This years holiday was taken on Sicily, an island of contrasting and sometimes starkly beautiful landcapes. Rich in culture, diverse in history, there was little wonder that we spent most of our stay photographing it. Here are a few images taken from a huge volume of work captured in both anaologue and digital mediums. We wish you enjoyable viewing.
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Shortly after arriving we decided to get our bearings by exploring the picturesque town of Taormina, our home for the next eight nights. During our walk we discovered an unoccupied building that was a nesting ground for dozens of Swallows.
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Taormina’s rooftops provided many opportunities for capturing abstract images, such as this ornate chimney.
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A steep twenty-minute walk above Taormina town can be found the church of Santuario Madonna della Rocca. Carved into a rocky precipice its atmospheric interior gave us a respite from soaring outside temperatures.
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One of the fine architectural examples to be found along the medieval street of Corso Umberto 1.
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A view of the ever-brooding Mount Etna taken from one of our rooms.
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Day three of our trip was spent exploring Etna’s northern slopes with a local geologist.
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This was the scene of the 2002 eruption that devastated large swathes of woodland on Etna’s northern flanks.
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Another view of the 2002 eruption site with Etna’s summit the background.
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Abstract painted blocks on the harbour of Giardini-Naxos.
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We visited the mountain village of Castelmola to find the lower slopes being ravaged by wildfire.
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While ash rained down on us from the wildfires we sought refuge in the centre of Castelmola. Somebody clearly had an artistic and humorous streak as this prickly pear shows.
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Meanwhile back out on Castelmola’s perimeter the fire was raging completely out of control consuming everything in its path.
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In an effort to bring the situation under control a fire fighting aircraft arrived dumping large volumes of seawater around habited areas.
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This image shows some pretty impressive flying, even though it looks like it’s slamming into the ground! The pilot has to drop the aircraft sharply over the ridge in order to dump water on the approaching flames.
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Ok, so it’s in every holiday brochure featuring Sicily but we couldn’t resist including our own image of Taormina’s Greek theatre :)
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Continuing the postcard theme we’ve included a general shot of Taormina taken from its Greek theatre.
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An evening walk up the hillside behind Taormina gave us an inspiring view of the ancient theatre.
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No holiday would be complete without feeding the local stray cat population!
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Our travels took us across to the Aeolian Islands on a trip to Stromboli. Before we arrived here we docked at the pretty island of Panarea. The architecture here was very reminiscent of that found on the Greek Cycladic islands.
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After docking at Stromboli we stopped for a drink with the volcano towering behind us. Due to the mountain erupting the upper slopes were closed.
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As the sun set the wind dropped as we approached the tiny Isola di Strombolicchio.
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After slingshotting around the tiny island we photographed a blood red sun dipping below the watery horizon… the end of another baking hot day!
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As the boat approached Stromboli’s western flanks we were greeted by this vision of hell. The lava spilled out of the crater and rolled down the slope exploding on impact into the sea. Truly an awesome sight.
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Eroded basalt columns found in the Alacantra Gorge.
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A gentle view looking up the valley towards Francavila di Sicilia from our car park.
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Another example of a terrifying forest fire raging above the village of Gaggi, it burned through the night and the smouldering embers could still be seen next evening.
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We cooked our evening meal while this fire raged. Here it looked more like a volcano than a wildfire. Far more exciting (and scary) than watching TV with your tea on your knee!
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Castiglione di Sicilia on a particularly wet and windy morning.
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The weather did clear but was very unsettled as this view across the valley shows.
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An aerial view of the picturesque medieval village of Motta Camastra, used during the filming of some scenes from the Godfather.
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What can you say?
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A journey south took us to the city of Siracusa, this house stood above the ancient Greek theatre.
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A general shot of Sircusa’s Greek theatre carved out of the hillside.
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Inside the ear of Dionysius. Stories say that the tyrant used the acoustics of this man-made cave to eavesdrop on the conversations of prisoners held here.
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One of several fountains to be found in the old town of Ortygia.
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An impressive church on the Piazza del Duomo, Ortygia.
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Our second trip up Mount Etna took us up the southern slopes. The objective of this trip was to photograph the summit craters. At around 9000ft the landscape turned to ash contrasting harshly with sky and cloud.
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We began the gruelling walk towards the top of Etna. By now we had noticed some difficulty breathing due to the higher altitude. This combined with the constantly shifting ash beneath our feet made the ascent very difficult.
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We approached one of the active craters near the summit; this was as far as visitors were permitted. The temperature at this altitude, nearly 10,000ft, was bone chillingly cold.
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We were here!
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One of the spectacular mosaics at Villa Romana del Casale; a UNESCO World Heritage site opened to the public in 2013 after many years of restoration.
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One of the more interesting mosaics we found at the Villa Romana del Casale!
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Our final day allowed sufficient time to explore the upper reaches of the Alacantra Gorge. The rocks were deadly slippery, as Steven found out!