Sicilian Interlude

If you stay in one place long enough, the world will pass by. What better place to sit, on a baking hot July afternoon in Taormina than a shady bench in the Public Garden, with a view of the bay of Giardini Naxos?

In the foreground is a drinking fountain which attracts a varied clientele that provides ample entertainment for the lazy onlooker.

The first visitor is a black cat, which uses the stepping stone as a jumping-off point for a leap into the fountain bowl and proceeds to satisfy its thirst at leisure. 

Next is a family with boisterous young boys.  They make the happy discovery that by pressing down on the fountain source with a thumb they can create a water jet with which to soak their brothers, and anyone else who gets in the way. 

A gaggle of teenagers cool off by dipping their foreheads in the fountain. A passing tourist goes one better by soaking his New York Yankees baseball cap in the water, before putting it back on his head.

A grey tabby cat joins me at the bench.  After a thorough scratch, it finds a piece of dry bread crust, which it crunches noisily, before taking up position in the shade of a bush, ready to pounce on an unsuspecting lizard.

Back at the fountain, a young couple employ the spray technique, but without malice, in order to cool each other off.

At last, an elderly couple come to the fountain to drink.

Travel Writing Competitions again

The results of the 2015 Independent on Sunday/Bradt Travel Guides travel-writing competition are now out.

Reading about the award ceremony reminded me of the night seven years ago now when I went along with Neil, and found out that his entry on Berlin had won the best 'unpublished' writer category.  One of the other winners or guests who had slightly overdone it on the hospitality stumbled into me, so that in turn I nearly sent the Managing Director of Bradt flying.

You can read this year's winning entries on the Bradt site.