Carnival in Acireale

Tuesday March 5

I walked with Andre to the train station this morning for my morning walk.  It took about 45 minutes there and back.  Hope he has a great day.

Owner of the apartment came by this morning with a new bigger chopping board (others have been using her plastic placemats) and a new electric kettle.  Yesterday so much steam came out and the handle got so hot that Andre got a blister. 

Lunch time today and I timed how long it took me to walk around the entire outside of the island, 45 minutes.  It is a little quicker with Andre not along stopping to take pictures.

Lunch today I cleaned out a lot of the salad fixings that Andre got at the market on Monday.  Yesterday we bought fresh ricotta cheese at the large grocery store, yummy, will go back for more.

Finished work and did another 1 hour walk, found a good place to see sunsets.  Got slightly off track on the way home, but I can now pretty much figure out where I am when I pop out of a side street and see the water.  The light is beautiful at the Duomo right before sunset, will be sure to take Andre there to show him tomorrow.

Nancy, you can bring your board!  I saw 3 people out today, but it would have been tough against the wind.  It may be hard to carry all over Italy before you get here too

Yes I took a sunset shot for Andre

OK, 2 sunset shots

Andre is due home at about 8PM tonight.  Our propane stove does not work unless you use a lighter, I am not too fond of that so I think I will go pick up a pizza for supper that we can share when he gets home.  Pizza only takes 5 minutes to bake in the brick ovens here, the crusts are so thin, and so few toppings.  For 5 Euro it can’t be beat.  I am sure Andre will have a much longer day to fill in following my very short blog day. 

As Wendy said, we walked to the train station together. It is about a 20 minutes walk.

The train ride was 7.90 euro each way to Acireale where they are having a parade of floats. Nothing too exciting along the way there. There a refinery, one bay and some views of Mt Etna along the way.

Train was not very busy

From the train station is a bit over 1 km way to the old town where the parade is.

People in costume at the train station

On the way to old town

Painted Wagon, a Sicilian Tradition

No glass bottle for sale because of the carnivale

5  Euro to get in. I did not bring a lunch as I figured there would be food vendors selling lunch stuff. Wrong. I walk the parade route and did not find anything. So my lunch was peanut brittle 1 Euro, 1 arancini 1.20 Euro, 1 chocolate pistachio donut with a pistachio spread in the center 2.5 Euro and of course a pistachio gelato 2 Euro. Sorry no gelato picture!!

Lots of nuts (including roasted chestnut)vendors

Note from Wendy-I would have made my lunch right from this vendor :)

Bakery where I got my Arancini.

Arancini before it disappeared.  Yummy

My doughnut being filled with pistachio cream

Lots of people milling around, some in costumes. Lots of confetti being thrown around and crazy foam string being spayed.

They had floats of different sizes.  Some were partially made of flowers. The rest of the floats were paper mache.  they also had some that were just tabletop display.

The parade floats were hugh and amazing. Some of the characters had movement. Some had pieces that rose up as well.

There were dancers in costume in front of most floats as well.

I would say it would be even more interesting to watch at night.


The train ride home was long and we had to stop on the tracks because a train in front of us had a medical emergency. Ended up being 45 minutes late.  Got home just before 9 and we went to a sandwich shop that is very near us. It just opened (again) yesterday.  Decided just to have something at home instead. Salami , toast with honey and cheese.