Hi everyone, sorry for the delay but its been a busy week.

We started out from Sorrento driving south to stay at Tropea, Italy a distance of about 400 kms or 5 hours.  Here you do travel in hours not kilometers.  Anyway the previous night at dinner Debbie had a bottle of wine from the Ferrari vineyards in Trento, Italy.

Soooo.. we look up the Ferrari vineyards on wikipedia and low and behold they had it spelled as Trenta and guess what Dale we will be driving within 20 kms of it on the way can't we PLEASE stop and visit the winery (whinery in my books).  OK hon no problem its only 20 k no biggie.   We get off the autostrada and start heading into the hills and small villages.  I turn to Lary and go there is NO way there is a winery here that is producing 10,000 bottles of spumante... there isnt a building here that could hold more than 5 people in it.   After an hour of twisting and winding and going up and down hills I can't stands it no more and pull over and check out the Ferrari vineyards website.   SHIT they're in Trenta up by Milan in the northern part of Italy oh well it was a beautiful drive.And this was NOT Debs fault I looked at it as well and had the same short circuit in my brain as to the spelling.

Tropea, Italy

Drove into town a village on the sea with nothing but narrow one way roads to try and get to our hotel. Thank gawd for Gretchen (thats the nickname I gave our GPS guide).  Got to the hotel and had to park between two huge flower pots and trust me when I maneuvered the van into the sport there wasnt 2 inches between the pots and either front or rear bumper.

Fountain in the Piazza

Sapphire blue waters of the Mediterrainian

The beach

Monastary under reconstruction

Sunset over the sea

Our hotel at night

Taormina, Sicily

So we head out the next day and put the coordinates into Gretchen for Taormina. NOW you find out why I named her after a hard headed German.  She starts leading us out of town on switchbacks that haven't seen traffic in ages. Dead end roads etc., so to hell with this noise I am going to follow the signs, (the ones they have sporadically).  It was an interesting drive down to the ferry to cross the strait of Messina onto Sicily.  Neat little 35 minute ferry ride not unlike a large version of the Bolivar ferry out of Galveston.

Again... on top of a mountain... switchbacks, narrow roads.  Get to the hotel ok and start the tour.... UP the hill.. went for a nice snack and drink then headed FURTHER up the hill to go to the Greek ruins and amphitheater.  Got there at 5 just in time for closing. As my uncle Bobby says ooooh well.

Beautiful view during dinner got up the next morning saw Mt. Etna smoking from the volcano (more to come on that later).  Walked back UP the hill again to see the amphitheater and the greek ruins.

Now this is a roomy street

 The hotel we stayed at was a stop for the Canadian Pacific steamship cruise lines!

Did I mention they were steep?

Greek ruins (I started calling them piles of rocks).

Palermo, Sicily

Drove down to Catania from Taormina then north and west to Palermo.  We circumvented Mt. Etna and drove through mile of orchards and olive groves it reminded me a lot of the Okanogan valley.  Then as it got more desolate a LOT like Wyoming.  You can start to understand why they filmed a lot of the westerns by Sergio Leone here.

Stopped in a town called Chefalu which is a resort town for the Sicilians with a large beach.  The old town again as per usual narrow streets took us half an hour just to find a parking spot.  Jumped on a golf cart tour that took us around the old city.

OK Have to pack as we are leaving for Rome but will update you on the three days in Palermo next blog.

Ciao!
D&D