Sicily Oct 8 Blog
October 09, 2017 at 1:57 AM
October 08, 2017
A day of remembrance & arrival in Siracusa
What an emotional day ... we left Palermo early this morning and traveled through the interior of Sicily to reach Siracusa. Enroute today we stopped at the mountain top village of Agira. Close to the village is the WWII Canadian cemetery where we visited for a special ceremony arranged by the local council in Agira. Before we departed from Canada one of our guests Carol Brown from Ottawa, Ontario called and told me her uncle was buried in a Canadian war cemetery close to our route to Siracusa and asked if we could arrange a visit to her uncles grave, who lost his life defending Sicily during the war.
When we contacted the local council they said they would like to arrange a greeting committee and ceremony to honour her visit and her fallen uncle. When we arrived at the cemetery we were greeted by the mayor and other local officials. They walked with Carol to the monument and placed a wreath in his hounour. It was a very emotional moment for all the group and we were all honoured to be able to share it with Carol. No better weekend to celebrate his life than our Canadian Thanksgiving. There are 490 Canadian soldiers buried at the cemetery. It was a moment I’ll never forget. The local council then invited us to their village to join in the weekend local celebration that was being held in the town square. We all had a great time. What a day of memories.
We are now in Siracusa, Sicily staying at a harbour front hotel. Tomorrow we start our day with a photo walk of Siracusa and then in the afternoon a visit to a local vineyard for lunch and wine tasting. Enjoy todays selection of images from our Sicily journey and thanks to many Canadian hero’s we will never forget.
Please click on the link below to see todays gallery of Sicily images.
http://phototourtrekkers.zenfolio.com/sicily4