Best Of Sicily Sidetrip Ko-Fi Photo Essay: Two Weeks Remain In Drive (Side effects of viewing may include desire to invade.) · 5:30pm Jul 2nd, 2023
The original deadline for the drive was midnight EDT on July 15th, and I'm sticking with that: we're still in Try To Buy Extra Time mode. (As of this posting, I would arrive sometime on September 19th, after Galacon -- and leave on September 27th.) So there's two weeks left, and... for the last six weeks, I've taken some evening time on every single night in the chat server. Talking about Sicily, and displaying some images. The things I remember, and the reasons I want to go back. To breathe real air one more time. And then I spam the Ko-Fi link, because that's how we try to make the local sausage.
It's been six weeks of such images, and one of the primary results has been that a couple of other people now want to go there. I don't blame them. If you know about Sicily, then you want to invade it. It's Europe's bicycle: everyone's taken a ride. If you want to formalize your existence as a nation, you send in troops. And it's one of the reasons why the culture is such a hodgepodge. Because every invader left behind pieces of their own lives, and everything got incorporated.
So with two weeks left on the drive, I thought I'd share some of what I've been displaying every night. Just to give you a taste, as the final push begins. And maybe you'll decide to go too. If so, I understand completely.
Leave the invasion equipment at home.
Before we start: upcoming circumstances mean I have to put up the Patreon link and hope to see at least one new sponsor this month. I'm also doing the Ko-Fi tip jar link again here, and one last time after the final picture goes up. Why? Because this is a drive which has two weeks left. And as I've proven a few times through received story comments, those links are invisible anyway.
Let's start with the visuals.
The Blue Grotto, in the rough vicinity of Taormina. There's a lot of little natural wonders around. Some of them are larger than others. One likes to explode. Much more than twice.
Taormina itself. One of the prime destinations.
Salt mine chapel, carved out by the miners. When you're underground, it helps to have prayer close by.
One of the Segesta temples. Extremely intact. There's a lot of temple tours on the island. Be careful about what you touch, please.
Trapani. Proof that American streets are boring.
Outdoor theater, Taormina. This is still being used. The city has a film festival, and someone brings in a screen.
Siracusa. (No Orangemen to be found.)
Prickly chestnut. I'll be a few weeks too early to get my feet speared and eat up some revenge.
Sicilian Wall Lizard in its most rare state: not wandering around your bedroom.
La Pescheria, in Catania. The fish will be fresh, and the haggling will be loud.
Sometimes Etna goes off.
Sometimes individual caldera go cold and life moves back in.
Resort in Nicolosi. My hometown.
From my postcard collection, purchased personally as a kid. (This is why I have a dropbox and #p-o-unboxing channel.)
Scala dei Turchi. Eat your heart out, Dover.
Cinema Paradiso, location shooting. (There's been a lot of movies filmed on the island.)
Alcantara Grotto. Yes, you are allowed to go down there. Carefully.
Just another natural fireworks night...
Etna Comics convention, where the turnout is once again making San Diego look like a piker.
*cue soundtrack music*
Palermo. The only capital city to look like a painted set backdrop.
Agrigento, within the city.
The Valley Of The Temples, just outside it.
Statue of Atlas, under restortation. It'll actually be standing and guarding a temple in a few months.
Tiberius Gorge. (KIRRRRRK!)
Alcantara again.
Luna's personal torment, aka 'opera house'.
Cart painting is Serious Business.
Native horse and donkey breeds.
From my own collection. It's a Jordan Almond bowl, given to wedding guests.
Opera Dei Pupi. Marionettes are very serious business. (Note skull cleave.)
My personal collection again.
Properly-served gelato.
Merry Christmas...
Little bit of biome.
Day Of The Dead decorations.
Church design may be the most Serious Business of all.
And lastly...
Sicilian MLP intro sequence.
Don't you wish we'd gotten this show?
The Sicily Ko-Drive drive has two weeks remaining.
But maybe now you'll want to go too.
It came up in a post on Quora.
The USA has stricter drinking laws than much of the world & worse mass transit.
In much of Europe the drinking is 18 (or even younger).
When I was young, SOME states had 18 for 3.2 proof beer. Ohio did & Pennsylvania didn't. You could tell where the state line was because there would be a drive through liquor place just over the line.
I spent 2 days and 3 nights on a layover in Sigonella as a young Navy brat. Mt Etna is scary, but everything is so beautiful! I miss the Mediterranean badly!
So many temples! A theatre that's still used? A statue of Atlas being put back on the statue?(that's bad archeology because we can't know for sure where it was placed so it changes how we see it, however the less research focused and more enchanted part of me loves it.) I want to go to Sicily! I don't have the money but I'd love to go