Etna was erupting!!!

What a finale!

Want to see Etna and all that Sicily has to offer? Try our ‘Classical Sicily‘ tour for some of the best preserved Graeco-Roman sights in the Mediterranean and some of the Islands other beautiful cultural highlights. Do you want to get even closer to Etna and the other Sicilian volcanoes? Try our ‘Sicilian Volcano Hike‘.