woz on the beach 

basking in the warmth

The following day we headed off for the beach and found a beautiful little seaside town. It was 20 degress, a good 15 degree hike up from the averages we'd had for the last few weeks and so it really felt like summer. We eagerly threw off our shoes and ran through the water wishing we had thought to pack bathers when we saw the locals rugged up in snow jackets, hats and scarves, pointing at us from the shore and even taking photos as we frolicked in the sun!

a casual stroll

After seeing the sun set we decided to walk part of the way down the mountain and enjoy the warm night rather than take the bus. On our way down a very friendly young Sicilian couple stopped their car to offer us a ride down the mountain (or at least that's what I think they said given it was all in Italian!) and although we felt perfectly safe in accepting their offer we were enjoying the night and the view and continued our trek down the mountain. But long after the sun had set we didn't see a single bus we discovered the very friendly young Sicilian couple obviously knew something we didn't and we realised we would have to make it down the mountain on foot. I think it took us around 3 hours to walk down the mountain and then back through the town to our hotel and so by the time we got back we were completely exhausted. It was a long day, but so much more adventurous than taking the bus with the rest of the tourists!

off the beaten track

We discovered this little spot at the end of a "track" through the forest which only Woz would dare to venture through at dusk in such a remote and foreign place. We stayed there for what seemed like hours and watched the sun set and didn't see another person.

hidden treasure

We had heard that we could take a bus which would take us up one of the mountains so we could see the view so on Saturday afternoon after strolling through the markets in the morning we did just that.

The view on the way up the mountain was gorgeous. We were able to look out over the town, it's surrounding mountains and the vibrant blue ocean. The top of the mountain seemed offer very little but it's view with a few shops scattered along an otherwise barren, winding dirt road. But as we looked around we discovered a church. I'm not much interested in churches having seen so many now but we decided to go in anyway. Inside was incredible. From the outside looked like a typical european church, but behind its stone facade was a cave which formed a beautiful natural cathedral.

where would we be without woz's trademark market shots?

the local fruit and vegetable market

local produce

our plane and one of the mountains we could see as we flew in

and that was sicily ...

A few weeks ago Woz and I were flown to Sicily courtesy of his boss who shouted the office a three day weekend all expenses paid as their annual Christmas break-up. We had an amazing time, flying to Palermo via Rome, a place I can honestly say we would have missed out on had we not had this opportunity. There are so many places to go and see and Palermo wouldn't have been high on our list but we were so glad to experience it.

We flew in on Friday afternoon and I can already tell I am not going to be able to describe how beautiful it was. This next part could take me several hours to compose. We had been flying over the ocean for quite some time and were decending without view of land in front of us, and then we saw it ... sharp cliff faces and a beautiful little Sicilian town nestled amongst the mountains. It was breathtaking and so much more beautiful than we had expected.