Number 32: Drinking the third best water in the World and curious Sicilian villages

I so enjoy not knowing where this blog is going to take me this year, but today made me smile when Fred and I arrived at the Saracen Fountain in Geraci Siculo, and we read that an American Laboratory has declared the water to be the third best in the world - makes me want to find number 1 and 2, but I am not going down that rabbit hole!

Number 32:

Drinking the third best water in the World and curious Sicilian villages.

One of the enduring pleasures of walking is water and Fred carries many litres for us, so it was such a treat to stop at the Saracen fountain, to drink deeply from the fast flowing, ice-cold water and to fill all our bottles for tomorrow's hiking. The fountain is at the base of Geraci Siculo, our destination on day 2 of our hiking.

Saracen Fountain, Geraci Siculo

Geraci Siculo, in the distance, seen from our walk, what looks like rock
is the town.

The towns in this central mountainous area of Sicily cling to mountain tops, the houses spilling down the steep slopes and they have histories dating back to prehistoric times, Greeks settled here in 550 BC, then Romans, then Saracens, then Arabs, then Normans and so on until the feudal era in the eighteen hundreds. 

And now their story is one of decline!

Our guide book quotes General George Patton in 1943, as having said that Gangi, one of these remarkable hill towns, was 'the most curious village that I have ever seen'. 

A favorite moment on the hike, been watched by Sicilian goats.

I rather agree, having stayed in Enna, hiked up into Gangi and now into Geraci Siculo to our Casa Albergo Maggio with its awesome views, these villages are curious indeed.

Number 31: Hiking among the wild flowers of central Sicily

This holiday, Spring in Europe, was centered around hiking in Sicily, doing the ATG Oxford 'Centre to Sea' walk over 7 days from Enna to Cefalu. And here we are, the four of us, Bruce and Cathy having arrived from Malta, ready to start, on a beautiful clear spring day.

Number 31:
Hiking among the wild flowers of Sicily

The flowers did not disappoint! They were a joy, fields of flowers dotted among the agricultural fields. 

We saw no people on the paths, except for a few farmers, what a privilege in the busy, chaotic world we all live in.

A perfect May day among the spring flowers in Sicily.

The 25 km challenged us but we loved it all. Roman cobbled ancient roads, farm tracks, dirt tracks, off road stream crossings, rocky tracks, concrete tracks, sometimes gentle and quite often very steep gradients, up and down. Cathy was fantastic, this being her first long day of hiking. 

At times we got lost in the books trying to figure out the route!

And we wake up today, ready to go again from our lovely rural accommodation -  an 18th C house called Villa Raino, where we were fed layers and layers of delicious Sicilian family food and litres of the house red wine. 

The scenery along our hike between Villadoro and Gangi.