Coldplay concert - 29th of August

AWESOME!!! We had purchased tickets for Coldplay waaay back before Christmas and FINALLY we were able to go!! :-) The open air concert turned out to be artistic, bright, colorful and with the perfect clear sky, cool air and even the moon sheepishly gazing down at all the thousands of people. It couldn't have been better. From giant yellow balloons "dancing" over the crowd, millions of paper butterflies shot out of confetti canons, and free CD's being handed out at the end of the concert it really was an unforgettable show!!!!

The best of the night was a tribute played to Michael Jackson:"Billy Jean". We just found out that it would have been his birthday yesterday...

The guy next to us took this youtube video of them playing the song on one of the two small stages in the crowd. We were quite far from the main stage, but they played on this little stage right behind us, which put us right next to them. (If you listen closely you can hear me scream in the crowd!...:-)

Coldplay in Munich playing "Billy Jean"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKZX68x85XQ

Other Youtube videos:

Lovers in Japan: (Paper butterflies coming down!!!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27E835TZrXM

Strawberry Swing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhBtTutAzns

Last night in Sicily, dinner with friends

Our last evening in Sicily, we spent with some of Carlo's closest friends at a local restaurant. It was fitted with the name "Tischi Toschi", which is somewhat peculiar...but as it turns out this is what the people from Messina are called that go off to the north of Italy only to return with a "northern Italian" accent. :-)

The restaurant served typical Sicilian cuisine with a slight twist. (Pasta with eggplants, pasta with "Bottarga" (dried fish eggs), Backala, different dishes with meat and wild fennel, wonderful desserts and great olives and bread...



O.k. - believe it or not these pictures were taken BEFORE dinner! :-) The camera was doing some funky things as we had set it on self-timer. It kept taking one picture after another without stopping!!!

A few mor tries...

Tato, Natasha, Antonio V., Renato, Mimmo, Ines Carlo

A shot in the foot! Literally! Haha!

A few more... finally Mimmo is sent on the way to see what's wrong...

Thanks to photographer extraordinaire-Mimmo-we were able to stop the constant flashing!
Now, we were actually able to go inside and start our dinner!

DINNER:




Good friends, sicilian red wine, pasta, fish and dessert....can life get any better?

Some fun closeups of dinner...The food was waaay too good to even attempt posing for a picture!

The lovely Natasha.

Mimmo meditating....

The crema catalan was without words. For once, Marcello was speechless! :-)

Trying some of the dessert... serious business...for sure!



Antonio's frozen berry desert was also too good to pass up...

Renato saw it all pretty mellow...


Oh lala!!!

Tato & Natasha in "Tischi Toschi" heaven...


Yes, really, just married!


Good Bye!!!

P.S. the pages of the book, which the restaurant displayed outside their door, showed the area where we had all spent the day on the boat... We will be back!

Villa Giulia, Marzamemi, Sicily roadtrip

Our second night we stayed near the town of Marzamemi in an old converted farm named "Villa Giulia". Originally, the old villa was born as a country residence and produced wine made from the vineyards in San Lorenzo. We received a room at the very end of the estate with walls as thick as what fortresses must have used! The a/c worked and we actually just dropped our stuff at the hotel and drove to the coast. We hiked to a LOVELY cove in a state natural area. Unfortunately we did not remember to bring the camera. Will try to find a pic online. Water sooo clear and sand so soft. It was a great beach. Well worth the 1 or 2 km hike in.

Here a few pics taken from their website, as we didn't take any pictures...

Marzamemi: This is exactly where had dinner! Could have been taken from our table. It was lovely! So rustic and romantic. That night the square was taken up with chairs and a giant movie projector and screen as the town celebrated a film festival!

Villa Guilia:

Villa Giulia: We loved the wooden beams on the ceiling!

Coastline next day on the way north to Siracusa...

This was something famous in our tour guide book... it escapes me what it is...will have to look it up. Location could not have been better. :-)

Clear water! Soooo refreshing! We wanted to jump in, but then would not have had a chance to rinse off the salt all day...so on we went...

Southern tip of Sicily, still on roadtrip...

Finally, in the afternoon on the second day, we arrived at the harbor, which lay utterly deserted with a few people fishing in between the boats. It was a long and dusty trail... with miles and miles of tomato fields and the greenhouses they grow in-which supply most of northern Europe with Tomatoes early in the season. It is the first place that will sell and ship tomatoes in the year.
The town known for all the tomato mayhem is called "Pachino". So "Pachino Tomatoes" are actually famous in the tomato world... anyhow. It wasn't as spectacular as thought but we were glad to have reached the coast and our hotel near the town of Marzamemi.

Tomato fields as far as the eye can see!

Driving down a "closed" road... the oleander trees looked like they were covered in snow with their bright red blossoms peaking through like christmas decorations! The dust was too much, otherwise I would have loved to have gotten a close up...

Boats on the horizon! Harbor of Pachino.

Very strange looking vessels! Painted with lions and arabic writing...

Pit stop in Modica, Sicily

Modica was really supposed to be the highlight of our day, but we were just too beat from a night of little sleep due to a broken A/C unit at the hotel in Noto that we only passed through Modica with a few snapshots and a good idea of what the town must hold to discover. I believe it was 4 or 5 pm in the afternoon and we couldn't wait to go on to the southern tip and then to the coast!!! Andiamo avanti!

O.K. not the best time for picture taking... but then I discovered the capers growing right below the bannister!
View across Modica, which is supposedly known for its excellent chocolate...

I guess we'll sample it next time... :-)

Typical guy on his Vespa...

And another beautiful example of sicilian baroque churches!

Notice again the lack of people! They were all a lot smarter than us... relaxing somewhere in the shade with a cool cup of gelato... instead of trying to be a tourist!

Hybla, Ragusa old town, Sicily Roadtrip

On our way to Modica we stopped int the old town of ancient Ragusa. Hybla is a town perched on a high cliff with all houses huddled together in the typical building style of many southern, ancient towns. It was soooo unbelievably hot and we dragged ourselves up main street to the giant church, nourished our parched throats with cool ice cream and after a short stroll throught the city park we set off again. It was scorching... eh.. notice the lack of people in all the shots! Obviously we were the only ones crazy enough to go traipsing around in the middle of the day...

Ohhh the cheeses and salumis in the region are out of this world! Sadly the salumeria was closed when we passed by...

Beautifully restored baroque balconies!

The view looking up and then down... don't know which picture is more interesting???

Loved the shadows!

This garden with several churches and fountains was just an oasis of loveliness amidst all the dry, hot surroundings!




O.K... we thought we would have to cross this gigantic bridge! Since we were traveling sans a navigation system, we relied on the directional signs by the roadside - and thank goodness they spared us the traversing and the sweaty palms, which we would have surely endured... Carlo and I are both NOT fond of heights!