Vacation in Sicily
A trip to Sicily was planned for a long time, the hotel was booked by itself through Booking and HRS, the three of us had a rest with her husband and daughter. Our route looked like this: by plane to Catania, then by shuttle bus to Giardini Naxos, hotel Kasssiopea 4 stars. -4 days, then by bus to Messina, transfer to the train and to Cefalu-hotel Kalura 3 stars. -2 days, then by train to Castellamare dell Golfo (with a change in Palermo), hotel Punta Nord Est-3 days. Back by plane from Palermo. It turned out to be a kind of marathon, of course, 9 days is not enough to relax, lie on the beach, enjoy the clear transparent sea and see all the sights that abound in Sicily. But despite the fatigue after all the moving and packing of suitcases, they were satisfied with the trip. At first everything was just fine, the plane arrived almost on time, because the cheap flights of the Merediana company suffer from delays, which happened on the way back from Palermo, it took more than 3 hours to wait.
The bus that took us to Giardini N dropped us off practically in front of the Kassiopea hotel. The hotel itself is not big, the advantages include the convenience of a nearby stop, proximity to the sea, not quite the center, but a quieter place where there is where to make a small promenade, it takes about 15-20 minutes to go to the center, this is where the pluses end further cons: at first they settled in a very small room, the three of us were crowded, the window overlooked the courtyard, so it was impossible to open it completely, someone walked all the time, children ran and made noise, asked to be moved to another.
room, moved only on the third day, the staff is not professional, the other room was quite spacious, but since the apartments are located upstairs, at night it was difficult to fall asleep with the clatter of heels returned from walking neighbors and moving chairs, breakfasts are very poor, 2 types of pastries, a little ham, 1 kind of cheese, jam, bread, juice, tea, coffee and no fruit in sight. It doesn’t pull at 4 stars, the decor is also unpretentious, although the room also has a kitchenette: stove, sink, dishes, refrigerator, you could cook something, it was written that using this for extra. a fee, but if you use it carefully and clean everything up after yourself ... in general, we sometimes used it and did not pay extra for it.
You can get to Taormina without any problems by bus, it runs often, it makes no sense to rent a car, and buses and trains run quite often in any direction, and it’s simply not realistic to drive a car along their narrow streets. While we were driving to Taormina on a big bus, my soul went to my heels: Such a mountain serpentine, worse than a roller coaster, it seems that the bus is about to fall off a cliff into the sea, and how they drove around with oncoming cars along such a narrow road is generally a miracle , but you can climb Taormina and take the funicular, a very cute and beautiful town on a rock, worth a look. We took an excursion to Etna in jeeps, because there were no more places on the bus, I was not particularly impressed, because the jeeps periodically stopped at the places of former lava eruptions and we looked at the piles of solidified lava and listened in German (i. e. most of the tourists were Germans) and did not understand what the guide was saying.
Jeeps do not go to the very top, because only all-terrain vehicles go there for a fee and this was not included in this tour, because it takes about 3 hours to go up and down. And I would like to stand at the very top and feel the volcano under your feet. On the way back from Etna we were taken for a wine tasting, it was probably the best in the whole excursion, the wine was just amazing, I bought a couple of bottles with me. We also got to Cefalu without any problems, we got from the railway station to the hotel for 5 euros by taxi. This hotel deserves a solid four, not three, unlike Cassiopeia.
The room is tastefully furnished, everything is very clean, a spacious terrace overlooking the sea, very good breakfasts, although there were few fruits, but there were plenty of other things, a private beach with free sunbeds and umbrellas, you only have to go down and up to the beach on the stairs , but the view is very beautiful, bizarre rocks, by the way, the action of Puccini's opera "Pirates" took place in Kalura. If anyone is too lazy to go down to the sea, you can swim in the pool or rent free bikes and ride. The stop was also right outside the hotel, it took about 5 minutes to go to the center. In Cefalu, the beaches are sandy and packed to capacity, but I liked the town itself. But further to get to the last point was a little problematic.
We got to Palermo by train, and then it turned out that there was a breakdown on the line to Castellammare del Golfo and trains rarely go there, no one can really say about the buses where they leave from, in general, complete chaos (here a rental car would be very useful) finally We found out that the next train leaves in an hour and soon we were there. Leaving the train, we found ourselves at some abandoned half-station, where the only car stood, the driver of which offered to take us to the hotel for 10 euros, it was not long to go (3-4 km. ) And the driver gave us a large watermelon in addition. We were warmly welcomed at the hotel. Both the room and the hotel itself left a very good impression, friendly staff, always ready to help, a well-maintained pool, finally there were fruits for breakfast and much more.
The only negative is that it was far to go to the sea with a sandy long beach, we went only once, but you can walk, there is also a descent directly from the hotel to the beach along the steps, but there is a sign hanging there, such as a beach without supervision, you yourself are responsible if that , but you can swim if you know how to swim, the beach itself is tiny, there is also a free shuttle to the sandy beach back and forth, but we no longer had time to use it. You can get to Palermo by bus, it takes about an hour. Palermo is worth a look, what is worth the Byzantine mosaic in the old Martorana church and the chapel in the Norman palace, but it’s better to start watching Palermo in the morning, because many museums close already at 16-17 o’clock and the whole day may not be enough to see everything look, we didn’t have time to go to Montreal, and in the evening when we were waiting for the last bus, he was late for 1.5 hours, I had to be nervous, because.
at this time, there was no longer any way to get to Castellammare, and we once again regretted that we had not rented a car here. The next day we went on a boat trip to San Vito lo Capo, swam in the sea, looked at the coast from the sea, grottoes, small beaches in Riserva dello Zingaro, very beautiful. The town of Castellammare itself is small, cozy, fishing, with many restaurants where they cook delicious fresh fish and other local dishes.
9 days flew by very quickly, it's time to fly away, but I would like to return again, to go where I have not been before. Sicily is quite a large island and deserves to be seen in its entirety. We were only on the eastern and northern parts of it, I would like to see the southwest of the island.
