Etna's Smoking Above Us!

We knew that Etna wasn’t too far away from where we would be living, but we didn't expect to be able to see it from our home! Here's a view of it from our roof terrace on the left, and from the town on the right. The sun setting directly behind it accentuates its smoking beauty furthermore. I don’t have a decent enough lens to really capture it, but these pictures should give you an idea. It provides a stunning backdrop to our new coastal home town.

Our last few days out and about have included stops at the beach and harbour in Riposto, and the centre of Giarre. The beach is made out of fine shingle and the crystal clear blue waters provided a well needed cool down during the intense heat at present. What is it with Italian’s and Speedo’s and thongs though?

Centrally, in both Riposto and Giarre are beautiful Piazza’s with magnificent churches that we’ve yet to explore the interiors of. Piazza's, not pizza's, although we have had a couple of cracking pizza's too! There is a pizzeria every four buildings or so here it seems, and the aromas pervading the streets are hard to resist!

I just asked Rene for his contributions to the blog....his reply was as follows....

’The aubergines are ripe, the wine is cheap and plentiful and good, (even the bad one is good!), the bread is quite salty but it goes well with the mortadella’! To which I replied ‘No seriously Rene, aside from the food, what do you think of the place’? Rene replied ‘The town’s got good vibes and it looks like a good place to spend some time. Hopefully if the new school takes off, we might be here for a while’.

We both feel the same. Actually, the streets are a bit tatty, the town doesn’t have enough green spaces, parks or trees for my liking, but there is something that we like about the area that is not necessarily tangible. How often have you been to place that ticks all the boxes but yet, it just doesn’t feel right? The people that we have encountered so far all seem friendly, that’s always a good thing. If the locals are happy living here, then it can’t be so bad!

Tomorrow we will visit some premises and hopefully find a base for the new language school, and start putting our heads together with our new Sicilian partners in crime!