Day 11 - Villa San Giovann to Piazza Armerina

We were up usual time and out of the B&B by 8am. No brekkie, except some pastries and juice we bought in the supermarket.  Eventually sussed the check-in procedure for the ferry and arrived in plenty of time, despite the most circuitous route to reach the port. More issues with the Shadslow. I'm wondering if it might not be the starter button, not the sidestand switch. Add to that, it has blown headlight and taillight bulbs, so may shorting somewhere. 

Only in queue for about 5 minutes before boarding. It is a 20 minute crossing to Messina.

Despite notices about being on the car deck during transportation, people sit in their vehicles.  Would never be allowed in UK.

Once on Sicilian soil, our POI for today was, the magnificent Mount Etna.

Another issue with Shadslow. One second he's there, next he's not. I  pulled over and a guy in a car stopped to say Grizzly was stopped. Couple of illegal Uies (u-turns) and just as I reached him, the bike had started again.

All was cool, until we got near Etna, apart from an apparent collision,  car and scooter. Then all was not so cool. Sitting behind a car and minibus through the twisty  roads, Ginny overheated again. Even as the ambient temperature dropped by 12 degrees, I couldn't keep her cool behind traffic. We made it to the top with only two cooling stops!

Etna turned out to be a damp squib, literally. The 'summit' was shrouded in cloud. Not much point  in paying €30 or even €50 each to be in the clouds, so we decided to head to a cafe, as Grizzly was gasping for coffee.

Within a few minutes, there was an almighty crack of thunder and the heavens opened. And boy did it feckin rain! At this point, Grizzly realised that his helmet, locked to his bike, was upside down! 🤣 Eventually,  after a few more claps of thunder, we made a dash for the bikes,  got out the waterproofs and set off. Just as the 'summit' became visible.!

Next stop fuel. It was 12 degrees and still raining at Etna. 20 miles away, it was 29 degrees and bone dry.

We arrived at our planned fuel stop, to find the garage was no more, it was an ex petrol station. It had ceased to be! Getting Tomtom to search for one nearby, it found one about 5 miles away. There we filled up and removed the waterproofs. 30 degrees once more.

Our final stint took us to our hotel for the night in Piazza Armerina. Along the way, we rode the worst road of the trip, SS288, the first half at least. It was unbelievably bumpy, like a roller coaster at times and badly pitted but then it got worse. Suddenly, the road surface, in large stretches, became gravel. Just as I thought it couldn't get any worse, we entered a 100m long tunnel, with no lighting! Out the other side was a steep incline of gravel and another 100m or so, bumpy as hell, before proper tarmac resumed. Another few hundred metres and the same road became one of the smoothest we'd been on all day! Strange. 

We arrived at the hotel and a lady with two dogs directed us to the car park. She checked us in, whilst we made a fuss of the dogs. In the room, there was one big bed! Downstairs I went,  Google translate in hand, to tell the lady we needed two beds. She moved us to another room but that only had one bed. This one though had a balcony. Using trusty Google translate again, she said we should  sit on the balcony, she would make us some spritzers and then sort the beds. Very nice.

Have no idea what was in it but that drink was very strong.

Grizzly went fiddling with his bike,  whilst I caught up with some admin. Then we went to dinner. 

Like the lady on reception, English was in short supply. We spotted something that looked interesting, from its picture, on the menu and ordered that. We had no clue, apart from Grizzly ordering fries with his. Along came the fries and a plate of assorted veggie options for me, onions  peppers, zuccini, egg plant, tomato. Then after an exchange we couldn't understand, a waiter arrived with a massive sizzling plate of meats. One for each of us. OMG!

We weren't expecting this amount of food and believe me, it took some eating. It'll not be pretty on the way out though! 😮 Of course, that was washed down with a couple of beers. 

Tomorrow we have one POI stop, then it's on to the capital,  Palermo, where we spend 2 nights. Grizzly is hoping to find a shop where he can buy some bulbs for the bike. Lucky he has Google translate too.

Ciao