Winter in Licata. Marina di Cala del Sole - Sicily

Just over 5,000 miles of sailing, and we're now in Licata, Sicily.  It's been a great summer of sailing, but even the Mediterranean has a winter - it's raining at the moment, so the time has come to settle down in our winter mooring in Licata.

 There is quite a community of 'live aboard' sailors here, many from the UK, but also from the rest of Europe, and a few from the USA, New Zealand and Australia.  For many their yacht is their only home so there is a real community feel here.  

The fish farm in the entrance to the harbour, the Licata Marina Yachts visible in front of the town

Sunset at the Marina

The harbour is huge, the marina is on the left of the photo below, and there is a commercial port on the right. 

Even the cement factory in the middle of the harbour looks good at sunset.

The marina is a '5 anchor' facility and was initially hoping to attract super yachts - this didn't happen and they're having to make do with us instead but it does mean that the facilities are excellent:  Clean and well maintained, with immaculate showers, excellent washing machines, WiFi and very helpful staff. The town of Licata is definitely not a tourist destination but there are shopping centres, lots of bars - where men sit all day, with lots of pizza and fish restaurants nearby.

There are also some fairly splendid buildings

The Piazza Duomo

The Chapel of the Black Jesus - apparently originally a white statue, it was the only thing to survive a fire that destroyed the original church and turned it black.  There is a vast amount of gold leaf and some very elaborate wood carving.

 The ceiling of the main church - all quite gruesome!

The old library

Bookworms at work

The Clock Tower

Elaborate sculpture is not restricted to the Churches - Licata has a good selection of Gargoyles.

Driving here is a whole new experience - not only is it almost impossible to establish who has a right of way (or even if the concept exists here), the roads themselves are interesting!

The graveyard that overlooks the harbour - beautifully tended graves, very elaborate sculptures and literally tons of flowers.

Sicily is very agricultural, we are surrounded by polytunnels, olive groves, citrus trees and well tended fields, currently mainly growing artichoke.  Needless to say, the fruit and veg here is excellent.

Artichoke plants

Wind turbines on the hills behind Licata - the landscape has been transformed from barren brown to green by the recent rains

Peppers

Grapes, covered with bird netting

Courgettes

And it all provides excellent cycling opportunities!

We've been here a month now, and my sister and nephew spent a week with us - an opportunity to explore some of the other attractions of Sicily.

Mount Etna - Italy's largest volcano, and the one with the longest records of continuous eruption.  You can take a cable car up to the ski resort (there are 3 or 4 other lifts - but you really can ski on an active volcano in winter) and then either walk or take a bus up to the craters.

Standing next to a lava flow - the rocks behind us are hot to the touch, but at over 3,000 metres, the air is cold

Etna Lava flows

We walked round one of the active craters - very strange seeing smoke rising from the ground next to ice!

Rose Anne, Oscar and Ian on the rim of a crater - you can see the track taken by the bus in the distance.

A couple of days later we drove past Etna to see one side covered in snow, and a huge cloud of smoke belching out of a crater!

Our next 'Must See' destination was Agricento - The Valley of the Temples (which was more of a hill of temples) dating back to 5BC

The Temple of Concordia

The Necropolis of Giambertoni - dating from 2nd to 4th Century BC

Icarus?

The Temple of Hercules

Our third Tourist Destination was Piazza Armerina, the Roman Villa of Casale - consisting of 4,100 sq metres of mosaic flooring, made up of 120 million small mosaic tesserae.  Apparently it took 21,000 working days to create - a craftsman allegedly managed 1sq m every 6 days!  Anyway - it was created between the 4th and 5th Centuries BC, survived an earthquake in 346AD and was preserved by a landslide in 1161 that saved it from the 'hazards of time and the carelessness of man'. Quote from our guidebook

Fishing, Roman Style

 Romans in bikinis

 Your average hunting scene

A typical floor!

Apart from the proper Tourist Destinations, there is plenty of charm in Sicily

Your typical Duomo to be found in the centre of most towns (above and below)

Just another bell tower!

Typical family car - with 3 wheels and as much as you can pile on it

We are enjoying life in Licata, being part of this floating community and have no plans to sail for a few months - so - there will be no more blogs until next spring.

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