Caltagirone

Day 4: up at 4.45am for the taxi to the boat. The boys wake up in the taxi and are excited. It's a big boat, and we play lego on the table between our 4 chairs.

Pozzallo is a tiny port town. The decrepit semi abandoned train station has a rusted vandalised ticket machine and weeds grow between the tracks. Across the road is some empty brewery with the roof caved in.

The train is on time. The guard asks where our tickets are, and does not seem happy with our answer. At Modica, the guard indicates, and I jump off to get some tickets, easy. The views are fantastic in these hills. Ragusa is a spectacular setting up on a hill. But it's far from the station, with kids and heavy bags at least. Luckily Europcar lets us leave our bags in the car we'll pick up later. In  Ragusa we wonder why the fuss about it. I think we missed something.

Arriving in Caltagirone at night, this place is awesomely Sicilian with it's super dark narrow streets. We get lost, driving past the top at the bottom of the famous staircase. The B&B is up 6 flights of stairs, in a sensational location, with a sensational view over town.

Day 5: breakfast in on the roof. We can clearly see Mount Etna puffing, 100k's away. All the rooftops are old style tiles. There are at least 4 to 5 bell towers, 3 ringing.

We drive to Piazza Armerina, which is a ghost town waiting to be eaten by weeds. Nearby, Villa Romana was a hunting lodge for a roman emperor. It's a 40 rooms are palacial. There are amazing mosaics in every room, colourfully painted walls and one piece marble columns, with the curly Greek tops. The slope of the floors and the drains show that several of the rooms were heated pools/spas. It must have been just amazing when new.