Around Mt Etna the active Volcano

Living at the foot of this fascinating active volcano meant it was only a matter of time before we were acquainted.  This is our first road trip encounter with Etna.

The local Senori in Bianca Villa, a classic Sicilian village sight - old guys talking smack 

It's tall at 3349 metres (10,990 foot). Comparable in height to Mt Tasman & Dampier in New Zealand's Southern Alps. Mont Blanc of France is the tallest Mt in Western Europe. Though Mt Etna is the biggest and baddest volcano in Europe, almost in the world. The Greeks believed that Vulcan the God of fire & metalwork had his workshop there and that Cyclops resides in a cave on its slopes. Etna's summit constantly smokes and now and then it has a volcanic fit. Lava flows have threatened and swallowed some small towns that bravely take advantage of the rich volcanic soil.

On Etna you're able to hike, dine, cable car (up to a 2500m height) and ski. In the months of January and February Etna's ski fields open. The girls are hoping for a few good days snowboarding or sledging at least.

Around this time of year (December) most travellers are hiking Etna, though as Brig had already dislocated his hip, that idea had to be shelved. Instead, we opted for the more scenic route visiting the towns and castles surrounding it. After hearing the fame of Italy's Pistachio nuts, a  key destination was Bronte being the home of these tasty things.

 Paterno was the first town on our wee map though didn't have huge appeal as we drove through looking a bit dirty, but here's the kids in Biancavilla  Piazza, which was first settled by Albanian refugees.

 We had lunch in Adrano, a Sicilian classic - Aracini a fried rice ball with gooey mozzarella, beef & peas in the centre (can't wait long enough for a pic). Then it was into Museo di Adrano. This was another norman Castello well preserved and converted into a Museum.

The kids do pretty well in Museo, where it is again stressed with two kids to always hold their hands and we are closely followed around by staff. On the bright side it often serves as a free guide. Milan's Kindergarten in Hamilton were big on offering children pottery and before we left she was making containers & wall pieces. This Museo held ceramic pieces from 2200 BC, she was so taken by it.

Miss Milan super keen on the pottery she saw

When we arrived in Bronte it was 2pm meaning all the shops were shut. They customarily close throughout Sicily between 1- 4pm, unless it's a shopping mall. Hence there were no fresh vibrant green pistachio gelato's for us, but we grabbed local sweets and pesto. 

A Bronte Pasterria, pistachio packs line the wall.

Around we kept going an hour later stopping in Randazzo, a beautiful town set in the mountains with Etna's black volcanic rock used to make the streets roads and city monuments.

Randazzo -  hard not to smile with kisses like his.

At the end of our round trip we couldn't pass up another quick stop at Taormina. Often when you talk with people you say where are you from and the comment that follows is often .. ah bella '.. dah dah dah. It's a purely genuine one though when you offer the 'ah bella Taormina'.

It's probably the Island's most chic and now tourist dominated spot. There's plenty of room for all and we have the blessing of being 45mins away. In September they host the Taormina filmfest where the stars come to play. We did the descent thing making another stop & sampling the gelati. Now with the cooler December weather, swimming is temporarily shelved allowing time to enjoy other parts of this neat Island.

Team on three, Carlos with Chocolatte, Milan - Fragola, Brig - Pistachio. Squadra su tre!

kids play with Italian toys

We planned and packed slightly better this time round. Correct seasonal clothing, medical supplies and kids play essentials. Cream of tartar for play dough, blocks, farm animals, cars, costumes, tons of art supplies and a hairdressing & medical set.

Their hair saloon - parrucchiere, vuoi capelli lisci oppure ondulati

As we settled in, something new would usually come out relevant to what we were doing. A magnifying glass was packed in but only Milan had enough courage to chase the lizards and massive ants trying to collect them.
The kids were also into making "big big castles" with wooden blocks and containers. They were really taken by the old castles, so they'd often be creating what we'd earlier seen or been a part of.


They soon were making rock pools from a fresh batch of classic play dough. I couldn't find food colouring (code for - couldn't understand & translate correctly) so we had a plain white batch with glitter.

Our first italian playdough batch - Carlos tells me 'bongo' is the Italian word for it .. ok

The play dough recipe is a treasure from Emma an awesome campus creche teacher.

Its simple & it stays soft forever.
   

2 cups Flour, 2 cups boiling water, 1/2 cup salt, 4 Tablespoons Cream of Tartar, 2 Tablespoons Oil  Mix together the flour, salt, oil, and cream of tartar  - Add the boiling water and colours,  Mix and kneed on floured surface, adding more flour as necessary -  Enjoy. 

Milan's rock pool and Carlos's cake x

Milan has forever been called our principessa from the must watch movie 'Life is Beautiful'.  It picked up the Academy award for Best Actor with the fantastic Roberto Benigni. Lately they've even been talking of him running for President.  So this princess of ours continues to have many princess like interests emerge. Initially we didn't know how to cater to it all. Brig would look to me, I'd look elsewhere thinking "you knew I was a tomboy".

Because of our parental love, we've taken to it all and we are now trying our best to accomodate our daughters taste. Dress ups, heels, accessories, pink galore,... babies. We even all hunt about finding her lip balm for outings.

 

They're forever dotting in each other - Brigs putting a plait in harakeke Milan will call it

We've also shifted our time for bed from 7:30pm to ??? as it would never work here. Italian's eat & get together late, they'll organise something for 9pm. Sure enough we are eating around 10pm and the kids are still running about at 11pm. One night while playing with their Argentine friend Bautista, the drive home was dominated by talk  of how cool his 'Toy Story' bowling set was. Unsuprisingly, the following morning they wanted to make their own bowling set. I played along as they'd kept to their guideline of staying in bed 'until the sun comes up'.

Their artwork attached to water bottles made the perfect el cheapo set, that they really enjoyed. Everyone buys their water here. I've never felt bad for drinking the tap water, though you can actually taste the difference when drinking the 'Levissima' its like an Italian Evian. One morning Carlos refused his tap water saying it tastes dirty, you are your fathers son Carlos Xx