Sicily Archives - Mark and Janet Travel The Planet

Palermo-and so the story ends!

Posted on April 16, 2018Leave a comment

Almost a year later and I’m finally finished my travel posts on the places we visited over our year abroad, this will be the last until we get to travel again! The blog has been the best souvenir we could have brought back for ourselves, it’s a living memory of the adventures we had and I’m a little sad it’s all done. I do have a few ideas for some additional posts; ‘what it costs to travel for a year’, ‘what to pack for a year of travel and all 4 seasons’, ‘how to plan a long trip’, ‘how to travel cheaply by housesitting’….so stay tuned.

We ended our trip in Palermo, Sicily for five days before flying to London and then back to Calgary, wrapping up this incredible year at our most exotic locale to date.

Spectacular San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily

Posted on April 9, 2018Leave a comment

This has been one of my most popular Youtube videos with over 12,000 views. It’s been shared extensively around Italy and the UK! To say this place is gorgeous is to understate it.

On our last day in Marsala we left early in the morning for a beach day in the small seaside town of San Vito Lo Capo. The drive there was beautiful, but it was busy and going into the center was quite stressful with parking extremely difficult to find. Despite buying a parking pass from an ‘official attendant’ and parking where we were told, I had gotten a $65 parking ticket in the mail six months later which was automatically charged to my credit card by Budget Rentals. (So, save your parking receipt as proof of payment, but who would for six months?)

Visiting the Medieval Wonders of Erice and Baroque Splendor of Trapani, Sicily

Posted on April 8, 2018Leave a comment

You have to see these amazing scenes from Erice and Trapani, Sicily

From our home base in Marsala we headed out the next day to the baroque city of Trapani where we took the gondola up Mount Erice to its ancient namesake town. This was one of the highlights of our whole trip, we were mesmerized by the beauty of a city that looked like a live set from The Game of Thrones. It had the most incredible views from a top the mountain and sweeping vistas looking out over the arid valleys below.

On one side you could see out towards the mountain looming over the beachside town of San Vito Lo Capo, on the other to Trapani spreading out to the sea and the islands of Levanzo, Favignana, Marettimo and Grande, misty blue in the background.

Magnificent Marsala, Sicily

Posted on April 2, 2018Leave a comment

Finally, some time to sit down and finish my last few posts on our journey through Sicily. As I start to write I’m transported back in time and place to the stress inducing driver’s seat of our dilapidated rental car, dented, banged up, fender barely attached like most of the bumper cars in Sicily.

Avola, Ragusa and Siracusa, Sicily- visiting the baroque beauties

Posted on April 1, 2018Leave a comment

I’ve left finishing up my travel stories in Sicily for far to long, thought I was almost done but realizing I still have a bit more to finish off. My last post ended in Agrigento where we visited from our hill top villa in Castrofillippo but before we got there I missed writing about the amazing cities we visited from our base in Avola; Ragusa, Modica and Siracusa.

Agrigento, Sicily and The Valley of the Temples

Posted on February 18, 2018Leave a comment

As I’m sitting by the window watching the snow fall outside during this endless winter, my mind starts wandering to warmer places. Homesick for the warmth of Sicily I pull out my pictures of Agrigento and our tour of the Valley of the Temples deciding I have to render my video and do a post as I finish up the last of my Sicilian blog pieces.

Scala dei Turchi, Sicily

Posted on January 22, 2018Leave a comment

Its been months since I’ve posted anything. Work is so busy these days, I barely have time to look up as I’m focused on building clientèle for a new sales position. But working so hard in the dead of winter and trying to stay warm in temperatures that had dropped below -30’C last week has me pining for the beaches of Sicily.

Tantalizing Taormina and our stay in Pozzillo

Posted on September 26, 2017Leave a comment

Chiesa di San Giuseppe, Taormina, Sicily

Our stay in Milazzo was awesome and we were sad to leave but excited to be heading to the famed tourist area of Taormina, Sicily. We decided to stay in the nearby town of Pozzillo, tucked away from the tourist zones it is a picturesque fishing village surrounding a small harbor with stunning views of the coastline from Taormina to Catania.

Memorable Milazzo and the area of Messina, Sicily

Posted on September 12, 2017Leave a comment

After leaving Cefalu in the morning we drove along the coast to the northeast tip of Sicily for our stay in the city of Milazzo, Sicily. At first, we were a bit underwhelmed with the industrial look of the city and its busy commercial port but once we dug a little deeper we fell in love with this less notable Sicilian town. It is however known as a great base to explore the Aeolian Islands with daily cruises leaving from its downtown port everyday but there is so much more to be had here.

Charming Cefalu- it’s beaches and ancient city

Posted on September 1, 20174 Comments

The beach old town in Cefalu, Sicily — The beach and old town in Cefalu, Siciliy

Good Morning Sicily! We awoke from our first night in Campofelice di Rocella and it was already getting hot early in the morning, we were having a spell of high 30’s/low 40’s but luckily our bedroom had air-conditioning or we would have melted. We couldn’t even leave the windows open at night because we were surrounded by orchards and all kinds of creepy crawlies that would try to make their way in despite having screens on some of the windows. Janet would spray the perimeters each night with insecticide and in the morning I’d have to sweep the carcasses away before she got up so she wouldn’t see what was trying to bunk down with us. If she saw the bodies she’d be screaming all the way to the nearest Hilton and that wouldn’t be good for our budget.

Spectacular Sicily- our month long tour circling the island.

Posted on August 25, 2017Leave a comment

We spent an incredible month, actually 5 weeks slow traveling around the entire island of Sicily. We had a lot of time so it was a real luxury to be able to pace ourselves, to dig deep into the Sicilian culture, to see the whole island, to live like a local and truly experience a lot of what it had to offer.

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