Sicilian diary extracts.....

Porto Emperdocle. The place where the ferries leave for islands South of sicily such as Lampedusa. We drove through the port area to get to Scala del Turchi. On the landward wharf, an enormous, and I mean enormous as in combine a few of the Heathrow airplane hangers together kind of enormous, energy from waste plant is to be found. Two 90m high or so red and white stripped chimneys allow smoke to vent into the atmosphere. Across the road, port wall and local road is a hillside. On the lower slopes of this hillside are blocks of tenement style flats. Lots of them. Since the winds blow onshore most mornings here, I wonder how the authorities allowed an incinerator plant to be built 60m from residential areas because any chimney toxins must be blowing directly onto those flats for some parts of each day! Or maybe I am missing something?

Italians love their elevated roads. They snake sinuously up the sides of steep hillsides on massive beams or high pillars. Covered with rockfall road warning signs, they do seem to be a contradiction in a country that suffers earthquakes.