It's cold, windy and foggy this morning in Enna, so we're hanging around the room for a bit, waiting for improvements. It is supposed to clear my noon or so, so we'll likely go out for a loop north of town somewhere. In the meantime, it's pleasant to relax a bit, check out the nearby streets, and catch up on the journal.
The dining area at Antica Dimora - a beautiful restoration of a three century old building in the historical center of Enna.
Calascibetta, the neighboring town just north of Enna. Pretty gloomy now but if the weather improves we'll bike over there later and look back in this direction.
After hanging around the room for most of the morning, Rachael and I went out for a walk to the castle and overlook at the upper end of town before lunch. It is gradually clearing, but still very windy and quite cold. After just a few blocks of this, it is obvious even to Rachael that we should just hang around the city.
It feels like I've hit the jackpot. Rachael almost never consents to a day off from the bikes. It didn't even need to play my age card, so I tuck it back up my sleeve for use later in a real emergency.
Enna is quite an interesting town to explore. It is one of the oldest settlements on the island, with prehistoric origins. Every conquering civilization over the millennia have taken over and reshapened it over the millennia: in succession - the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, the Schwabians,the Angevins, the Aragonese. Finally (so far), it became Italian under Garibaldi.
It is an atmospheric place to wander around, and today's weather seems perfect for giving a sense of what it must be like to live up here.
The massive interior of the Enna cathedral. As vast as this is, it's even larger on the outside!
Lombardy Castle and the Rock of Ceres crown the upper end of town. The views from the top of the Rock are huge, but it is still overcast across much of the island. We'll walk back up again this evening to see if it's clear enough to see Mount Etna.
This balcony walk gives a beautiful panoramic view of the country to the north. This still photo doesn't show how wildly the trees are whipping on this cold, gusty day. We were happy to come to to the end of the road and turn around, the wind now at our backs.
Another fine lunch stop, at Paccamora Biobar. Rachael: polenta with fava beans. Scott: spelt fusilli pasta with asparagus. The guy in the back: surprisingly, he has one of my Pendelton shirts; it's a small world.
So the weather forecast has been wrong all day, making us especially pleased with our decision to take the day off. We waited all day for the clearing that never came, and went out again at six hoping to see a view of Etna. Still cold, still grey. It made for a few more spectacular views of the sun breaking through on the hills to the north, but soon enough we scurried back to our room to warm up again until dinner.
The rape of Persephone by Hades, with the multiheaded dog Cerebrus looking on. This is alleged to have occurred in the fields near Enna, where Persephone was abducted to the underworld through what is now nearby Lake Pergusa.
In Enna, raising a toast to David and Randell, the dynamic Guntoneurring duo from Perth. We tried to find a west Australian vintage, but had to be content with Sicilian table wine. At three euros per half liter though, we have no complaints.
