The free state of Danzig, now part of Pomerania in Poland, was an unsuccessful product of the 1919 Versailles Treaty that produced a state that was half German, half Polish, with a population mostly German. World War 2 started here when the Nazis attacked Danzig at dawn on 1 September 1939. At the end of the war what was left of the German presence was erased, leaving post-war Gdansk.

Square in old town, Gdansk

Not a church! Once the Rathaus, now the Ratusz.

A grand entrance to the old town from the canals at the old port.

Old port, with amazing tourist boat which sails without sail.

Mediaeval Crane, with a lower jib (hidden) for loading ships, and an upper jib for erecting masts. Destroyed in WW2, but carefully rebuilt after.

Nuremburg: a nice surprise. A centre of transport and manufacturing that was destroyed in WW2; much of its history has been carefully rebuilt since. Many of the towers around the edge of the old city survived more or less intact, along with the church spires.

Pegnitz River flows through the old town.

Looking past a tower along the city walls toward the Mediaeval castle.

View over the city from the Castle, one of the fortresses of the Holy Roman Empire.

Another tower in the castle grounds.

St. Lorenz Cathedral in the old city. The spires survived WW2, while the nave was destroyed.

Inside St Lorenz Cathedral, showing the arched roof that was completely rebuilt in the 1950s.

Nice day for altstadt viewing.

Between Bologna and Innsbruck, on a train to Munich. The scenic railway that climbs to the top of the Brenner pass is to be replaced by a 55km long tunnel, which is not scenic at all.

The Alto Adige on the Italian side.

Top of the Brenner pass, snow and cloud.

Brenner rail station, a Customs point, with Austria in background.

The Brenner autobahn/autostrada was the first over the Alps, opened from 1963.

Winding down the steep mountain on the Austrian side.

We just had to return to the coolest city in Italy!

Street of restaurants. On Sunday, all bologna eats lunch.

Happy camper practicing Mona Lisa smiles while waiting for lunch.

On Sundays the colonnaded main streets are car-free. Those colonnades were handy when it rained!

Statue of Poseidon, which was covered in scaffolding last time we visited.

One of the lesser mediaeval towers. There are many of them in addition to the ‘big two’.

Messina in Sicily is just a couple of miles from Villa San Giovanni on the coast. Ferries ply the passage, carrying cars, trucks and trains. The trains have to be split into pieces to fit onto the ferries, meaning a lot of shunting and a couple of hours.

Leaving Messina and Sicily

At the mouth of Messina’s harbour stands ‘Madonna dei traghetti del treno’, meaning Madonna of the Train Ferries.

Our train in two pieces. There are extra tracks for freight trains.

You didn’t have to ride upstairs.

After the train ferry, an epic ride to Bologna, changing trains at the godforsaken Napoli Centrale. Late arrival gave seven minutes to run from the rear of one train to the front of the next, several platforms away. The train left 10 minutes late, of course, as the locals took their time.

‘Cameriere, un prosecco per favore!’

On the north side of Mt Etna lies Randazzo, ‘the black town’, so named because of the black lava stone used in many public buildings. A contrast to the white town of Alberobello.

Black lava church of Santa Maria in Randazzo.

Looking over one of the old town gates toward Mount Etna

This derelict building was a nunnery. After that it was a distillery.

The northern slopes of Mount Etna is a big wine growing area.

Anti Mafia graffiti in Randazzo.

We caught the Circumetnea railway which winds around the sides of Mount Etna, from Catania to Randazzo, then on to the coast at Riposto the next day.

No doubt it would be spectacular if it wasn’t so smoky.

Smoky view from the lower slopes of Mt Etna.

The close-up view of a lava flow is clearly enthralling.

Italian rail motor to Riposto

Mount Etna chuffing smoke at sunset, seen from Riposto on the Sicilian coast. The volcano is usually active.

Excellent place to stay in an apartment. We looked over this. Behind the boats is the tourist corral of Ortygia.

Syracuse has an open air ruins complex with Greek and Roman bits. There are huge ancient quarries where marble was dug to build temples.

Ancient quarries, where they dug into the side for the good bits.

Orecchio di Dionisio is a famous cave, man made by quarry diggers, whose name means Dionysius’ ear. You will see that they thought he was a large dude, and they did a lot of digging to get the quarry, and gallery, this deep.

Dionysius’ ear

In his ear

Roman amphitheatre at the museum site. There is an earlier and larger greek amphitheatre, but that was a construction site for a concert.

Roman Temple

Siracuse also has a museum of ancient things, where far too many items are catalogued in excruciating detail. After two hours, or maybe three, we ran screaming for the Pasticceria.

Siracusa (Syracuse) sits in the south east corner of Sicily. The port is sheltered by the small island of Ortygia, whose function in modern times is to provide a corral for tourists. Ancient temples jostle with narrow streets and ocean promenades. Founded in 734 BC by Ancient Corinthians on holiday, Syracusa was as big as Athens in the fifth century BC.

Temple of something or other, built in sometime BC.

Narrow streets of Ortigia follow a grid pattern laid out by ancient Greeks

Street garden in Ortigia.

Ancient tourists eat lunch. Nice view of the cathedral opposite.

Inside the unusual Cathedral, where ancient columns are reused.

The cathedral flanked by fine Municipal buildings.

Ortygia faces the Ionian Sea.