Sicily, Italy - 20 places in 3 days

“I hate and detest Sicily in so far as I love it, and in so far as it does not respond to the kind of love I would like to have for it.” 
― Leonardo Sciascia

Sicily has been on my list for a long time now. I did not hesitate long when I found flights for 55E return ticket from Belgium. Together with my friend we decided to explore this volcanic island. We were going to spend 3 days there and we wanted to make the best out of it. We rented a car and drove around the island. Sicily is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen!!! We started off by renting out Fiat Punto in Trapani. Once all paper work was done we hit the road direction Catania. We decided to take the coastal road direction Palermo and then go across the island to Catania. We made a bunch of stops on the way:

We stayed over night at Catania. When we woke up we found our car in the middle of a saturday market. Our car was in the middle of meat and fruit stands. It took us some time to leave the place but everyone seemed to be very friendly. They understood we were foreigners and did not know about the market. But getting the car out of there was a bit of a hassle :-) 

We then went to see Etna. It is an hour drive from Catania. We reached Rifugio Sapienza from where we took a cable car up to the top. From there we took a special bus which took us to the craters. We did not get to see the central crater because the volcano was too active. Walking on Etna is an interesting experience. It is super cold but there is also lots of heat coming from the ground. In the end you body is freezing but your feet are warm :-) 

After we had climbed Etna we took the local road through the island to Capo d'Orlando. It was a breath taking route. We stopped many times to take pictures and to savor the views. One of many places we saw was a small canyon called Gole dell'Alcantara.

We finally reached the coast. We spent the night in a bed and breakfast place. The view we woke up to looked something like this:

After having our awesome breakfast we hit the coastal road towards Trapani.

To sum up, Sicily is beautiful. Having a car there is a great idea. Don't take highways, take local roads and enjoy the views. We will go back to see the south part of the island and hopefully Etna will be active then :-)