June 7
We left Catania early, around 8am to get to Taormina before the hoards of tourists arrived and to, hopefully, find parking. We’ll we succeeded on the 2nd goal as we found a lot on the north end of the town. Of course, we had to drive through town to get to it, but we had an easy trip out at the end of our visit.
As for beating the hoards of tourists, not so much. We passed bus parking lots that already had quite a few busses parked. Once we started walking along the streets, we saw at least a dozen tour groups following the flag (the kind of tour I hate). There were a lot of people in Noto yesterday but nothing like this. We hadn’t seen this many people in one place since we left Rome.
But, with no choice other than to join the hoards, we wandered the streets of this beautiful town. It’s filled with narrow streets lined with shops, bars and family run restaurants. Of course, we had to stop at one of the latter for our daily granite and cannoli. Since both of those delicious treats are specialties of Sicily, they may be our last. We can get them on the mainland but I’m not sure they’ll be as good.
After snacks we headed to the Greek Theater. While it’s built in the Greek style, the brick used comes from the Roman period. It was built in the 3rd century BC. Like the one we saw yesterday in Siracusa, it is still used for events.
Here’s a video I took. https://youtu.be/Njo1l10j3EA
Here are a few pics from around town.
After walking around for a couple of hours, we took the funicular down the mountain and had lunch by the beach.
After a couple more hours at the beach we headed back for the car for the short trip (less than an hour) to Messina. On the way we decided to stop for Peter to put his feet in the Ionian Sea. We walked on the beach after lunch but we’re back to rocky beaches (versus the sand beaches of the Med coast) and his reef booties were in the car. So, we stopped in Roccolumera and went to the shore. He got into the water up to his ankles and that was enough. It was cold and got deep very quickly. Since he was in shorts, not swim trunks, he decided ankle deep was enough.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my trip back to Sicily. The drivers are still crazy, and the roads are still lined with garbage. But it’s a beautiful island (if you ignore the garbage) and the people are so friendly. Yes, the base was totally different, and I couldn’t find my apartment (I think they may have added a gate to the entrance which meant I couldn’t see the building) but it was still fun to revisit all the places I remembered.
We’re spending tonight in Messina at the same hotel we stayed at when we first arrived in Sicily last Wednesday. We’ll catch an early morning ferry tomorrow and head to the heel of the boot. I’m very excited as I’ve not visited that part of the country before so it will be a new adventure.