An interesting travel day - I entered the country without registering!

 It seems like forever since we have been traveling and it’s exhausting!!

We left the house a wee bit earlier than we would have to but that’s so DH could visit his beloved fancy lounge at the airport. We needed to eat before the flight so I was OK with that. I love this large black sculpture at the airport and as you walk through it has a very cool echo, which sounds great when you say ROME as you walk through! 

The black echo sculpture at the airport

And YES - I am wearing pink for travel!! It’s not that pink is my favourite color to wear, but it just so happens that the fleece that I bought for travel several years ago was pink! I’m not buying a new one. 

M and Dillon were flying in from Vancouver, so we met up and got to our next flight. They had a bite to eat before they got on the plane. It’s just so weird to meet them like that. I mean we knew they were coming, but just weird to meet them at the airport and then get on another flight together.

Hmmmm —- so I’m on my iPad at the Airbnb and I did forward pictures to myself, but then realized that I don’t need to do that because through Google I have access to everything on my phone. It’s all a learning experience! But it is nicer to use the larger screen and keyboard, and since I’m not carrying a lot, I guess it all worked out OK. 

Here I am in my seat and yes we had a bit of extra leg room on the flight. I’m OK with that. My hair looks a mess and we haven’t even gone anywhere. 

Settling in for a very long flight

We could see lots of thunder type clouds as we drove to the airport. I am not a fan of turbulence and was expecting a bumpy ride. There was turbulence when we took off, but nothing much. However, we were somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean and I had been sound asleep when we got turbulence. And while it wasn’t severe, it was bad enough that I couldn’t sleep. ACK!!! And there is nothing you can do, but hope there are no major air pockets. 

Eventually I went back to sleep - whether from exhaustion or from being rocked to sleep by the turbulence. 

And then we were in the Rome airport! Yeah!!!! 

Rubber duckies in Rome

Rubber duckies of every imagine able size and color. Rubber duckies are NOT on our radar screen so we did not buy one. But what an airport. They must have a store for every high end fashion brand. And the airport is huge - I would have expected nothing less since I believe it is the busiest or one of the busiest airports in Europe. 

We had to go through passport control, but before that we need to register - fingerprints and photos. That didn’t take long, except I failed! The machine would NOT register my finger prints and the young person standing there, said, No problem. Which became a problem when I couldn’t go through the automated passport control booth because I wasn’t registered! 

I had to see the police in person and no big deal. Thankfully at both of these spots, there was hardly any line-ups so all was good. 

Then we had to wait for our next plane to Catania, which is on Sicily. Getting a gate for that flight is like waiting for a train. The gates are not announced until 30 minutes before the flight, which is just bizarre!!

We had to wait a bit for this flight, but that was OK since we wouldn’t be able to check in until 4 PM. As we flew in we were on the wrong side of the plane to see Mount Etna, so I asked the ladies across the aisle to snap this photo for me. 

Yep - it looks just like my puzzle that I recently finished. 

It was interesting as we drove to Taormina that the vegetation was just like the puzzle and we could see loads of buildings on the hillsides just like the puzzle. I do not know how to rotate the pictures and may figure that it by the time I’m ready to go home. 

And there is me who has been tooting how good the eSIM card is and my darn card would NOT work which frustrated me to no end. You know me and technology so I wasn’t surprised. I think it finally got fixed last night but I’m still not trusting it. 

OK - if any of you have been to Sicily before and specifically Taormina you know what I’m talking about when I said this place is build on the side of a hill. This town is CRAZY!!!! And I don’t think pictures will do it justice. 

It’s not that I am desperate to be connected to the internet at all times, but we desperately needed it for getting to this location. I had hired a driver to meet us and that worked out OK except we didn’t expect him to be waiting for us at the airport one hour in advance, but there he was. However, we needed to get in touch via phone and of course I couldn’t make that happen. 

But DH was able to get through to him on the phone and soon we were whizzing along to this location. I knew the house was on a very small street and that we couldn’t stop to unload so the driver let us out a little ways down the road, except there are no house numbers per se and every square inch of town is used up, so we did have a little bit of trouble finding the house. 

We needed DH’s phone again to find the house by sending photos of where we were to the owners! They definitely need a bigger sign. No numbers, no street, no sign. It was a bit frustrating, but it all worked out. They had sent a video of how to unlock the door —- good grief - but it was needed - a multi-part thing and then we were in. Then to go back to get all the luggage. Now I travelled very light so it was easy to get my stuff, but M and Dillon? They don’t know how to travel light. Dillon had to lift the bags over a car in order to get to the house. 

There is no sidewalk in front of the house and the cars were parked tight against each other! All in the life of living in Europe. 

The house is TINY!!! And it’s two-story but it’s not a stand alone house, but within a building. OK — I guess that’s why it’s called an apartment, not a house. DUH!!!!

If you think the garbage system back home is complex, think again. This is what we saw on the wall outside the kitchen. It was probably posted outside the kitchen because there is NO room in the kitchen. 

The recycling schedule

And YES — there is a bin for each category. 

The garbage bin area

And the bins are in the kitchen!!!!!

They take up a LOT of kitchen space

Tiny bins, but efficient. Unlike back home where we would whisk all the garbage out between guests, the bins all have stuff in them and once they are full, the bag goes out as directed to be picked up. God forbid if you screw up because there is a 500 EURO fine for that and we would get charged. So we shall be very careful how we sort our garbage!!!

I know that Europe is miles ahead of us in the space utilization and recycling, but we are also on an island somewhere off the coast of Italy, so I imagine they are even more strict, hence the 500 EURO fine. 

M and I were supposed to go to a henna part as part of the wedding events, but I was done by that point. With the issues of my phone, traveling for so long, and finding the apartment, neither of was interested in getting a ride to take us 30 minutes to the event. We gleefully bailed out. Besides — who wants to sit in a room of girlie girls in matching PJs, who are mostly strangers for henna. I gladly opted out!

As anyone who has been to Europe can attest and especially in the smaller towns, every square inch of real estate has something on it. And the streets are willy nilly - I have no idea how they find anything. I think the worst with any place is getting yourself orientated which was another reason I wasn’t thrilled to go out last night. 

We ventured out for pizza to a local restaurant and it was on our way home that we realized how much there is around us. I don’t get the town and even if I looked at the map, I still don’t get it. Maybe after a good sleep and a clear head, I’ll feel more comfortable. 

The pizza was amazing though and they put all kinds of sauce on the pizza that is NOT tomato. I think mine had eggplant on it. 

Very fresh and yummy pizza

Then we took a different route home as we wanted to stop by the grocery store. And there are lots of little shops on that street. And it was then that we found the street for the apartment, so all is good. 

We were going to plan an excursion for today, but I was so tired last ight that I didn’t trust myself to make the arrangements so we will plan that excursion for Thursday. 

Taormina is very hilly

This is how far UP the mountains we are. We spotted that building behind me from way down below in the car and it seemed so far up. Driving here on the roads that seemed suspended in air was interesting! 

DH wanted cannoli and coffee and he had both on the first day. Now what does one do for the rest of the vacation? 

The cannoli place was right outside the grocery store so we had cannoli and then bought some food. 

Two of our cannoli

You had the choice of three different shells and then many types of cream. Totally decadent and I may have one more before I leave, but I really want a chocolate croissant! 

There are tiles everywhere!!!! We might suggest that they make a pretty little sign for outside the apartment. I will take a picture of the sign so you can see what I mean about the size. 

Without having direct contact with the owner there was no way we would have found this place. And our driver, who did not speak English pointed in that direction, but where to go exactly? And the door, which doesn’t look like a door was inside a small courtyard. M was the super sleuth who connected with the owner to get that information. I bet the owner didn’t realize she was in communication with three different people!!!

I may need to spring for a heavier jacket. The temperature here is warmish, but we are on an island and it seems to be similar to San Francisco. It’s COLD. I’m wearing big socks and I could use a jacket. My wedding jacket is not warm and it’s small. What I wouldn’t give for a BIG sweatshirt. 

And now we’ve all had a good sleep. I went to bed right after arriving back at the house and unpacking our meagre groceries and putting them in the tiny fridge. I woke up once in the middle of the night and I had some snacks and read my book for a bit and then I fell back to sleep. I’m sure my Fitbit wouldn’t be happy - wait - I got a score of 76 so that’s not so bad!!! 

I feel rested and we’ll just see what the day brings. The wedding event of the day is a dinner at the pizza restaurant we were at last night. So that’s encouraging that it’s close by. How the heck would you even tell a driver where to pick you up? 

There are all kinds of joy in traveling in another country where you do NOT speak the language and everything is very foreign to our very spoiled and luxurious ways in North America. I swear everyone needs to live or at least visit Europe one time to truly appreciate the frivolous North American way of life. 

On that note, we hope to make it to the beach today. I’m not going to give you more than that, but it should be interesting. And I hope to share a lot more pictures. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!! (That fits our location today)

By the way —- travelling with four people is complicated. I can’t wait until it’s just me, although all this bonding time is good. 

And I do NOT have a grammar checker so if there is anything crazy, well, you will figure it out.