Chapter 10: Exploring Caltagirone at Night

Me, Ture Lo Bianco, & the Wonky Eye Man

So Sunday night was one of the best nights that I have had in Sicily so far. Alessia and some of her friends surprised me with a tour of the old part of the city, where we don't often go because the local teens consider it boring. Ale, both Giulias', both Tures' (Salvatore), both Simos' (Simone, pronounced See-moh-nay), both Andreas', Matteo, Sara, Pepe, Marvin, Davide, and I climbed all 142 steps of the Staircase of Santa Maria del Monte (up and down), visited the piazza (square) and the villa (a beautiful garden, pond, and plaza with a gazebo in the middle), and hunted around the city for street art. 

First off, climbing those stairs was a work out! Each step is about 2 feet in length, so you practically have to lunge all the up. My thighs were still on fire all day Monday, haha, I should probably start going back to the gym again as soon as possible. Each stair has a different design on the "rise" (the front part of each step), so that makes for 142 different ceramic tile designs. Unfortunately I was too busy huffing and puffing my way up all the stairs to stop for any pictures, so I encourage EVERYONE to come visit this lovely city and see this magnificent staircase for themselves. 

One adorable little apartment in the old neighborhood

Along and at the top of this staircase is a beautiful, and very old neighborhood where all the street art can be found. This neighborhood was picture perfect and completely took my breath away. I'm pretty sure all my friends were teasing me a little bit because I was looking all around with my jaw nearly hitting the ground and commenting on every little apartment, staircase, alleyway, et cetera. 

This is probably my favorite piece of street art that we found.. It was spectacular and giant, it literally took up the entire side of an apartment from the ground all the way to the roof. I'm not sure why this piece caught my attention, but something about it really got me. I wish I was able to capture the whole mural, but unfortunately I wasn't able to.

This one is on the other side of the building that has the cool bearded face.. I can't help but to image how cool it would be living in one of these decorated houses. As far as I can tell all of these pieces were done in spray paint, which totally blows my mind considering all of the detail and shading. If you ever find yourself in Caltagirone, which I hope you do, I absolutely recommend hunting for all of these art pieces. They are truly amazing!! As I am sure you can tell. 

Ciao ciaoo. Until next week, dear readers. 

**If you are interested in seeing the rest of the pictures from my adventuring night, they are all on my Facebook page in the album "Exchange Year!!"**