Sicily

Sicily ... where to even start? It was buzzy, scrappy, dilapidated, fascinating and ridiculously friendly.

I went on an organized photography trip which was incredibly disappointing in some ways (esp. around accommodation), but I don't plan to winge about those here. 

Palermo:

I arrived a couple of days before meeting up with the group and had some time to chill out and explore on my own. I tried to do stuff I knew I wouldn't do with the group including visiting the botanic gardens and the stunning Palazzo Butera, an 18th century palazzo creatively converted into a contemporary art gallery. I'd expected to spend maybe half an hour looking round and ended up mooching around for a whole morning!

Once I'd met up with the rest of the group - 5 of us plus the tutor/group leader, Christian - we switched into photography mode, exploring the city's markets and back streets, and establishing our photographic aims for the week. Having arrived with really nothing specific in mind, I came up with the idea of trying to get some slightly more abstract shots that weren't just typical holiday photos. What I ended up with wasn't quite as abstract as I'd originally had in mind, but just what I was drawn to. I'll put my final selection at the end of the post, but here's a few general Palermo shots, mainly from the market ...

 

 

Cefalù:

After a couple of nights in Palermo, we all headed off in a minibus to the pretty coastal tourist town of Cefalù (on the north coast). Our assignment for the morning was to shoot a triptych of images. I was immediately struck by the commercialization of the tourist industry there so my three chosen photos reflected that.

 

 

 

Ortigia:

Then we had a long drive down to Ortiga, a tiny island on the east coast linked to Syracuse by a bridge, and our base for the next couple of nights. 

Catania:

Up early the next morning, we drove an hour north to the city of Catania for another market, this time an early-morning fish market, where I got a bit of a thing with people's hands (another one in the final cut below).

 

 

 

 

Mount Etna:

The plan was then to drive up Mount Etna in the afternoon. We got part of the way up though and found the roads were all closed for some kind of car rally. Cue a massive detour to the other side of the mountain using Google maps that took our minibus down some bumpy narrow mountain roads and tracks, until we finally picked up the other main route heading up. Heroic driving by Christian! We got up to the cable car station that usually takes you up the last stretch to the top, but the cable car was closed for maintenance. There were alternative 4X4 buses that took you part of the way up, although not to the top.

By this point, we didn't have a huge amount of time and were  too tired to do much in the way of proper photography, but it was still an amazing place to experience. We'd gone through thick cloud on the way up and were wary whether there'd be anything to see, but thankfully, we popped out above the cloud to blue skies. It's a weird black volcanic landscape scattered with patches of snow, some of it still white, much of it flecked with black dust, and the peak of the volcano just visible in the distance. Worth the schlep, I think, even though what should have been a day with about 4 hours' driving turned out to be more like 6 or 7!

Briony, Jess & Laura

Me taken by Jess

Back just in time for dinner, we made a group decision to skip the next day's planned schedule (lots more driving!) and just spend what time we had left hanging out in Ortigia and reviewing our photos from the week with Christian.  Here's my final selection for the week's 'assignment' - the group agreed the one with the books was "very me"!

 

 

Words of the week: sneaky and wonky
 

People moments of the week: a lovely group who managed to stay cheerful and positive despite hassles and setbacks, a chat with an old guy running an amazing second-hand book place in Palermo (see image above), and the friendliest car park attendants ever in Cefalù! I'm not normally one to gush about friendly locals, but the Sicilians were just unfailingly friendly and helpful in a totally unaffected way.

 

Dinner on our final evening