Sicily  Day 11 - July 6th  Giardini Naxos

"A full day to relax in this fun-loving Sicilian resort. Perhaps swim and sunbathe or shop for hand-made lace on the Corso. There's also a chance to visit the Church of San Pancrazio or take an excursion to the crater of Sicily's active volcano, Mount Etna. This evening, we will enjoy dinner at a local restaurant."   That's what the tour literature told us for today.  It was hot and bright when we set off for Mt. Etna.  winding our way up the mountain.  Antonio, our brilliant and vastly patient guide kept up a running commentary; I think his mum called him from Calabria on the way.  She wanted to know when he was getting married.  We stopped at a small village and I managed to capture some of the locals; the heat haze meant long distance shots were a waste of time.  We kept climbing and eventually stopped at the Silvestri craters at an altitude of 2000 or so metres.  These craters were relatively dormant but the stop provided us with great views of the lava fields and various other cinder cones.  The molten lava was another 1000 metres up, but you needed special gear to get to it.  We contented ourselves with the canoli and the 70% alcohol "Fires of Etna" liqueur which we found in the handy shops.  I bought a litre of the liqueur; headaches ahead.  The tourist area had been carved out of the solidified lava left for the eruption a couple of years ago.  Most of what had been there had bee engulfed.  Its a regular occurence.We were above the cloud layer so the views were somewhat curtailed.  We headed on back down through villages still showing earthquake/volcano damage, past a sculptor carving lava, and eventually arrived home.  (PS Etna erupted a few days after we were up on it. Bugger, we weren't there to see it.).  Judy and I caught the hotel shuttle down to the beach and went shopping.  Judy bought a belt, I bought lunch. We caught up with a few of our fellow travellers before heading back to the sumptuous pool at the hotel.  We spent a very restful afternoon.  In the evening we got dressed and all went to a local restaurant for a fine Sicilian feed.  We were entertained by a quartet of wandering Sicilian minstrels before heading back to the hotel and a few Limoncellos and some excellent mojitos.

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