Meerkat Prompts: The Sicily Trip
Earlier this year, my wife, daughter and I, along with my parents, my brother and his family, enjoyed a holiday to the sunny Italian island of Sicily. The weather was beautiful, the food was quite frankly amazing, and the trip was much-needed. It was also a horribly early start on the day we flew, but that’s life!
For those of you unfamiliar with Luton Airport, it would be fair to say you aren’t missing much. We got there at around 4am, for a 7am flight, and dealt with all the usual rigours of air travel. This meerkat does not mind flying to a point, but I will confess that as I get older I get more anxious about it. The check-in and security stuff at the airport doesn’t heighten my nerves, but it doesn’t soothe them either. Ultimately it’s faintly ridiculous of me, because flying is statistically the safest form of travel, but there’s always a twinge of worry about being so high up in the air in a pressurised tube for any length of time. Mind you, the flight did give me the chance to take some spectacular aerial pictures:
So, onto the trip. The first thing we did when we reached our hotel, a lovely resort called Hotel Caesar Palace, was grab some lunch, as we arrived just in time for it. As is rather normal for hotels of this nature, it was a buffet, with various options, and these options got rotated across the course of the week. There was always something interesting and fresh, and given Sicily is an Italian island, there were plenty of pasta options!
As is befitting a Mediterranean holiday, we spent a fair bit of time poolside, and in the pool as well. I for one certainly appreciated the opportunity to regularly cool off, considering the impressive 30C+ temperatures that we encountered, every single day! In the evenings my wife, daughter and I largely withdrew to our room, as the night life was quite loud, and my daughter in particular does not care for loud noises. Still, we did occasionally venture out, and we all took full advantage of the all-inclusive drinks!
It goes without saying that we did not confine ourselves to the hotel. On a couple of occasions family trips were had to the nearby town of Naxos. Here I scooped up some souvenirs, and we also took a couple of trips to the beach. Mediterranean waters tend to be amazing, and the beach here was no exception. Crisp, clear blue sea met with white sandy beaches, and I had a couple of swims in the serene waters. Somehow, it always feels more refreshing than a hotel pool, though there’s always the question of sand in awkward places afterwards!
A couple of trips stand out. Firstly, we all took a visit to the old, rustic town of Taormina. This involved a winding bus ride up a hill, and more than once I was left to wonder how the driver managed to navigate the twisting roads, but he managed, and we arrived safely! Taormina is a stunning town, filled with reminders of European history, and also home to some very impressive, very expensive shops. In fact, at least one shop had an armed security guard outside, to emphasise just how expensive it was!
The other trip that will live in my memory is the dolphin spotting. My parents opted out of this one, but the rest of us made our way to Naxos, where I was expecting a different kind of boat! We stepped onto a glorified inflatable, and guess which unlucky meerkat did not get a proper seat?! I was perched on the side, assured I was perfectly safe, but on a fast, bumpy boat like this… I clung on to the bars pretty tightly!
Did we see dolphins? Yes, though getting pictures of them was tough. As you might imagine, they tend to leap in and out of the water whenever they like, and do not pose for photos! Still, it was quite incredible to see dolphins – which I consider to be remarkable and beautiful animals – in their natural element. I’ve swam with dolphins before, in a controlled environment in Portugal, and that will always be a treasured experience, but seeing them in the wild is something else.
Afterwards my brother’s family and mine went to a nearby restaurant, and I gauged myself on pizza. Did I mention the food by the way?
Some final pics:
The most telling way to answer if a holiday was good or not is to ask ‘would I go back?’ In the case of Sicily, the answer is a clear and happy yes! Thus concludes this meerkat’s Italian adventure 🙂
