Lisa Samson

26th May, 2026

We recently went to Sicily and we enjoyed the scents of the flora, which is much further ahead; for example, we went in early May and the honeysuckle was flowering, which it doesn’t here until the height of summer. The colours were more vibrant and there were lots of flowers that we don’t have, like Bougainvillea.

What we didn’t enjoy was trying to get around, because the kerbs tend to be really high, not ideal for someone mobility impaired. The narrowness of pavements, and the hordes of people, meant you often had to walk in the road. Since they are often historic, there’s not much to be done about them; most ‘centro storico’ are cobbled. When it rained, as it did once, it was shiny and slippy, again not perfect. The highlight of the holiday was the boat trip round the nearby coves and visiting nearby Taormina.

Italy and Spain tend to have similar architectural aesthetics, and I remember my grandma having to cut short a holiday in Spain because she broke her leg on a high kerb. That was in the seventies though. Large cities in Italy tend to make allowances by having ramps and it is recommended that ‘the mobility impaired’ rent a foldable mobility scooter which is not always affordable.