Medieval Festival in Motta Sant'Anastasia

Every year in mid-August, the city of Motta Sant'Anastasia holds a week-long Festa Medioevale. The festivities begin each night around 8:00 and last until well after midnight. Most of Via Vittorio Emanuele is blocked off to automobiles, from Viale C. Caruso to the oldest part of town, where the Motta Tower is located.

We visited on the first Sunday evening of the festival, and got there early for good parking, around 7:00. We still had to park along the side of Viale C. Caruso, which was a bit of a walk with a toddler but much better than it could have been! To pass the time before the festival began, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant, La Donna Fortunata. We go there quite often, and when they aren't very busy the boys are allowed to make their own pizzas in the kitchen. There IS plenty of food provided by vendors at the festival, ranging from traditional Sicilian to Arabic and Andalusian cuisine, but with picky little eaters, Donna Fortunata was the safer bet for us!

The presentation of the court (La Corte) was scheduled to begin at 8:00, but things often run behind schedule here. So, we came out of the restaurant around 8:30 and found ourselves in perfect position to watch the parade! (Please forgive the exceptionally poor quality of the photos; I am terrible with night shots!)

The parade began with actual heralds who blew a (very loud) fanfare.

Super cool costumes, too!

The heralds were followed by the color guard and then an impressive drum line.  Landon was immediately enchanted by the twirling flags..

Next came various medieval characters in full medieval dress....

This group performed lively dances to medieval flute music.

Not the king and queen, I don't think... Obviously an important couple, though!

Possibly a queen or princess, flanked by two knights!

After the parade of characters, the entire procession grouped up just outside the city gate--a big wooden structure erected just for this week. A space was cleared, and each of the performance acts gave a demonstration of their shows.

Our favorite act was Fuochi d'Oriente, a couple that we actually had met the day before while getting espresso in Motta. They combined fire juggling and simply beautiful interpretive dance. My bad photography doesn't capture the spirit of their performance at all! After the demonstration, they immediately performed their full act, and I dropped the camera and just stared with my mouth hanging open!



Fuochi d'Oriente, doing their demonstration act.

We also saw belly dancers, musicians playing medieval war music, and jesters. There were also stage performances, but we didn't stay long enough to see them.

Since Landon had been so impressed by the color guard, and had spotted a few children carrying miniature versions of the flags, we had to go on a flag search. We walked up and down the entire area of the festival twice, before spotting the only two flags left. Which was extremely lucky, since Logan was in on the flag obsession too by this time, and both of them were nearly in tears from flag-coveting and sleepiness!

Two happy boys!

By the time we finally found the flags, it was around 10:30 and the boys were just too exhausted to stay for any longer. But we all enjoyed the festival, and will definitely be going back next year! A medieval festival taking place in a medieval city is a wonderful experience!

Tour of Taormina

Taormina is a city on the eastern coast of Sicily, in the Catania province. It's split into two parts which are connected by a cable lift. The upper portion of the city features a well-preserved Roman amphitheater (still used for premier screenings of films!) and the art district, along with many restaurants and shops. The lower portion is where you'll find the lidos and seaside cafes and bars.

We drove into the upper city and parked in a garage--visitors are not allowed to drive cars within the center of the city, but there are scooters. The parking fee seemed a bit high at 11 euro, but it is based on the number of hours your car is there.

Here we are at the top level of the parking garage. Those stairs lead up into Taormina...they have a free shuttle bus, but the boys were gung-ho about climbing all those stairs!

This is a beautiful little terrace featuring a shrine to the Virgin Mary. Below is a small garden area with palm trees, morning glory flowers, and a row of very old niches that may have contained statues or friezes.

A relatively small Roman amphitheater is in the middle of town, right behind the church of Saint Catarina. Visitors can go in and explore the ruin.

 

The art district of Taormina is full of all sorts of things, from gorgeous antiques (think gilded hand mirrors, silver tea services, candelabras, etc. etc. etc.!) to oil paintings, to handmade jewelry, to specialty culinary items. This is just one of the alleyways completely full of beautiful things. We did not, sadly, bring enough cash for a gilded hand mirror.

The entire city of Taormina is so picturesque, we took over a hundred photos of just streets that we passed by. This is seating for a more upscale restaurant, as you can tell by the table linens and chair covers.

Here is the small garden below the shrine to the Virgin Mary.

Many of the homes and shops in Taormina are painted with bright designs, like this one.

This home also had one of the most interesting balcony gardens we've ever seen!

Yet another quaint restaurant:

We finally got a nice photo together, courtesy of Landon! We're pretty lacking in photos of just the two of us.

We had to get a shot of just how clear and blue the Mediterranean can be. Gorgeous.

These towers in the public gardens were built by Florence Trevelyan for bird-watching. They can't be entered today, though you can walk all around the exterior.

Another photo of the Trevelyan towers.

The Bam Bar - we just loved the name, and the fact that the menu is painted on the exterior walls.

Here is part of the lido strip, taken from right above the sand. The lidos are of course very crowded in August, since it is the Italian holiday month.



Unfortunately, we did not see the main historical attraction of Taormina, the large Roman (or is it Greek?) amphitheater. We are definitely planning another trip soon, with the main objective being the archeological museum and theater ruins!

Catania by Tourist Train

In the Piazza Duomo of Catania, we have frequently walked by a miniature train ride on our way to the market, shops, etc. We've never bothered to stop, as it can give the impression that it is mainly for children, and maybe even limited to the Piazza Duomo itself.

But last week,  the guide approached Landon and Logan and asked if they wanted to ride. Well, of course they did! After being assured that the train would wait until we hit up the bancomat for the necessary euro, we boarded the train.

As we'd expected, the train began to circle the Piazza. Our guide, in Italian and passable English, explained the significance behind the elephant monument--erected from ancient materials in 1736, built in imitation of the Minerva Elephant in Rome, topped with an ancient Egyptian obelisk, and named Liotru. She also gave a brief history of the three rebuildings of the cathedral of Saint Agata.

But then to our surprise, the train trundled right off the piazza and onto a main street! As the traffic swerved around us, we got a crash course in many of the significant structures located in Catania.

Here are a few of the more notable locations we visited.

Teatro Bellini - The Massimo Bellini Theater

Chiesa di San Nicolo l'Arena - The church of San Nicolo is the largest church in Sicily.

The Greco-Roman Theater - A larger amphitheater than the one the boys play inside.

Monument of Cardinal Dusmet. He stands just in front of a wonderful restaurant, La Crocifera.

All in all, it was absolutely worth the price of admission--on this day, it would have been worth it just to sit on the train and catch the breeze. We would definitely recommend taking the train tour if you are pressed for time while exploring Catania. It's only five euro per person, and children are free.

After riding the train, we headed to the Collegiata Pub for pizza.