Messina, Sicily

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed Sicily. We hired a car on Friday and set off on a tour of the island. (Had a brand new Fiat Punto with only 500 km on the clock, the first time I’ve ever driven a completely new car).

We spent a week driving round the island in 1978 when we were here with Bryan and Naomi Brooke for the meeting in Erice, so it was something of an exercise in nostalgia. We recalled a poor, arid and rugged island with few facilities and were astonished at the changes. Then we drove on narrow, winding roads now there is a magnificent motorway system circling and criss-crossing the island, and not just any old motorways because of the mountainous nature of the terrain: mile upon mile of double lane tunnels, and high viaducts soaring across the valleys. Its hard to think how it was all funded, though I guess my taxes may have played a part.

Lunch on Friday in Cefalu, a beautiful old medieval town, the streets so narrow you had to fold in the wing mirrors, then through Palermo to Erice. Still the same mysterious, menacing atmosphere and to our surprise the Scientific institute we lectured at is still there and still a rather rum set up. (In 1978, fifteen of us were invited to give lectures, and in retrospect it was a rather distinguished gathering (myself excluded) Bryan Brooke and John Hermon-Taylor from Georges, Bob Allen from Birmingham, Humphrey Hodgson from the Hammersmith, Mike Langman from Nottingham, Bloom, also from the Hammersmith, Wilkinson from GOS are some of the names I recall. All expenses paid for speakers and wives, and we delivered our lectures to an audience of one, Nigel Offen from Whipps Cross).

The institute still has the unobtrusive plain brown door for an entrance, but once you open it you enter an elegant courtyard, with flowers and trees, and participants sitting in chairs reading and chatting. However, within a minute of entering, we were accosted by a shaved-head, ear-ringed bouncer who informed us we were on private property and unceremoniously hustled us out of the building and back onto the street!

So it remains something of an enigma: it is still an independent institute without university status and I’ve no idea how it is funded. According to the patron of our hotel, its partly from the local council, partly by the state, partly by NATO, and then there was a lot of waving of hands and gesticulating, so it remains a bit of a mystery.

The next day we visited the Greek ruins at Segesta a site way out in the wilds with a wonderfully preserved temple and amphitheatre. But in a far better state than any we saw in Turkey or Greece. We then drove down to Agrigento on the south coast where there is another area of Greek ruins, in fact three separate temples, again in a fantastic state of preservation. Spent the night in a lovely hotel in Agrigento, where we were the only guests.

Then on the final day we drove up through the centre of the island, and across to Catania, and spent the afternoon on Mt. Etna. Pretty impressive terrain, though rather old hat when you’ve had the good fortune to visit the lunar volcanic landscape in Djibouti name-drop, name-drop!

Another thing that surprised us was the agricultural development of the island. Twenty five years ago we recall there was very little now the whole of the west side of the island is given over to grapes: mile after mile of beautifully manicured vineyards. As you move south the grapes give way to new olive groves, no longer haphazardly scattered around the landscape, but regular rows of small carefully pruned trees. The centre of the island is all wheat and corn, and then as you move back into the east, wheat gives way to endless citrus groves, each irrigated by its own wind-driven pump. (While near Sagest we took pot-luck and went into a winery to see if we could have a look. It wasn’t possible to see the manufacturing process as its too early in the season, but we were able to taste some wines some we didn’t like very much but we tried a gorgeous, slightly petulant white that we really loved, and left with 25 litres in boxes : total cost for 25 litres, 37 euros hard to believe).

Tomorrow we set of for a place called Vibe Victoria about 50 miles up the west coast, though first we have to get through the straits of Messina. Easy if we get the tides right, hell if we don’t!

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