Rubbish roads and a warm welcome

It's been a slow start to our trip: a long drive and various days of sorting things out, punctuated by the odd glimmer of exploration and fun (and great food). The weather hasn't helped: the sun was out in the Alps, then started promising spring in Florence, but got decidedly worse after that; and Sicily has been pretty rainy so far. But today, we woke up with a view of trees and sea in the sunshine. And we decided to leave our remaining technical problems to be solved another day. We were off!

The choice was simple: from this NE corner it was either west or south. On the basis that southwards included Etna, and we'd lured Jemima to Sicily on the promise of a volcano, we headed there. Sicily is blessed with beautiful scenery, but scarred by awful roads: plentiful potholes and bumps that build to give me a headache, and make Kevin grumpy. "They ought to be ashamed! This is the worst road I've ever driven on!"

This was compounded by us trying to park near Taormina: a hillside town with tiny switchback roads and a park and ride system that promises a place for motorhomes, somewhere, but we couldn't find it. Some frustrated circling/ turning/ reversing later, we reverted to Plan B, and retreated to a nearby campsite.

This turned out to be an excellent idea. It was full of Italians barbecuing, with more motorhomes arriving every minute: we had happened upon an Easter getaway site. And it was great: kids running around; people eating and drinking and gesticulating; the most friendly welcome we've ever had, and a pitch overlooking the bay. Beautiful.

A restful afternoon; then pizza delivery to the campsite (so inferior to our neighbours' barbecued prawns, pork, artichokes and peppers, but never mind, it worked for us). And then then the big event: we'd been warned at arrival that there was going to be music tonight - Saturday night of Easter weekend and all. Far from being concerned, we warmed up for it with family dancing to Stevie Wonder in the van. Then we hit the disco.

It was still early, so it was mainly kiddies (one of whom, it turned out, rather impressively, was the DJ at this stage of the evening). But this was perfect for Jemima who cavorted around the dance floor with glee, exclaiming, "the children! The children!". Over time, as their festive dinners finished, more revellers arrived. And then we experienced a disco Italian style. Kevin said, "it's like the Macarena", as the whole dance floor, in a circle, performed the same routine. And then they did it again (although a different routine) to the next song. Slightly weird to start with, but they - old men, mums, twenty year olds and tweenagers - were all loving it, so it was actually lots of fun to watch. Then the music returned to normal (cheesy disco), so Jemima and I danced, Kevin and I danced, we all danced together, and Jemima danced with her new Italian friends.

And then the climax to the evening: we had been promised 'entertainment', but no clue of what. And it turned out to be a woman in a space Valkyrie outfit that lit up, doing tricks with various lit up things: hula hoops, fan shapes, balls with scarves attached. It was great, really visually impressive, and she even said "Buona Pasqua" (Happy Easter) and "Grazie" in the air with whirling lit up batons at the end.

By this time I had thoroughly enjoyed my €2 a glass local red wine, and Jemima was flaking, so we headed home, to sleep to the strains of the Grease mega mix and Rhythm is a Dancer floating across Sicily's Ionian coast. Brilliant.

Milazzo to Sant'Alessio Siculo: