Santo Stefano di Camastra, Sicily

On our last day in Sicily, thunderstorms were predicted all day. We thought it would be a good opportunity to visit one of the centers for the islands vibrant ceramic trade.

From a Sicilian website about the ceramics we read: "Archaeologists working in Sicily have unearthed pottery dating back to at least 2,400BC, testimony to the island’s multi-millennial ceramic-making traditions. Waves of settlers, including Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans and Spanish all brought their own techniques, innovations and preferred color schemes, leaving behind them rich vein of diverse and flourishing styles.

Perhaps the most significant contribution to Sicilian ceramics came with the Arabs. The Arabs introduced an ancient Egyptian process of mixing tin oxide with clear lead glazing to provide an opaque surface on which decorations could easily be applied.

Today, Sicily still has a thriving ceramics industry, centered in four main towns: Caltagirone, Santo Stefano di Camastra, Burgio and Sciacca."

Caltagirone is the closest to where we were and in the center of the island. At breakfast I checked the navigation and saw there was a major accident of the way with a 1.5 hour delay to the trip. We changed our destination to Santo Stefano di Camastra, on the far end of Messina 1/2 way to Palermo.

This was a very fortunate turn of events for us. The drive was beautiful and it wasn't raining on the north side of the island.

On the map above you can see the Calabria on the right, the heel of the boot in Italy.

The town was lovely and as advertised it was full of shops and had two ceramic factories that we saw.

"Some of the ceramic specialities are uniquely Sicilian. The first is the Testa di Moro (Moor's Head), a receptacle for plants whose origin is the stuff of legend. One of Boccaccio’s stories in the Decameron recounts the fate of Lisabetta of Messina, who dug up the head of her lover after he’d been murdered by her brothers. She used it as a pot for her fragrant basil plant, which, irrigated by her tears of mourning, grew prodigiously."

"A similarly gruesome, 1,000-year-old story is told in Palermo. On hearing that her Moorish lover was planning to return to North Africa, a young Norman lady became prey to the green-eyed monster.

Luring the unfortunate fellow to her chamber for one last, fatal liaison, she decapitated him ,displayed his head as a macabre trophy on her balcony and planted basil. (Next time you tuck into a plate of pasta con pesto, spare these two men a thought!) Despite its rather gruesome narrative, the Testa di Moro is a true Sicilian classic."

We skipped the pasta con pesto but did enjoy a Granita and coffee on at a street Cafe.

We toured around a bit more, had a rather disappointing lunch and headed back to pack our luggage for the trip to Lisbon.

World War I memorial

The highways in this part of Sicily are toll roads. When we arrived we went through a line that said it allowed credit cards to pay our 7.40 toll. There was no place to put a card and it wouldn't take my 50€ note. The gate went up and we pulled over to look for someone to pay. Not finding anything we went into town. We asked a couple of people what we should do and the all shrugged their shoulders and said it was not our problem. Don't worry about it. OK!

When we got back to the resort, I tried to pay our tab. I knew we had one dinner in their restaurant, some drinks at the pool and several drinks down at the beach. They guy at the desk said all we owed was one beer and one glass of wine. I tried arguing with him, letting him know it should be much more, at least 50-60 Euros. He looked through a couple of folders shrugged his shoulders and said don't worry about it. OK!

I really wouldn't have minded paying either bill. On the way back from Santo Stefano we practiced counting tunnels in Thai. We got up to 90 tunnels in exactly 180 km. One every 2 km. They should have the revenue to keep those up.

When we were taking our toll ticket in Messina, it wouldn't dispense the toll. I had to back up and get in another line. In that line, the car in front of me couldn't get his car in gear after taking his ticket. We were really laughing as we backed up and went to the third booth where we finally got through. Maybe a little maintenance on those booths would have been a good thing.

After packing we went out to one final dinner in Letojanni. It was the best meal of the trip because of both the food and Roger the owner.