On Fri, 22 Feb 2013, tim..... wrote:

First off - great report Alfred, but then we get to the bit that I
disagree with

I interleave my comments (or better precede them) with comments of other
nature.

- Catania airport. It has the fame to be an underdimensioned airport,
and surely it hasn't been refurbished recently (like Palermo). A bit
crazy considering it has probably more traffic than Palermo.

- Palermo cathedral, Should be an example of the norman style, more
romanesque than gothic (and consider that the Normans in Sicily
arrived after the Arabs had left so it won't be the same "norman"
churches you'd get in UK !

- about comparison of baroque buildings with czech examples. I do not
like baroque in general, but the fact the buildings are all in the
same (raw stone, gold) colour is typical (also of other places,
e.g. Lecce in Puglia). Coloured facades as found in slavic countries
or sometimes Austria are nicer but looks a bit overdone to me (sort
of amusement park effect).

- Erice: it is true it has an odd atmosphere with all the houses in
the same stone colour (and almost no shops), but it is indeed very
characteristic. I did not know the funicular had re-opened (I was
there twice for conferences and we went up by coach or arranged car,
although the road is winding ... I take pills against motion sickness)

- Agrigento and other archeological sites. It might be true that some
are not well kept or unattracive (Selinunte, but I was there passing
by in the '70s), but for others (Siracusa and Agrigento) it might help
a bit of preliminary historical preparation to enjoy the visit (tyrant
Dyonisus, Archimedes, tyrant Falarides, Empedocles). They were Big
Cities of the Magna Graecia !

In same cases it requires a fair deal of imagination (the "faraglioni"
rocks at Aci Something should be the rocks that Cyclops Polyphemus
threw upon Ulysses !)

- Since I do not drive, I cannot comment much on your disadventures with
the navigator. However, despite the fact I do not drive, I orient
myself quite well. In general when I go around (by coach) I know
pretty well where I am looking at road signs and using a map.
Despite bad driving habits of the locals and crazy arrangement of
streets in inhabited centres, possibly you were overestimating the
capabilities of a navigator.

Well firstly, after you have had breakfast in the hotel (which the
report says that he did) does anybody really have a three course meal
for both lunch and dinner. I certainly don't.

That is true even for me. However in general italians do not have the
habit of making substantial breakfasts, and most non-tourist hotels
adapt to that (no breakfast, or just tea/bread/jam or
coffee/croissant).

It looks like you choose an unfortunate time to travel (everybody
knows that everything is closed on Christmas or New Year pretty
everywhere), and were exceptionally unlucky in finding places to eat.

Also it seems you were rather unlucky in non-spotting tourist traps
(which however I'd expect mainly in Taormina), of course an Italian
would smell them from afar.

The other point is that local eating times are quite different from
those in Northern Italy (and surely from those you are accustomed
to). Difficult to find a snack-place at noon for lunch (more likely
around 14), or a restaurant before 20 in the evening (more likely
21).

There were cheap snack bar type places where you could spend less,

It is a long time since I do not go to Sicily, but at a time I used
to go quite often to Palermo for work (and a few year ago I went thru
Catania on a trip to the Aeolian islands).

At the time prices in Sicily were surely lower than here in Northern
Italy (which however is more expensive than Germany, at least from the
times I remember)

However, without resorting to chinese and Mac Donald :-(, one should
find nice places for lunch (in cities like Palermo or Catania) in
places where local clerks go for lunch. There you will pay quite less
than in a restaurant for supper (often the same place has different
prices for lunch and supper). I found bars with "tavola calda" service
offering abundant and excellent local specialities (e.g. "arancini"
i.e. stuffed rice balls, "pasta alla Norma" i.e. with eggplants,
"anellini' i.e. ring-shaped pasta with lot of ragout sauce baked in
the oven), sometimes I marvelled at the amount of staff they had, and
they way they weared (like servants of 1800 nobles "Gattopardo-style"
if you know the movie)

Alternatives are stands with "street food", but perhaps you should
be more "adaptive". I suppose you do not cook with silicon gloves
at home.

Near the sea you should have found plenty of excellent fish dishes
(when we did an organized tour in the 70's swordfish was getting out
of our eyes, since every place we stopped they offered swordfish,
cooked in different ways ... when we got to Catania we said "no more
swordfish, we want roast beef ... and we wait !")

The past with raisins you quote is possible the traditional
Palermo-style "pasta con le sarde" (WITHOUT tomato !) see e.g.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasta_con_le_sarde