Ayrshire+ Photographs

A set of evening shots in Castelbuono.

Castello dei Ventimiglia dominates the old town. This was taken from a restaurant on the other side of Piazza Castello.

A ‘normal’ street on our way back to Villa Levante.

I can’t find a record of the name of this church on the via Roma, but it looked very pretty.

This longer shot of the Castello dei Ventimiglia was taken from via Isnello.

That weekend there was an art festival on. The pictures were created on the surface of the via Sant’Anna from rice and flowers and were being admired during “La Passegiata“.

Two small videos taken on the same day in the town square, Piazza Margherita. The first in the late morning and the second in the late evening.

Late morning in Castelbuono

late evening in Castelbuono

For the last few days in Sicily, we moved from our apartment in Mitogio to Villa Levante, an Azienda Agrituristica in Castelbuono.

I won’t say anything about the state of the roads except that we were both nervous wrecks by the time we got there!

This is the front of the villa which overlooks the old town.

This is the view from the Piazza Castello down the Via Sant’Anna.

View from ristorante ‘A Casitta’ where there is no written menu, but we had 9 separate antipasta and then the meat course.

This is the other side of the railway bridge from this posting.

Duomo of Novara di Sicilia.

Etna.

Taormina feels very much as if it is geared to the tourist.

Teatro Greco….founded by the Greeks in the third century BC but rebuilt by the Romans in 1AD .

SHRINE TO OUR LADY OF THE FORTRESS – the Santuario Madonna della Rocca is situated on the top of Mount Tauro, overlooking Taormina (but note the even higher village behind it!)

A flight of steps, enlivened by flower pots.

The Duomo – The fortress cathedral, which is what Taormina’s main cathedral is called, was built around the year 1400 on the ruins of a small mediaeval church.

In front of it is the Barocco style fountain, built in 1635, in Taormina marble with three concentric steps as its base. On each of the fountain’s four sides there are some small columns supporting basins; mythological ponies overlook the basins and fountain water flows out of their mouths. The eastern base of this large fountain contains a fourth basin, larger than the others but no longer used since it was a watering-place for animals. There is a smaller octagonal basin in the middie of the fountain base with four putti resting on it; on the east side, two of these putti hold two smaller putti each, forming the base of an octagonal basin decorated with three seals showing their heads and tails.

Three mythological characters resembling Tritons stands in the middle of this latter basin with their arms crossed over their heads so as to support another basin decorated in low-relief; a round base inside this basin holds a basket of fruit on the top of which stands Taormina’s coat-of-arms. The city’s coat-of-arms normally pictures a male centaur but in this case it was turned into a female centaur and a two-footed one at that.

Back hunting “The Godfather” locations, we went to Savoca.

“The Godfather” cafe…unchanged since scenes with Al Pacino were shot in it.

Church of St Nicolo where Michael and Apollonia (the Godfather) were married.

Chiesa Madre (Mother Church) dates back to the time of the Norman domination. It is consecrated to S. Maria in Cielo Assunta (S. Mary Taken up into Heaven). The current facade was partially remade at the end of 1400.

One of the birds we were hoping to see in Sicily was the Pallid Swift and the Gorge has many.

These photographs are what happens when you do not have a fast enough shutter speed.

The Gole Alcantara (Alcantara Gorge) was very near where we were staying. This Botanical and Geological Park, although it has been designed to cater for tourists and water activities, is still very impressive.

The top.

The middle.

The bottom.