The Aeolian Islands: September 1st - 3rd 2017

September 1st & 2nd: Home to Milazzo
I left a heaving Blackpool at 1940 (heaving due to Illuminations visitors) & found there was a delayed train at Preston :-(  However, between there & Euston we caught up the time, & I walked from Euston to St Pancras, then hung about drinking coffee until it was time to catch my train to Gatwick. 
There was another long delay south of East Croydon - apparently a train with broken brakes ahead, & the 2 of us in the carriage (it was silly o'clock in the morning), found ourselves going back up the track to get a bus round the hold up %\
Gatwick finally arrived & I checked in (I had carry-on again), found a lie-down spot & tried to sleep as the Gate info would not appear until 0550.
When I woke, the time for Gate info had been changed to 0755 - boo. I was supposed to be catching a bus from Catania to Milazzo at 1245, & that was looking unlikely. 
They offered a £7.50 voucher due to the delay, so I used it in Wetherspoons for a bacon butty & a brew, & we were finally called to Gate 3 at 0825. Word was it that the incoming flight from Brussels had been delayed because the pilot was ill & they couldn't find another.
How dumb is that?
We eventually took off at 1040 after sitting in the plane at the gate for more than an hour :-/
I got tea & coffee on the plane, ate the rest of the bananas & chocolate I'd stashed in the bumbags, & we landed over 3 hours late at 1410 :-( 
Eeek!
I was supposed to be in Milazzo on the north coast by 1800 & wasn't sure of bus times during the afternoon.
We had a long wait to disembark - this had been a journey of delay after delay! ! !, but I eventually whizzed past everyone else to be 1st in the passport queue, & left the terminal at 1430.
There was a bus ticket kiosk near the door, so I bought a ticket for Milazzo via Messina, quickly went to the Ladies & was on my way north at 1440 sitting in the front seat :-)

My 1st pic of Etna

Etna to the west of the main road north from Bus 1

I saw signs for Giarre where I would be met by Armando in a week's time, & enjoyed the views of the coast & Taormina ~ which Rob & I had visited on a stopover on the Star Clipper in 2006.

The Italian coastline of Calabria ~ still on the 1st bus

The bus connection to Milazzo meant 3 of us got dropped off somewhere in Messina & we waited about 20 minutes at a roadside bus-stop before our connecting bus arrived.

While on the buses, I'd texted Giuseppe re the delays & he'd told me he was docked at the Poseidon Marina.

The bus got in at 1610, & I found there was a 45 min walk to the marina which was in the last one on the east side of the Milazzo peninsula :-(( 
45 min was not ideal in the heat of a Sicilian afternoon, carrying a ruckie, & having not been to bed the evening before!

However, I did grab 2 scoops of coconut & chocolate ice cream to eat on the way :-p. Some of the walk was under an avenue of nice trees, & while it was unusual for me to avoid the sun, I'd not applied the sun cream & it was hot!

I arrived just before 1700 & found 2 Aus ladies (Jenny & Suzanne) at the bottom of the ladder up to the deck. Apparently, Giuseppe (AKA Pepe) said they could board at 1800, so I dumped the ruckie with their bags & we all went to the little cafe serving the Poseidon which was just at the junction of the road along the coast (Via Panoramica), & the road which went up the middle.

There was only a coffee machine & none of us could work it out until a couple of small kids showed us how ;-p The kids said they'd learned their English at the Belgian school, but not sure if that's in Milazzo or Belgium?

We got back to the boat at 5 to 6 & there was another single lady (Lorella from Italy) waiting: Lorella & I were to share a cabin & I managed to bag the bottom bunk :-)

Below decks & Susanne moving in

I quickly changed into shorts & a cooler top, sat on deck for a bit to chill after my walk in the sun,  & then wandered about taking photos.

There were needles of lightening across the hills near Messina (east of us) & regular thunder: It looked like we were in for a downpour :-/

Meanwhile, I saw there was a guide called Nicolas (who was Italian). He spoke French & English, & was there

Pink stunt bumbag on my bunk

for the use of guests who did not speak Italian.
I also met a Austrian couple ~ Serge & Elizabeth, & a German single lady

Our en-suite

whose name I can't find in my notes & it's >2 years ago now, so I can't remember! Soz. 

As well as meeting the other boarded guests, I found out the chef was called Roberto & that the 1st Mate, Rahul, was East European.

Pepe in the Salon

Controls!

In between all that I was sunbathing, taking photos & hoping the storm wouldn't interfere with the itinerary Happy Donkey had sent.

Rahul & Pepe prepare for the imminent storm

Looking aft towards the dock

According to the Happy Donkey Tours bumf, there should have been a safety briefing before dinner. 
This didn't happen, despite the impending weather.

However, we did get the promised free drink at the welcome aboard meeting, where we were told that all drinks aboard (including tea & coffee! !) should be paid for - I thought that was a bit of a rip-off, considering the price of the week's holiday :-(


I had also asked Happy Donkey about actually sailing - ie, putting the sails up & being blown along by the wind. The reply was that the Captain put the sails up whenever he could, but on my walkabout I could not see much sign of running rigging, & at one point Pepe & Radu got a sail out, fiddled with it & stowed it again.
Duh??


Because I had booked the cruise thinking we would get under sail fairly often (intended destinations & wind permitting), I asked Pepe. His answer showed that it would be unlikely.
Bugger :-((

Ah well, at least I'd be spending 7 days on the water, cruising between the islands & sleeping afloat.

The Dining Room

The hills by Messina - or possibly part of the
Monti Peloritani?

While I had a signal on the Sanyo, I showed Pepe some shots from the Royal Clipper Atlantic crossing, but he was busy looking at the forecast, so I left him to it with my fingers crossed for decent weather.

Jenny & Suzanne grab a bit of sun before the storm arrives

Another gulet in the rain

Pre-prandial relaxation, & yes, that's my foot!

The sky continued to darken, so actual sunbathing was out, but - this being Sicily at the beginning of September, it was still warm enough to wander about with not a lot on ;-p




Then, just before dinner, a French couple boarded. He was a Lot older than her & called Philippe. 
She was Aline & tried to speak English with me, but she was only just starting to learn & struggled quite a lot.

Phillippe gives us all the benefit of his erudition!

tbh ~ I think Aline was trying because Philippe did not speak any English ~ not even please & thank you, Grrrr. 
Aline always seemed vaguely 
embarrassed & apologetic whenever Philippe expressed his poor opinion of England, Brexit, me & all other things English, & he began his harangues at that 1st dinner, continued throughout the cruise, & I thought he was a total wazzock & very rude.
That's blonde Aline next to Philippe here.


However, on that 1st evening I did not let on that I understood French & let him rattle on. I wanted the denouement to happen on the last evening, because revenge is a dish better taken cold! ;-)
So said a Frenchman originally, & it's also a Klingon proverb - tlhIngan Hol: bortaS bIr jablu'DI' reH QaQqu' nay'. Hehehe
Post dinner, having checked Es in the Salon, I was showered, hieroglyphed (shame I can't read some of it ;-p ), & in bed by 1055.

September 3rd: Exploring the Milazzo peninsula

When I got up at 0845, Lorella was gone & I found her & everyone else at brekkers.

Nicolas (Nic) was explaining in French what the day's plan was, then Pepe explained that the swell was too big for the (relatively flat-bottomed) gulet & so she would remain in Milazzo until tomorrow.

From Nic's gist, I gathered we would walk to the Cape, have a look at Venus' Pool & the lighthouse, & come back to the marina in the afternoon. After a late lunch, we would walk up to the castle for a tour & the sunset.

Bum :-(  I wanted to get on the water.

Everyone was ready to roll by 0950 & we set off north up the Via Panoramica.

As is usual with groups of walkers, the pace was dictated by the slowest: in this case, Philippe. It was way too slow for me (my hip aches if I walk too slowly for too long), so at 1005 I told Nic I would walk on & see them at the end of the road.

A house on the Via Panoramica

It was a lovely walk on my ownsome :-)

The sea was on my right & I frequently stopped to gawp at the views.

Vulcano in the distance over the end of the Capo Milazzo

Accordin to Gmaps I walked about 5K & I got there at 1105, so a good pace, despite the gawping! ;-)

Looking back south & west

I took a few pics near the end of the road, then went to get an ice cream at a cafe called La Baia.

I must've pressed something to end up with the sepia pics ~ oops!

But they're quite atmospheric, doancha think?

Giuseppe Seguenza's monument

This is what Wiki says about the 3rd one:

Giuseppe Seguenza (Messina, June 8, 1833 – Messina, February 3, 1889) was an Italian naturalist and geologist. At twenty-three he discovered that all the products of the emanations of Vulcano (one of the Aeolian Islands) contain arsenic compounds. Later he published other scientific works that earned him the attention of scholars in Europe and the silver medal at the Paris Exposition. These works ensued the chair of Professor

Contorted olive

of  Natural History at the high school 

Maurolico, then the Technical Institute of Messina and finally had access to the professorship at the University of Messina. In 1868 he introduced the Zanclean stage to define the early part of the Pliocene. 

A genus of sea snails: Seguenzia (family Seguenziidae), is named in his honor.

The cliffs on the south face

As well as scoops of coffee & chocolate ice creams at La Baia, I had an espresso & a Rule 10, & coming out of the Ladies I saw a great contorted olive tree & a pic ensued.

Well, you know me & a nice tree :-D

Not easy to see, but Stromboli is out there

Back on the road, I grabbed a few more scenic pics before heading downwards towards the Pool of Venus.

Some of the steps down to Venus' pool

The hieroglyphs say there were 146 steps down to the pool!

The Piscina di Venere or the Pool of Venus

At the bottom there was a small rocky beach & a bloke who had clearly been in for a dip, so I doffed the shorts & T & went to get wet.

Sharp rocks to the south of the pool

Despite the crashing waves to the west, the pool was relatively calm & I swam about for about 5 minutes.

Looking shore-wards up the steps, there was no sign of anyone else, so I figured I had plenty of time to explore.
  

Small channel from the rocks to the pool

You can see the pool is calm despite the crashing waves

Given the volcanic nature of the rocks round here, I put my shoes back on when I went scrambling.

It was great :-)) ~  but I was Very careful not to drop the Lumix. It wouldn't've come off well versus lava!

Now I'll let the photos do the talking for a bit .  .  .

Ditto (haha)

What the sea looked like outside the pool.
Not a place for a dip!

Um ~ Ditto ;-)

The Piscina di Verere from above

A photo of 'swimming' bloke taking a photo ;-)

Pippo del Bono's monument

I looked on Google for info on Pippo del Bono, but there was nothing of use, so I E'd the tourist office.

Unlike the NZ ones, they never replied :-/ 

Rocks & waves on the other side of the cape

Scrambling done, I tucked the shorts & T over the bum-bag strap & set off up the cliff to see what else there was to explore, & found another small beach

Err  -  -  -  Ditto!

with nice holey rocks to the east side of the Cape.

However, it was Way 

too rough for a 2nd dip though, so I just spent a  

No idea what this building is.
Milazzo TI were no help :-(

short while wave watching & pic taking before walking south towards the big bay I'd taken photos of pre the ice creams.

Cliff side path, west side

On the way down & along the path above the bay, I found a ruined fort-like building & what looked like a ruined fishing village.








Then I climbed back up the cliff, exploring over.

Possibly an old fishing village?

Apologies for all the Dittos ;-)

At the cafe at the top I had another espresso & Rule 10 then looked around for any familiar faces.

Nope :-/

I had seen Lorella descending the Venus steps as I went left to Pippo's monument, but no-one else since I had walked on at  5 past 10. 

Looking back up the cliff to the castle thing

Because Nic had said we would all take a bus from the Cape back to town, & because I knew we were supposed to be back at the marina for a late lunch by 2.30, I checked the timetable to find there were no buses on Sundays.

Great planning, Nic. 

Not :-/

So, I set off at 5 to 1 to walk back down the Via Panoramica. 

It was very hot, & because I was in a hurry so I wouldn't be late for lunch, I decided to hitch.

2 cars passed then a mini-bus which pulled up. I got in to find it had been hired by Nic to take everyone home.

Various comments were passed about me hitching (but nothing new there, eh? ;-p ), & we were dropped off at the marina after a very fast drive along the twists & turns of the Via Panoramica by the lady driver. 

Well, we were in Italy ;-)

I quickly washed my yesterday's socks & the swim-kini before lunch & sat down to a mozzarella & salmon salad, prawn & butterfly pasta, & another espresso. I also sat down to more 'comments' from Philippe, but decided that because he was a total tosser he didn't deserve any attention, & I continued to pretend I didn't understand French.

The others (apart from Lorella) did though, & there were a few raised eyebrows at his anglophobic utterances.

See above about revenge!

After lunch we found our trip up to the castle was to happen late afternoon/early evening, & that we were to meet at 1700 by the marina gate. Some of the others then went for a walk towards town, but most of us sat around the ship & relaxed.

Before lunch I'd changed into my sun-kini: so named because it was too small to swim in without risking nakedness (Oops ;-p), & come 

Milazzo castle from below

1630, I roused myself from the sun deck & changed for the trip up the hill.

I counted the steps again, & this time 

Cute balcony - a la Romeo & Juliet ;-p

there were 129, so I had managed some decent leg-work that day :-)

I took a couple pics while I waited for the others to catch up.

Castle info

At the castle, our guide was Manuela, & she spoke Italian, French & English, so my Italian & French vocabulary got a boost :-)

At this point, the hieroglyphs say "Bloody Philippe", but not why.
I guess he was being obnoxious again?

Etna above the ramparts

Ours is the one with the blue awning on the left

Here's an edited bit from Wiki:
The Castello di Milazzo is a castle & citadel. It is located on the summit of a hill overlooking the town, on a site first fortified in the Neolithic era. The Greeks modified it into an acropolis, and it was later enlarged into a castrum by the Romans and Byzantines. The Arabs built a castle, which was further modified and enlarged during the Medieval and Early Modern periods.  The castle was built as a result of the strategic importance of the Milazzo peninsula, which commands the Gulf of Patti, the body of water that separates Sicily from the Aeolian Islands. It also commands one of Sicily's most important natural harbours.  In around 843, the Arabs began to build a castle on the ruins of the Greek, Roman and Byzantine fortifications. The castle's keep possibly dates back to this era.  The castle was enlarged by the Normans and Swabians. The castle was extensively modified during the reign of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen.  Although it is commonly called a castle, the Castello di Milazzo is more precisely a fortified town or citadel, since it housed several public and private edifices, such as a cathedral and a Benedictine convent. The citadel is located on top of a hill, which gradually slopes towards the town and its harbour. The south-eastern side of the castle consists of several defensive walls, while its north-western side is protected by a natural cliff-face.  The keep of the castle is the Torre Saracena (Saracen Tower), which is also the oldest part of the fortification. It was built either by the Arabs or the Normans, but like the rest of the castle, it was modified over the years until the 16th century. The keep is surrounded by walls with protruding square-shaped towers, which were built by the Swabians. These are in turn surrounded by the Aragonese Wall (Cinta Aragonese in Italian), which contains semi-circular bastions.

The curtain wall & the Bastion of Santa Maria

Apparently it was first built in 4000BC & fiddled with between the 9th & 17th centuries by various occupiers.

Zoomed scarab decoration on a tower

I also got this info from the Castello di Milazzo website:

The origin of the decoration commonly known as "scarabeo" is not clear; composed of black ashlars of lava stone, it is inserted in a spur of the medieval walls of the castle, directed towards the eastern solstice, the astronomical point from which the sun rises on June 21st. Probably originally the decoration reproduced only "two eyes" (Los ojos de melazo "," as it was defined by an eighteenth-century author) later the "antennas" were added. The interpretations have been multiple: simple decoration, "surveillance element", symbol of unbeaten and impregnable, of transformation and rebirth, but it is believed that the most plausible meaning is related to the vigilance on the safety of the city.
That's enough history for now, I think ;-)

My notes say this is a castor oil tree.
I think its spiky fruit are like horse chestnuts

As well as this tree, I found a fig tree & ate a load of figs. They were very ripe & delicious :-q

The Bailey with some of our group listening in

Sunset from the Battlements

We made our way up to the top of the keep & the sun was just going down. 

It was thus time for an extended photo stop for everyone, & here're a few of mine:~

The top of the cathedral from the top of the keep

Sunset of Capo di Milazzo ~ Gmaps
does not tell me what the bay is called :-(

Sunset as the Lumix saw it

Sunset with the 'Sunset' effect

Looking south towards Etna

A bit more colour as the sun sinks lower

See above 'Sunset setting' comment

One of my favourite ever sunset shots :-D

The Lumix on another setting

The cathedral. The green things are seats for a concert

The figures were small children

Sun down, we all made our way back down to the cathedral & had a very interesting time inside.

Another small child. Love to know the significance,
but can find nowt on Google

The cathedral was full of child sculptures

As previously, there has been no response from the Milazzo tourist office about the sculptures, but it was all rather nice in there, despite some slightly spooky statues!

Cute chapel, but Google didn't say who it was dedicated to :-(

More spooky kids!

This was a model of the whole edifice I saw in the cathedral

Milazzo Bay & moon above from the Salita Castello

It was dark when we finished in the cathedral, & the moon was out :-)

Cool moon shot

Tree in the Salita Castello

Great bark :-)

Most of the others had already gone back, & I ended up being the last back, courtesy of detours through the moonlit streets, some great trees, & some photos at a little park on the promenade.

   Angolo di preghiera - I think? Don't quote me, but

that's what it said on Gmaps!

While I was on the promenade a firework display started over the town. It was very loud & I bought a donut while I stood & watched.

As I got to the jetty, there was a tree with birds roosting. They were also loud, despite being quite small.

Treasures from my walk in the park!

Back aboard it was soon time for dinner.

My notes say "it was OK but not brill", & that I'd eaten a load of figs up at the castle, 3 peaches, & a donut ;-q, so I'd had plenty of calories ;-p

When I got back to the ship, I had asked Pepe about my 'treasures', but he wasn't a lot of help, & I've been unable find out from the Tourist office either (again!).

The pic is the only record I have of them. Unlike the lava & other mementos I picked up on the islands, they didn't make it into the ruckie for the trip home.

OAO