So first we fly to Venice on the 27th and we’ll be staying at Al Gallion B&B nothing fancy but nice enough looking and well located. As mentioned before our main plans for Venice involve the Biennale, gelato, and prosecco. We will also go back to Lido and probably Murano too. Jeremy is also obsessed with finding a restaurant we walked by after dinner on our last night there 2 summers ago. He is sure he can find it again. I’m not saying I have doubts that he can find it, I’m just maybe not so sure as he is.
Venice is a maze. Abeautiful wonderful maze, but still a tricky maze.
On the 31st we fly into Catania, Sicily where we will stay at 5 Balconi. I think we’ll be in the pale blue room. We’ll be in Catania for three nights and we will be renting a car so we’re probably going to drive down to Syracuse and up to Taormina and wherever else looks nice. From Catania we’ll drive up the coast to Savoca (where they filmed The Godfather! And where some of the Capuchin zombies are!) and then up to either Messina or Milazzo where we’ll take a ferry to the island of Lipari in the Aeolian Islands.
In Lipari we will be staying at the Agriturismo Monte Delle Cristule for 2 nights. We’ll take a day trip to Vulcano and go to the volcanic beaches where you can take mud baths that are supposedly very good for arthritis. We will also stare at the sea, eat gelato and drink prosecco.
From Lipari we will take the ferry back to the main island and stay the night in Milazzo at IL Vicolo. It will be Saturday night at this point, so maybe we will go dancing.
In the morning we will drive across the center of the island to Agrigento where we had originally planned to stay at Ciuci’s Manor where they make donkey’s milk. But Ciuci’s was booked up. So instead we will be staying at Terazze de Montelusa B & B, where they do not, sadly, produce donkey’s milk, but according to the pictures on Trip Advisor, they do have a cat. In Agrigento we will go to the Valley of Temples which I am totally 100% psyched about. There is a temple to Demeter there! She’s one of my favorites! We’ve heard rumours about another mud beach there as well.
From there it is up to Palermo where we will stay at Butera 28, I think in apartment 7. Plans for Palermo include exploring the city, more Capuchin zombies, going to the beach, gelato and prosecco. I think we’ll be returning the car first thing when we get to Palermo and while there we might look into renting a Vespa for the city. And then on the 12th of September we fly back to London, where it will probably be very grey and rainy.
Yesterday we bought new maps of Venice and Sicily, plus a compass. I bought an aqua blue bandeau dress from American Apparel, now I just need a couple more t shirts and maybe one more gauzy type blouse for when we go into churches so my arms won’t be bare. we’ve been debating the merits of paying extra for sat nav in the rental car. Probably wouldn’t hurt, but word is it won’t even work in Agrigento because of the mountains.
It’s going to be awesome and I am probably going to explode from impatience well before we get to 27th August.
I am not a reliable narrator 