Acireale Carnevale

We visited Acireale for the Carnevale festivities. We went on a Sunday afternoon, which fell right between the parades, but we still saw the floats on display and had a wonderful time wandering through the streets throwing confetti on people.

Landon dressed up as a ninja. Logan at first said he would dress up as Elmo, but changed his mind when they were getting dressed and wanted his Thomas jacket instead.

Armed and ready! And of course, we had to buy the hair.

One of the floats in the grotesque category.

Landon sneaking up to ambush a little king with confetti

Float made of flowers. These were really neat!

Very sketchy religious sorts...

Carnevale was a lot of fun! We'll definitely have to go back next year, and we'll all dress up!

Etna Erupts! 23 Feb.

Yesterday evening when leaving a Cub Scout dinner, we saw the red glow from the north that means...eruption! We made a quick detour onto the A18 to get closer to the show. The boys were so excited. Logan said, "Look! Mountain Etna blue!" (He's still working on his colors...)

This was the fourth time Mt. Etna has erupted this week, but unfortunately we missed most of that activity. It was very early in the morning, or too cloudy to see from our house!

These were the best photos I was able to take. I just can't seem to figure out how to focus the camera right for this sort of thing!

These photos were taken from Paesi Etna, right by the tolls on the Messina-Catania autostrada. The side of the road was completely full of other people who had the same idea we did!

Visiting the Motta Tower

The Motta Tower is only about 15 minutes away from our house, but somehow we have just now taken the tour. We all enjoyed it, especially Landon, who was very excited to see the medieval knights' weapons on display.

This is the entrance to the cistern where the Duke of Modica was imprisoned.

This photo does not give a good idea of how deep this hole is!

King Martino is on the left. His widow, Bianca di Navarro, imprisoned the Duke of Modica (right) after he proposed to her.

Swords and other weapons!

A knight in full battle dress.

The view from the north side of the tower.



Medieval toddler fashion!

We enjoyed a short but informative video on the beginnings of Motta Tower and the later city on the ground floor of the tower. It shows where the original city walls can still be seen today, along with the history of the hill that Motta Sant'Anastasia was built on--it's an ancient volcanic neck! Admission is free and you can wander around the tower for as long as you like. There is also information available on the annual Medieval Festival that takes place in Motta Sant'Anastasia.

It's easiest to park on the wide hill above the tower and walk through the oldest part of the city. The streets are very rough and narrow. More photos from this visit are on our Facebook albums.

In Other News.....

 

Congratulations to GM1 Billy Hawkins!!

 

 

Billy was recently promoted to First Class Petty Officer!

Scenes from Southwest Sicily

Here are some photos of the landscape on a drive we took to Gela! It's been a while since we've updated the blog...playing catch up today, though!

This is a tower near Mineo. There was a road leading up to it, but it was gated!

Beautiful valley on the way to Gela.

Another rural valley.

These rocks made us think of the British Isles.



A fortress several kilometers east of Gela.

Castello Falconara

All of us on the beach below Castello Falconara.