acireale

an easy drive here once i convinced lou that tom tom was sticking to the coast road...in and out the dusty bluebells...whereas i and my map knew how to get us to the autostrada! more roadworks and new tunnels (a vast improvement on the old gloomy ones) and then we were in villa san giovanni and being waved into the ticket office line and then straight onto a waiting ferry. we were off before we had parked the camper! upstairs for the obligatory sarnie and coffee lunch and then it was time to drive off into messina. out of town onto the autoroute and down to acireale in under an hour and a half. the campsite was down a winding narrow road below acireale and above sante maria la scala. a harassed girl in the 'direzione' pointed out that my acsi discount didn't start until the 19th september. high season in the campsite lasts until the 15th. surprising as the place is empty! we looked at the view, pondered the beach, reached by lift and looking lovely in the sunshine but decided that there wasn't a lot we could actually do from here so plan a has finally hit the buffers and plan b starts tomorrow! more later....

after an abortive attempt to swim (i braved the coffin like lift all alone!) i decided the rocks were too slimy and the cove too gloomy for comfort (the sun had moved round) we walked down umpteen steps to the little harbour of sante maria and sussed out the restaurants and bar – closed or maybe opening later? but a very pretty village around its little harbour.

back up at the campsite the pizzeria told us they would be open at 8 so an apero and chat to the dutch neighbours who arrived just after us and whose footsteps we seem to have been dogging all the way down through italy when we swapped notes on campsites visited! off to eat pizza on an open terrace which slowly filled up with very elegant italians wafting gorgeous perfumes and after shave over us! out to sea there were a few lights which we were told were from fishing boats catching 'polpe', octopus. the lights make them freeze and easy to catch. a pleasant evening after all but it still stings that this is going to cost almost double the amount i had anticipated...note to self, don't forget to read the small print!