Buzzing Around The World With Fellette & Doug

The invasion of Sicily...

How many people reading this know of the invasion of Sicily in 1943 by the British, Canadians and Americans? The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada were one of the Canadian Regiments that had their baptism of fire in WW ll here that morning. I was in the Cadet and Militia with the Seaforth for 14 years, decades ago it seems. Many of the officers, NCO's and men in the Seaforths in 1952, when I was, in were veterans of the "Italian Campaign" as it was called. I had an uncle, Jack Agnew, who lost his leg with the Seaforths in Italy. Uncle Jack served almost the rest of his life working with The War Amps, remember that name?

This morning as I went out on deck in the pre-dawn darkness I could not help but think of those men and boys in the landing craft as they saw the shores of Sicily in that same early light. I remember the stories that they used to tell, all funny of course, the nastiness was not too often talked about. Good stuff, but enough sentimental drivel Doug!

Today as we Prinsendamians invade Sicily we are met with bus and cab drivers rubbing their hands with glee, and merchants who no doubt are raising their prices even as we glide into port! It is nice to land without being shot at, thank you gentlemen!

The city we came in to is Catania, in the north-east of the island. Mt. Etna, still active, dominates the land above the city. The view was on the other side of the ship so I was up on deck somewhat early to get my photos. Somehow, Mt. Etna has been on my list of places in the world to see. I have no idea why. By 6.30 am this wish had been fulfilled. The volcano looked somewhat cold and unfriendly from the ship, so the thought crossed my mind, "maybe we don't have to go up there today." By the third coffee we were on for the mountain!

Plan A: The four of us again, Jim, Gail, Fellette and Doug walked off the ship in search of a U-drive, believe it or not. We had a broad optimistic plan of how to spend the day. Drive to Taormina, a touristy cliff village some distance away and then drive up Mt. Etna. At the dock there were new Fiats available for 40 Euros for the day. Sounds good, maybe too good, compared to taxi and tour prices. We thought we had a deal until we discovered that the cars were stick-shift. Jim didn't want the hassle and my drivers licence was in the cabin safe.

Plan B: We walk to the train station, 25 minutes, use the toilets, [clean], get some Euros from the Bancomat, go to the tourist info centre where we discover nobody speaks English. My Italian is 46 years old, things are not going well. We check another U-drive firm, an automatic is a Chrysler at 190 Euros a day. Forget that.

Plan C: Hire a cab and take us up Etna and tour a bit and drop us in town. We find a taxi, whose driver looks like an 'extra' in The Godfather movie. No speakada English. Pen and paper and much gesturing later we decide. OK, 90 Euros, [choke], this was on a printed rate sheet that looked official. The taxi was also a genuine taxi not an unlicensed taxi. I wrote down: 4 people, 90 Euros, total, three hours, OK. Deal. "Si, si." he says, to us, that's yes. The drive up seems to take forever, however the further up we go the more interesting it gets. The settlements disappear and all that remains are Ristorantes and Hotels, some new, some under construction and some buried beneath the lava.


At the end of the road, we find out we are not alone, we do seem to be the only taxi though. Tour bus central up here today. The altitude is over 10,000 feet, so we walk slowly. There are many cinder cones and ridges for the people to walk and hike on so the crowds are dispersed quite nicely. The view to the city below is somewhat hazy but the air is great, cool not cold.

We discover that there are heat waves rising from the pea-gravel lava we are standing on. The dirt is very warm to the hand as well. We conclude that this is heat from below, way below, and accounts for the reason there is no snow on certain domes and cones. This is just an observation not a scientific fact at this time.



Time to descend. Same time to get down as up, a bit more actually because the spot we want to be dropped off at is in a very congested area of town. We get there, almost three hours to the minute and give our No Speakada English driver the 90 Euros and a 10 tip.[Why Doug?] He proceeds to pull out his rate sheet and points to a 150 Euro figure. Now we have been scammed and ripped off by so many cab drivers and waiters in the last week or so and we have paid them off in the name of world peace that we have had it up to here with this stuff! No way Hosa. Great indignation from Jim and I. We walk away, a deal is a deal. A sort of good feeling for a while until I hear theme music from The Godfather in my mind.

We stroll through the city past a farm market and end up in the square by the Duoma Cathedral that is now shut, siesta time?



We have a decent lunch at a decent price and no hassle. We were tempted by the desserts a bit, some of us. Our feet say it is time to get back and soon we are in the cabin in time for a quiet-time of our own. Jim had a hot tub and sauna, Gail read, Fellette did post cards and I fell asleep. The city was not much to us other than a congested Sicilian port city with a beautiful snow-capp



This is day 89 or 90, depending upon who you talk to. I can't believe that it has taken us this long to hire a cab and get a meal without feeling like you have been taken. Slow learners I guess.

When getting ready for bed later we passed through the Straits of Messina, that small opening between Sicily and Italy. It is very narrow and the lights from the towns and villages were like a continuous string of pearls all along the Sicilian coast. Sleep got the best of us and we tumbled off.

The only sad moment of the day was when we found out that two friends that we knew from a river trip some years ago were left behind in Catania when we sailed. Apparently she had a seizure of some sort and the ships' doctor thought it best to treat her on shore and get her home.


Tomorrow Naples.

posted by Doug and Fellette @ 10:01 PM