GODFATHER COUNTRY

SICILY

A day trip to Sicily started at 3.30am with a pick-up by Margaret (cousin) to the Catamaran to Sicily. Check- in with departure at 5am saw us arrive in Catania at about 8.15am. We then transferred to a 8 seater mini-bus on a private tour organised by Maria (another cousin). The guide spoke a little English but luckily the Maltese cousins all speak fluent Italian.

First stop was the village of Santa Venera for a coffee and pastry. We were tempted to try the Granita (a type of sorbet) with sweet brioche that the locals were having for breakfast, but decided to try it later in the day.

Next stop on the way to Mt Etna was to a cave that bandits used to hide in, this involved hard hats and lights to climb down into the cave. A wonderful experience enhanced by 2 men who were wandering in the forest collecting Porcini mushrooms.

Mt. Etna is an incredible sight- last erupted in 2002 and still very active, the pictures tell the story.

Lunch at a small village called Castlliogne with very authentic pasta with eggplant, or pistachio, of course much Sicilian wine and followed up with the freshest Cannoli (stuffed with Pistachio cream) thatI have ever tasted.

A drive through the hills looking at villages perched on the top of hills and ravines with ice cold water brought us to Taormina. Taormina is a very walled town perched on the top of a cliff. Unfortunately it is the most popular place for tourists to visit so it was very busy when we were there as there were a number of cruise ships docked nearby.

We arrived back in Catania at about 6.30pm with just the right amount of time for check in prior to departure at 8pm. The trip back to Malta was slightly rougher than the morning as quite a swell had developed. This slowed the catamaran down a bit meaning we didn't get back to Malta until nearly midnight.

A very tiring day but we had a fantastic time.

Europe Capitals

A 10 day whirwind tour. First stop London to meet up with good friends Sandra and Ian, then on to Paris and Rome before returning to Malta for some much needed rest.

London

We all spent 4 nights in London to see the highlights of the City and also visit some family members.

We arrived Thursday afternoon and after checking into the London Bridge Hotel (a very good hotel for London at a reasonable price) we headed off to see The Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Sandra and Ian were a bit jet lagged after flying in from LA so after a meal in the hotel we all had an early night.

Friday saw us doing a lot of walking as always as we visited the major sites of London including Buckingham Palace (unfortunately no changing of the guard), Big Ben & Westminster, the London Eye, Downing Street, Trafalger Square etc in the afternoon the girls went shopping and the boys visited the Science Museum and then we had a late entry to Madame Tussauds.

Saturday we headed off to catch up with the UK family and spent the day with them.

Sunday back to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard - unfortunately it wasn't on again - unbeleivable for a public holiday weekend that it was cancelled for 2 days. The afternoon was spent with a cruise on the Thames to Greenwich.

Paris

Monday morning we headed off to Paris via the Eurostar train, the chunnel took about 27 minutes with the whole trip taking about 2.5 hours - a very comfortable way to travel and a lot less effort than flying. The hotel was the Ramada Eiffel tower and we could see the tower from our room.

3 nights in Paris and we did all the highlights, the queues for the Eiffel tower were horrendus so that took up about 3 hours. We also took a dinner cruise on the Seine River which was fantastic with wonderful food and beutiful sights as the buildings were lit at night.

Rome

We flew to Rome on Thursday morning and transferred to the Hiberia Hotel, a quaint hotel which was very central just a 10 minute walk from the Trevi Fountain. Again we did a lot of walking to see the sights. One morning was spent at the Vatican where we actually did the walk to the top of the dome of St Peters Basillica. The total steps were about 520, luckily there was a lift for the first 200 but then we had to walk the next 320, of course you had to walk back down also. At least we know our hearts are in reasonable shape.

Malta

Sandra and Ian flew back to Malta with us on Sunday and we spent 3 days doing some touristy things including a day trip to Gozo before they headed back to OZ.