25. Sicily - Catania.

 Sicily is a small Italian island situated right on the 'toe' of the 'boot'. 

The flight from Istanbul was a smooth and uneventful 2-hour flight. We both downloaded the Italian language onto our phones and were practising common phrases to pass the time on the plane. Reprogramming the brain to a new language is challenging as this is the fourth language we are taking on. (Thai, Portuguese, Turkish and now Italian.)

We landed at Catania airport on Feb 14 and got picked up by Guiseppe who was organised through our Air B&B host.  It is sometimes cheaper to do that than be at the mercy of the taxi drivers at the airport. Apparently, public transport in Sicily is a bit iffy at night so we went the path of least resistance. Being Valentine's Day there was heaps of traffic which made Guiseppe about half an hour late. It wasn't an issue for us, but Guiseppe was very apologetic. He is a lovely guy. We managed to communicate very well considering the limitations on all our parts. 

We were being driven to a place in Ace (pronounced 'Arch air')  Costello being about 10km north of Catania city.

The drivers here give the Turkish a run for their money. They are insane! Apparently, one-way streets don't apply to motorbikes! So we are dealing with the cars on the other side of the road plus the riders interpreting the road rules as they see fit.

Guiseppe stopped at a restaurant and got back in the car 5 minutes later with a paper bag in his hand. We thought he was buying his dinner but to our surprise, he handed the bag to us as a gesture for being late. 

When we got to the apartment, we opened the bag and found the biggest arancini we had ever seen! They were absolutely delish! 😋

The accommodation was a bit ordinary. It was cold, the hot water had little pressure and lasted just a few minutes and a few other quirks. Guiseppe was our go-to man and he was very helpful with the issues he could sort out.

We got up the next morning to a beautiful day and realised we were about 20 metres from the sea and the view was beautiful.

There was a local fruit trader just up the street.

Mount Etna is only about 30 km away and can be seen very easily from the Catania area.

The main feature in Ace Castello is a ruin of a castle built on a rocky outcrop over 1200 years ago. 

In 1169,  Mount Etna erupted and 'fused' the castle to the rocks below. It is hard to tell where the rocks end and the castle begins.

On entry, the guy at the castle entrance gave Max a coin to put in the wishing well.

He also sought us out to give us a performance!

Pics from inside the castle.

We went to a local cafe and ordered hot chocolate. That is exactly what we got. Glad we didn't order a large! That spoon was not going anywhere!

The kitchen in the apartment was severely lacking in many areas so we decided to eat out at the local pizza restaurant just around the corner. We went in and with our best Italian lingo, we greeted the waiter. Being a vegetarian, there is not much on the menu for me so I was pleased to see a vege pizza and a vege pasta dish. Max ordered a beef dish. After 10 minutes or so, the waiter came back with the menu, slapped it down on the table near me and said. 'No pizza!' in a very stern voice. I went for plan B being the pasta. Our dishes came out... Max's beef was severely undercooked and I had the most ordinary pasta ever. Bummer... Anyway, I had fun writing the google review that night and needless to say, we never went back.

Catania Central was nice too. We managed to work out the local bus system having to buy tickets from tobacconists and having them validated on the bus. The bus drivers need medals. Negotiating the back streets of Catania is an art form!

These are buildings in Catania Central Square.

The Catania market had plenty of great produce too.

The Catania canoli and spinach arancini were the best!

The canoli was filled with a beautiful not so sweet cream with crushed pastachio nuts.

The spinach arancini were filled with cheese.

We decided to leave the accommodation as there were aspects that were not fixable in our time there. The host was very reasonable and gave us a refund for the days we weren't going to use. It's in his interest to resolve issues as Air B&B offers the users to write reviews and we could have easily had a field day on this place if he didn't cooperate!

Looking for alternative accommodation in Catania was proving fruitless so we decided to look further south in  Syracuse. Max found what looked like a nice place and I organised the train tickets. The next day we were to be gone and in hindsight, what a great move that was!

The night before we left Ace Castello, we needed to get dinner but were a bit hesitant as we were concerned about how we would be treated in another restaurant after that first experience.  Being our last night in Ace Castello, we had to try again. We were not going to be beaten. I thought if the food was crap, I would say so. I was ready for them... We went to another local restaurant filled with locals rather than tourists and we could not have been treated better with the food quality, their manners, humour and cost. 

Viva Italia!