Dive Into Sicily: Sensational

As Dave prepares for another Sicily tour I can’t help but be jealous.  Sicily is sensational.

Sicily is a new favourite spot to combine battlefield tours, spectacular feasts and unparalled cultural discoveries.  One of the highlights of our last visit there was discovering the UNESCO world site, Villa Romana del Casale, a 4AD Roman villa that has the world’s best examples of floor and wall mosaics.  It was one of those experiences when you travel where you are overwhelmed by both history and beauty in one experience.   

Then there are the endless meals of local, fresh and tasty seasonal meals. One memorable morning was my first experience drinking a granita for breakfast outside in the sun filled piazza in Siracusa; I chose almond but could have sampled pistachio, peach, fig or bergamot – a few tourists were about and a smattering of Siciilians dropped in for a breakfast expresso and quick chat with wait staff.  Travelling by car, you can see endless groves of oranges, olives and chestnuts that feature in the excellent meals that every restaurant serves.   Be sure to try the Lemoncello following at least one meal – a beautiful way to mark the end of el fresco dining in the warm evening air.

As we were staying in a coastal villa and could prepare meals, a visit to Siracusa’s seafood market was a loud and colourful experience.  It was hard to choose between shrimp and the fresh fish catch from the Mediterranean – so we came home with both.  A woman had purchased an octopus, so fresh, it was attempting to free itself from her shopping bag.

I recommend reading the history of the Hastings and Prince Edward County regiment, known as the Hasty Pee’s in Farley Mowat’s, 1955 non-fiction (part memoir/narrative) account, The Regiment, to know more about the local connections to Canada’s contributions at World War 2 sites.  Nothing beat spending the day touring Hasty P sites and then at the end of the day, throwing myself off the villa’s coastline of volcanic rocks into the warm, salty sea.  Sensational.

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Granita for breakfast

Floor and wall mosaics

Fish market, Siracusa

Fields of Fire Travel Client Anne Strickland's Posting: "Do His Bit"

Anne Strickland travelled with Fields of Fire Battlefield Tours during the Return to Vimy Tour 2017 with her husband, Roy.  She shared this note about her family history and her reason for travelling with us on the Return To Vimy 2017 commemorative tour. As Anne has included quotations directly from her uncle's correspondence - his voice travels through time from letters his family and school received while he was at the front. Thanks for sharing this part of your family history with us Anne.  Remembrance is personal.

HUGH GORDON MUNRO

DEC 30, 1896 - OCT 9, 1916

Corporal, 15Bn CEF

(48th Highlanders of Canada)

This memoriam is in gratitude to my uncle Hugh Gordon Munro and all those like him who did their bit.

While on tour, it was gratifying to see the Regina trench at the Battle of the Somme where Hugh Gordon Munro was injured.  I have a letter, the Nursing Sister who looked after Gordon for the two hours he was at the 49 Casualty Clearing BEF Station before he died, wrote to his mother.  In it she said “when I told him he was going to die, he said that he was not in the least afraid, and he had tried to do his bit.”  

I have a number of letters he wrote home from the front, among them, travelling by ship to England and also a letter outlining his furlough to London before going back to the front, prior to his death.  What a privilege to have them. They made him alive for me and so my trip to Vimy Ridge last year was not only to go with Roy, but as an act of memoriam for my Uncle, Hugh Gordon Munro.

While Gordon was over in France, the Oakville High School, sent him a book of pictures, stories and jokes, and I have sent you some of his words from the letter of thanks to the Staff and Pupils of the High School.

 …“I have just put in one of the most pleasant times I have had since I came to Northern France, thanks to the wonderful book you sent. The book arrived last night just at “tea up”.  Tea up is the way supper time is announced.”

“ That night I took it out to show a friend and in making the journey I foundered, in about two feet of mud and water, got hung up on barb-wire and fell off a ladder that had no rung in the middle of it.”

“Perhaps you do not get a good chance to hear about the life out here. I will try to tell you a few things that happen around the part we are in.  We landed in _______ almost 6 months ago and stayed there for a few days and then we took the train to the front.  At the station behind the lines we were excited to get out but then we heard the big guns, I got uneasy.  To make matters worse, we were asked by one of the Imperials (British Army) who we were.  We told him we were going to reinforce the Fifteenth Battalion Canadians.  He said Oh, I don’t think there are many Canadians left.  This cooled us down and I wished I had not been so anxious to see the front.”

 “But things were pretty quiet.  In the trenches you get to do sentry every day and night, and then, by the time you have cooked and slept, it does not take long for the time to pass. There is not much firing going on, but there is continual sniping going on, but it is not very dangerous to anyone. The trenches are 200 to 300 yards apart, although in places they are close as 25 to 30 yards apart.  We opened up a rapid on a German working party first night in.  It is good fun blazing away though.”

 “Rats and Mice are a great pest in your dug-out.  They run over you at night and steal your bread and so on.   I shot a great big one the other night [which] is probably about the best deed I’ve done for a few days.  We will be in the trenches for Christmas and New Years.  I intend to celebrate somehow and intend to sing the German National Anthem to see what happens.  I wish I had paid more attention in my French and German classes as the languages are useful over here…"

The Littliest Gunner: Meet Mason

When I heard that a five-year old was joining us on the Return to Vimy Tour, I was a little concerned.  Mason was travelling with his granddad, Len Seymour on one of the gunner buses.  I knew the pace and content of the trip was going to be very adult and perhaps a challenge for a young child to keep up with or to stay interested in.  By the end of the trip, Mason had taught me and the other very seasoned travelers a few things about how to handle the rigors of a 10-day battlefield tour.  Mason took every chance he could to enjoy himself and these are the traveler tips he modeled for all of us on the tour: sleep whenever and wherever you can to shake off jet lag, enjoy a hot drink at the gas bar stops; talk to as many people as you can; let tourists take your photo; dress well for all the special activities; always make use of your imagination at the museums and remember at the cemeteries.  Mason was a fine traveler and his happy disposition was infectious for the rest of us.  The trip was a multi-generational experience for both Len and Mason.

Len’s reflects: “The reason I did this trip, was really to honour my own grandfather as he arrived in France with his Unit in the Spring of 1915 and he didn’t return to Canada until the Spring of 1919 when his Regiment returned to Winnipeg and it demobilized. Even though he was a member of the 50th Gordon’s in Victoria, at mobilization he joined the 48th Reserve Battalion, and then when the 27th Battalion organized he trained with them, since he was originally from the Winnipeg Region and before that, a lumberjack on Vancouver Island.

Having a chance to honour my own grandfather at Vimy Ridge, alongside my own grandson was terrific. I was very young, when my grandfather passed away, and my greatest memory of him was listening to him amongst his friends at the Legion in Victoria after a Remembrance Day Parade, that my parents always took us to.  I recall a friend of my grandfather’s leaning close to me and telling me that he owed his life to my grandfather, as he saved his life during the First World War.”

Mason earned the title of the littliest gunner on the bus and the Best Traveler Award, a package of Canadian licorice presented on the last day, along with a round of hearty applause.

Sleep when you can.

Enjoy a hot drink when the bus stops.

Using my imagination on the German gun at Pegasus Museum, Benouville.

Mason ready with his granddad Len, for Menin Gate ceremony in Ypres, Belgium.

Meet as many people as you can.

Remember at the cemeteries; Beny-Sur-Mer, France.