Mount Etna is the highest and most active volcano in Europe. The night before I came to Sicily, Etna erupted and I was hyped up to see the action. Lava fountains of 500m sounded sick.
Wow
I’m not sure if for good or for bad, but the eruptions didn’t occur during my 3 day stay in Sicily. At that time I had trouble reconciling with the environment and naturally I thought of climbing Etna. And on my 3rd day in Sicily, when the weather was the best, I did.
There’s just one bus a day to the foothills of Etna, leaving from the square in front of the train station of Catania. A return ticket costs €6,60. On the way to Etna it luckily stopped in a town, where I stocked up. The bus arrives at Rifugio Sapienza, which is at 2000m (Etna’s peak is 3357m).
Rifugio Sapienza
Beginning
Getting higher than the clouds
After getting higher than the clouds, the proper path almost disappeared and was covered in snow.
Snow
Having regular shoes didn’t help. I was thinking of how I was going to get down afterwards.
White
After reaching 2500m, we discovered that there is actually a proper road, where big trucks drive.
Trucks
Despite the fact that it’s prohibited to go beyond the 2500m mark without a guide, we continued our ascent. The peak was luring.
Luring
Shadows
It became colder and colder the higher we went.
Craters
Snow, Craters, Sea
The highest we reached was about 2800m, where the path ends.
Highest point
The way down was amazing. From 2500m we took another proper road, which was longer.
The snow beautifully contrasted with the black rocks.
Contrast
Gradually the snow disappeared.
No snow
Antonio Spina memorial
On the way down we inspected other craters.
Soft and fluffy
Craters
Lush volcanic forest
Antenna
I enjoyed the hike a lot and it definitely helped me reconcile with the environment. It was the highest point I’ve ever been to.
]]>I went to Syracuse by train from Catania for a day trip. Like in most of Southern Italy, the trains are infrequent.
Fountain of Diana
The historical center of Syracuse is located on the Ortigia island.
Coastwalk
Duomo
There’s a backstory in Greek mythology to a freshwater spring on the island: it’s said that the nymph Arethusa escaped Arcadia beneath the sea and resurfaced as a fountain on Oritigia. Interestingly, you can see papyrus growing there. It’s one of the rare spots in Europe where the plant is found (the other locations are also in Sicily).
Fountain of Arethusa
Ship
Plants
Walking along the coast I saw a nice spot for a swim. The weather in December was fine as well.
How about?
The sea didn’t seem too rough when looking at it, but I swam near the rocks (not the best choice) and the waves tossed me around like a fish. I lost my watch, yet surprisingly managed to find it. I ended up with lots and lots of scratches all over my body. Interestingly, I didn’t notice until my travel-friends pointed out that my back was bleeding. Ultimately, this experience was part of me reconciling with the environment. I loved it because it made me feel more alive.
waves + rocks = blood
In the evening I went to the Neapolis archeological park full of various artefacts.
Birds didn't build this
Quarry
I especially liked the caves.
Choose a cave
Cave of the Cords
The Ear of Dionysius is a big cave with exceptional acoustics: everything you say is amplified. It is still a question whether the cave is manmade or artificial.
Ear of Dionysius
Ear of Dionysius inside
Old water mill
Greek theater
In the distance you can see a peculiar cone-like structure: it’s a Basilica.
Cone
Basilica Madonna delle Lacrime
I enjoyed the day trip to Syracuse. It’s much nicer than Catania.
Sunset
I visited Sicily for 3 days by flying to Catania from Turin for €25 round-trip.
Turin/Catania ~ Alps/Etna
I spent the first day in Catania, the second day in Syracuse and the third on Etna. Catania was grey, gloomy and grim. The city sits at the foot of Mount Etna, Europe’s largest and most active volcano.
Main square
There’s a statue of an elephant on the main square, which is one of the symbols of Catania. Of course, this raises the question why is it an elephant given that they don’t live here. The monument itself was made from lava stone in the 1730s, but the elephant known as “u Liotru” was a symbol of Catania long before that. There’s a myth how it originated, involving the necromancer Heliodorus, who lived in Catania in the 8-th century. He had carved the elephant from the lava of Etna and used to ride it from Catania to Constaninople. In the end he was burned alive. Most importantly, the elephant looks happy anyway.
u Liotru
Lava stone is prevalent as a building material, which gives the city its grey color.
Amenano Fountain
Selling swordfish
I love the flag of Sicily. It shows the Medusa head in the center and the triskeles three-legged symbol, which is remarkably also found on the Manx flag. This symbol of Sicily is ancient, dating back to 700 BC. It is said to represent the three capes of the island, which has the shape of a triangle.
Flag of Sicily
It looks like the city is covered in soot. Perhaps the oldest buildings were actually made from the grey volcanic stone and the rest of the city decided to follow regardless of material. Catania retains its volcanic nature.
Soot
Grey
Houses
The magic healing cactus turns you into an angel
Connections
Ghetto exhibition
In the evening I went to the beach, passing by the port and some rough semi-abandonded parts of the city, dodging the wild traffic. Looking back, most of the city is like that.
Port
The atmosphere was worth the walk.
Beach
The lighthouse is my guide.
Don't get lost. There's nobody there
I would like to thank the ketchup in my sandwich and the graffiti on the train for adding some colour.
Colours
I went to Athens for 3 days by flying from Milan for €10.
The main symbol of Athens is situated on a hill. It’s the Acropolis.
The Acropolis from Filopappos Hill
Parthenon
Parthenon closer
Even in November there are crowds of tourists here.
Flag of Greece
Women's rights
Forklift
While walking the streets of Athens the Acropolis sometimes pops into view. Life revolves around it.
I can see it
Athens has a very peculiar vibe. It feels free, chaotic, alive, real, young, creative.
Parking lot
Street art is everywhere.
Streets
As well as posters regarding anything imaginable.
Posters
The streets of Athens are like the library of Babel: they contain every combination of words and every idea that could be expressed.
Any poster you like
Any colour you like
So much
Some of the streets feel ghetto. But honestly I would call only a few of them actually dodgy.
The ghetto barber
Street corner
Church
Orthodox
There are several hills in Athens, some say seven. Actually there’s a whole list of cities claimed to be built on seven hills. The highest one in Athens is the Lycabettus hill.
Walking up the top
Reaching the top of the hill I noticed two things. Firstly, Athens doesn’t have any high buildings. It actually doesn’t feel like a big city or the capital whatsoever.
Endless low level concrete
Secondly, the city stretches all the way to the sea. Why not go there tomorrow?
Notice the Acropolis
Church on top of Lycabettus
Another interesting thing in Athens is the abundance of police. They chill in groups at almost every corner. Sometimes you see police with riot gear for no apparent reason.
Peaceful
Chaotic neutral
On another day I went to Limanakia beach.
metro + bus
Path to Limanakia beach
Beach
Cross section of a tree
Fun fact: there are peculiar roadside shrines like tiny Orthodox churches. They seem to be dedicated to motorcyclists
Orthodox church shrine
Overall I really liked Athens. It surprised me with its amazing vibe. Also, Athens is cheap.
]]>It’s my first time in Hungary. I got here by flying from Istanbul for €45 with Wizz Air, which originates from Hungary. I flew with Wizz Air the most this year so far.
Budapest is on the Danube river.
Parliament
Tourists
The mutlicoloured houses flow down
Colourful
Holy
Ceremony
Recording
Buda Castle
Face to face
Houses have eyes
Always looking
She's on her toes reaching for the forbidden
Christmas spirit
Fun fact: Hungarian belongs to the Finno-Ugric language group (Finno is for Finnish, Ugric is for Hungarian duh). As such, the most similar languages are Finnish and Estonian. In other words we, as all the other Europeans speaking ordinary Indo-European languages, should not even attempt to understand Hungarian.
Indo-European language group: Hungary stands out
Signs
Hungarians normally eat exquisite sandwiches during the day and worship Michael Jackson at night.
Ruin bars are a thing in Hungary.
Ruin bar
Me
Another part of the essential tourist experience in Budapest are thermal baths. I visited the less touristy Lukacs Baths. They are also cheaper: 3200 HUF ~ €8. I loved bathing in the warm water when it was pretty chilly outside.
The water cleansed me from Athens, all the code written in Istanbul, along with headaches, nightmares, ugly thoughts, doubts about my identity and everything that is alien to me and hadn’t faded with time. All of that was a thing of the past. It always had been, but now I see that the past flows away like water. Everything happening is ripples on the Danube.
Water
Budapest reminded me of Russia. They have a wide choice of beer. A peculiar thing about convenience stores: they display 0-24 instead of just 24.
Get drunk
I liked Budapest.
Anonymvs
Cape Martin is situated between Monaco and Menton and has a nice trail along it’s coast. I didn’t know about the trail beforehand and I was just walking towards Italy from Monaco.
Wait for it
Here we go
The night before I dreamt about the sea and nothing else. Who knew we would actually kiss today? Anyways, I got soaked.
Endless sea expressing its endless love
Stormy
Path
The path is long
Looking back, I could see Monaco, where I walked from.
View of Monaco
You can easily see the border of the microstate.
That's all of Monaco
I went all around the cape and found myself in Menton, which is a French town on the border with Italy.
This town was struck by a disaster, that is the storm at sea.
Disaster
The street was turning into a beach.
Sand and stones
I enjoyed the view.
Beer and seawater is an excellent combination
Menton
Menton is a lovely town.
Despite the storm, its bay and marina remains calm. I went for a swim here.
I saw a sign saying Italy is in just 1000m. So I wanted to go check it out. I actually ended up walking for 2 hours to the nearest Italian town with a train station called Ventimiglia.
At the start, close to the Italian-French border, the path was very enjoyable.
But soon it got hard to navigate. I took wrong paths multiple times and avoided walking along the highway (which has tunnels).
Paths
On the way
The views were fantastic. The weather was also great: sunny and about 18-20C. I was wearing a t-shirt. Given those circumstances I can walk all day.
Italian sea
After a long way, I reached Ventimiglia. I walked about 25km (my phone logged 34km that day), starting in Monaco, going through France and ending in Italy.
I went to Monaco from Nice by train (€4,40). The ticket machines in France have an unusual interface, which I couldn’t figure out without asking another person for help. I think of myself as tech savvy, but that spinning button idea was unapparent and threw me off.
Train leaving Nice
Monaco train station
Monaco is the most densely populated country in the world. It didn’t feel crowded at all, but the buildings and roads are dense and situated on different levels.
Streets of Monaco
One may think that Monaco is just a city in France. But a few things indicated that it’s a different country: the numerous flags and other national symbols, as well as the fact that my Italian SIM didn’t have free roaming like in EU countries, because Monaco is not part of the EU.
Another peculiar thing are the license plates, which are much smaller than in other countries.
Monaco seemed to have few tourists and I wasn’t sure where to go. Unlike other cities the streets didn’t lead me to noteworthy squares or sites. I wasn’t able to search online things to see in Monaco so I wandered.
Monaco marina
Yacht
Sportscar
Bus
Despite being the most densely populated country, construction keeps on going.
Streets
Casino
Chonky and Chubby
Soon enough I left Monaco and entered France. The length of Monaco is about 3.3km, so the whole country is walkable. But I wouldn’t recommend going on walks here.
I went to Nice by bus from Turin. The journey takes 4 hours and cost me €15. I went there for the weekend and Saturday turned out to be a rainy day. Still I was happy to see the sea.
Menton on the left, which I'll actually visit later
Nice has a Russian Orthodox Cathedral.
St Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral
A shopping centre looks French.
Saturday felt like I was in the final scenes of a film.
On Sunday the sea was excited to see the sun.
Azure colors
Failure
A soldier protects us from the sea
In the Côte d’Azur only the coast is Azure. The rest of the sea is a darker shade of blue.
Azure coast
View from the top
The architecture of Nice is rather Italian, but the city is cleaner, more polished and posh than most Italian cities.
Place Masséna
There are 7 statues on the main square, symbolizing 7 continents. The installation is called “conversation in Nice”. At night, when the city calms down and the last tram leaves, you can hear them exchanging whispers. What do they talk about? Naturally, they talk about the sea.
In heaven that’s all they talk about — the ocean — and how wonderful it is. They talk about the sunsets they have seen. They talk about how the sun turned blood-red before it set. And they talk about how they felt when the sun was losing its power, — and the cold that was coming from the ocean, while the rest of the fire was still glowing.
Nice is nice. I took a train towards Italy: to Monaco.
Train station
I came here by flying to Lamezia from Turin for €10. My flight back was from Naples for €15. This time of the year the town felt empty.
Mountain view
Beach
Cables
The last vacationer
The sea was just as nice.
Don't jump don't jump don't jump
Intricate Italian knot
While walking the paths I saw a secret beach. Not a single path led to it: you can only get there from the sea. Naturally, I swam there. While I was swimming along the cliffs, it turned out that the shortest way was through a grotto (cave). But I didn’t like the atmosphere there: it was dark with colder water and echoes as if I was swimming into to the den of some large sea predator. Being without fins, I decided to swim around the rocks instead.
Secret
I liked the beach and swimming there. Unfortunately no photos from the beach itself because I swam there without my phone.
Don't tell anyone about this place
At this time of the year I grasped how small Scalea actually is.
Fall
This closed store was named temporary
Most things that happen in Scalea are holy.
Current affairs
The old town remains old.
Centro storico
Drying
Holy
View of Torre Talao
I have a very personal connection to this mountain among other things. Often attachment can be found in nature ignoring national borders.
My very familiar and dear mountain
Cacti and old town
Calm, calm, alert
Obnoxious frog
Evening
Holy
While searching for info on the secret beach, I found a local Russian telegram chat and discovered a fun fact: a couple of the street shrines in Scalea were installed by the Russian diaspora trying to stop trash being dumped on the street.
После долгих раздумий мы придумали вот что: мы сами ночью вывезли кучу мусора и поставили на это место статую Мадонны. Больше мусор туда никто не складывал. Эту операцию мы повторили ещё в двух местах, эффект тот же. Итальянцы начали украшать статуи, приносят свечки, цветочки и т.д. Вот так, “с Божьей помощью”, практически дословно, мы и решили проблему точечно.
Shrines installed by Russians
Genoa is situated on multiple levels.
The higher you go the more modern the buildings are.
Old & new
Balcony-bridge between houses
The city has elevators which are free to use. One of them surprised me. I once had a dream where I was in an elevator that suddenly went sideways. Well, this dream came true in Genoa. I used this elevator, which at first travelled vertically, but then suddenly got on rails and went horizontally. A relevant quote from Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino:
With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.
their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else
I have never been to Buenos Aires, but the architecture in Genoa reminds me of it. By the way, Christopher Columbus was from Genoa.
Genoa Brignole railway station
As a big fan of flags, I would rather see a real wavy chunky juicy flag made out of fabric than a flag displayed on a big screen. That’s the flag of Genoa, by the way. It’s the cross of St. George, just like the English flag, or the flag of Milan, Bologna, Padua and other Italian cities. Though Genoa had this flag first. Some historians believe England adopted its flag from Genoa.
Everyday we stray further from God
Basilica della Santissima Annunziata del Vastato
Porticoes
Monument
Bright houses
Flags of: Liguria, Italy, the EU, Genoa. It wasn’t windy enough for them to unleash their full glory. Digital flags don’t have this problem.
Palazzo Doria Spinola
The oldest part of the city is the old town with narrow streets, like in Naples.
Crowds
Narrow streets
Plants
Some people may say that Genoa is dirty. Uhmm, look at this.
Cleaning
Little shops in Genoa.
Tourist stuff
Bar/corner store
Newsagent
Fruits and vegetables
Who buys this stuff?
The seafront where the port has an ugly highway above it.
Highway
Old crane
Palm trees
The beautiful beaches begin a bit East from the city center. The Boccadesse neighbourhood is an iconic place in Genoa with its coloruful houses extending right to the sea.
Boccadasse
I wonder how it looks when there’s a storm.
Boccadasse beach
Another beach
Scooters are popular in Genoa like in cities of Southern Italy.
Riding bikes and swimming in the sea
I visited a sandwich shop with a storefront mentioning a range of 150 types of panini. When I went inside, I encountered an intimidating range of cheese & deli meat. I pointed at some ingredients that seemed nice, but that didn’t work: the seller immediately realized that I didn’t know anything about cheese or ham and was very upset about my careless approach towards food. So he let me try different options, which allowed me to make a better decision.
Sandwich shop
In the evening I went a bit higher to see how the Sun meets the sea.
Port
Sunset
Tunnel