Siracusa to Catania

A day at the farm

I milked a cow but no photo to prove it.  Oh well!

Stirring the curds and whey to make fresh ricotta.  We ate it warm with bread right out of the oven. It is so delicious.

A meal family style in Italy.

We made the bread.

Ragusa and Modica

Ragusa

Modica and the cinquecento rally.

These iconic cars are beloved in Italy and we flew through tiny narrow streets as passerbys cheered and waved. A fantastic fun time. Our driver Nino the magnificent.

The ancient Roman villa at Casale

This villa recently was excavated and reveled about 40,000 sq ft of extremely well preserved floor mosaics.  The mosaics were left in place and are stunning. Seeing them here in place is so much more stunning than seeing them in a European museum.

Agrigento and the valley of the temples

Look who is here!  Our old buddy, Icarus, from Pietrasanto.

Jon says I am absorbing a lot of Italian attitude.

We are spending the night in the olive groves in an agritourisimo.

This is really remote and peaceful.

Andiamo 

The salt museum

The windmill is an iconic symbol of Sicily.  These picturesque salt flats have been in production at least 3,000 years.

There we catch a little ferry to an island used by the Phoenicans and now the whole island is a museum.  This statue was found here recently.

There are windsurfers everywhere as an international competition is going on.

A great picnic on the island.

Mazara del Vallo

It is chilly and extremely windy for our visit to Mazara.

Jon loved this proof my ancestors had come to visit.

This famous Satyr was pulled out of the sea by fishermen in 1998 and one of only two bronze statues known to exist from ancient times.

Loved this pottery crusted with sea shells and mullusks.  It looks like it was done purposely .

Old wooden Opera house.

Mazara's mayor is a ceramic artist so he and fellow artists are adorning the town with ceramic tile art and street signs and graffiti.  Since it is on sea it is really lovely and off the beaten path.