Moon Jumping...

Madonna mia!! Ho ancora solo due settimane a Taormina!!

Yes, my god, I am halfway through my stay in Taormina!! As they say time flies when you are having fun...and ‘fun’ is definitely an understatement for the weekend that I have just had!!

First things first though, my week at school...

I had a good week and once again feel like I learnt a lot, but maybe not as much as the first week. Becoming quite sick with a cold on Tuesday and suffering that for the rest of the week I don’t think helped, even though I tried to have a fairly quiet week.

So Monday we had more new students start at school and our class grew from 3 to 6 which was a bit disappointing as it meant less one-on-one time for each of us, but good to have different people with different knowledge and experience in the group.

As per usual there were plenty of activities planned for the week and I took part in a walking tour of Taormina (which the school only runs on the weeks when new beginners start, which is every 2nd), went out for a group dinner, attended a seminar on The Mafia and wanted to go on the group walk to the beach one afternoon but missed out which I think was a good thing as I needed rest!!

For the last few weeks in town there has been a little bit of visible lead up to Halloween, but more importantly to something which Sicilians celebrate (or commemorate) the day after our favourite american excuse for eating lollies (haha...not!!). November 1st is ‘Il giorno dei morti’ or ‘The day of the dead’....which seems like an odd celebration to me, but basically from what I can gather it is a day to respect dead relatives, to visit the cemetery and to spend time with family.


I guess the only real visible sign that this day was impending was the traditional biscuits for this day in all of the pasticcerias, which you can see en-masse in the window of one shop I pass every day. These biscuits are supposed to represent the bones of the dead...weird!! But I decided I should try one and had it with a cuppa after dinner whilst doing my homework...it tasted very similar to gingerbread but was more chewy.

This one wasn’t in the shape of a bone like some in other shops but of a person?!?

Despite this public holiday for the Sicilians, Patrick, Danielle and I decided to hire a car for the weekend and to check out Syracusa on Saturday and then Mt Etna with another woman, Turid, on Sunday. Patrick is Dutch and Danielle is another Melbournian currently living in London and are at Babilonia (the school) with me.

Saturday morning we set off at 9am in our hire car for Syracusa with Patrick in the driver’s seat, what with having much experience on European roads, he was definitely the best candidate for this role!!

We had perfect weather...clear blue skies...and so whilst taking a minor detour, stopped to check out the ocean and it was amazing!! This is Danielle checking out the vast ocean and lamenting for Australian beaches!!

We made it to Syracusa and onto the small island, Ortygia, that is the old town which is were all the action is, and there definitely was action what with not only the usual weekend food and clothing market but also public holiday festivities.

We walked around and looked at all of the lovely narrow streets and windy laneways, had a look at the beautiful old cathedral, outside of which was a very cute little boy struggling to get his soccer ball out of the bag on the back of his bike...

And looked at the coastline of Syracusa with it’s vividly blue water.

After this we headed off this little island to look at the big park (which ended up being closed due to the public holiday), but on the way stopped to have a look at a very intreaguing looking building that we had seen on the skyline from Ortygia, which turned out to be a very modern and very large church.


We stayed and had a drink in the main square and then headed back to Taormina for dinner. It was a late return and we had some dramas with our meal but that story can wait for another day!!

Then Sunday, we started even earlier and headed off for the mighty Mt Etna at 8am!! It isn’t too far from Taormina and was a fairly easy drive there...thanks to Patrick having so much experience.

For those who don’t know, Mt Etna is an active volcano on Sicily. And the night before when we were driving back from Syracusa we could see the lava glowing on the top from the Autostrada!!

Once we had worked out what the options were for going up, who we needed to pay and what we needed to do, we booked into a 5 hours tour where you take the gondola a third of the way up, then take a 4WD bus up another third and then trek the final third to the top to see three of the main craters in action!! There was then the option to go down the way you came up or to walk down...Patrick and I convinced the other 2 women to walk down.

Fortunately, since none of us really had the right gear for this kind of trip (and I think this made the guide VERY sceptical of our abilities), a fairly serious mountain climb, and in 0 degree temperatures with 80km winds mind you, they provided us with snow jackets, and proper high cut walking boots...otherwise we would have definitely froze and the other 2 women would have had very sore feet in their runners!!

We left the bottom at 10:15am, caught the gondola and then the 4WD bus. Once we reached this two-thirds point, we realised just how much further and higher we had to go!!

How cool do I look in my jacket and sunnies...the hood was even a necessity at this height with the wind blowing quite strongly.

We climbed a bit...

It looks hot but DEFINITELY wasnt!!

And the guide spoke a bit...

And we climbed some more...

And some more...

And more still...until we made it up to the main craters that were steaming away and smelt extremely sulphurous!!

Patrick, Daniell, Turid and I at the first crater...

We were suffocated by suphur as we walked around the craters and were told by the sicilian guide with his thick accent in his broken english "No photo...from here, no stop and no photo...indian file, 50 centrimeters to next person!!"...he was literally yelling at us!!

Noted how small the people are in this photo and that gives you some perspective...

The craters were amazing...but the wind!!!...it nearly blew us off the lip of the mountain which was only a meter or 2 away...it was a bit scary!!

You can see how strong the wind is here by the direction of my hair!!

Then we headed down...possibly the most fun part and this is where the moon jumping comes in!! To get down the steeper and softer parts that are very similar to sand dunes, the best way was to run, or bound might be a better description!! If you have ever bounded down a long, steep sandune you will know what I am talking about.

Here is everyone running down in file...but the photo doesnt do the movement and fun of it justice, so here is a little video, I hope it works for you all and sorry for not being up right way.

During the run down with Turid following behind...

We walked back across the lava flow from 2002/3 to the hut where the bus originally dropped us and had the food we had each taken for lunch. Then we commensed the climbed down...well after a little detour UP!!! onto another smaller crater... (and I thought it was all supposed to be down on the way back!!)

This is on the edge of the crater looking down...what a view!!

The rest WAS down and we manged it all very quickly with "moon jumping" (the name I have given it) the rest of the way.

When we returned at 4:30pm, we were very black, tired and in desperate need of a toilet!!

I forgot to mention about the dirt and the terrain...obviously since it is such an extreme environment with having been burnt but also having snow up there all year around, the ground is black rubble and rocks and sand-like stuff with no vegetation or colour (apart from yellow in places from the sulphur). And this is why I took many photos in black and white as it didnt make much difference.

So by the time we got home later that evening, we were all looking very tired and dirty. Our clothes were covered in black dust... as were our faces!!!

Me back at home pre-shower!!

It was an AMAZING experience that I would reccomend to all!!

Ci vediamo,

Jo xox