Exploring Taormina

It’s another amazing day outside! As I munch on my giant chocolate croissant that I bought at the gelato store. I’d better get some steps in or I may need to buy some new clothes and not because it’s cold outside, but because I don’t fit into them!

Locating houses is a mystery. How anyone can know where each place is just baffles me. This is the gate outside the small courtyard to our apartment. There is a mailbox outside the gate with a name on it, but not a name that we are familiar with. 

The entrance to the courtyard where we are staying

Upon opening the gate and entering the courtyard, there is a shuttered door. OK—- strange for us, but practical to keep the sun and heat out. 

The shuttered doors to the apartment

This is the tiny white sign on the door that indicates we are at the correct place. 

The sign for the apartment

Opening the shutters we get this door, which has a funny locking system, but we have figured it out!! 

The doors to the apartment

And this is the walkway beside the green fence marking the courtyard. A very busy street is just in front of that walkway. 

The walkway beside the apartment

So different from back home where each house would be clearly identified with an address or the name of the building, etc. I’m not complaining - just showing you how different it is here. We will suggest that she have the name of the apartment OUTSIDE the courtyard because in our polite Canadian way, we would never walk into a courtyard to check if we are in the correct place!!!!

We did some walking around and we are pretty comfortable (more or less) with our surroundings. Let’s just say we didn’t get lost once! There is no way I would drive a car here —- it’s totally crazy. 

I was so cold in the morning - I just wanted a big sweatshirt, but after we had lunch in the sunshine, I came back to get shorts and I was fine for the remainder of the day. 

There is a wall around part of the city. Well, maybe there was at some point, but the two main gates remain and between those gates no cars are allowed. Everything is delivered on a hand cart. But somehow this little car got in. I don’t understand all the workings of these places. 

A tiny car

There is one main street (more or less) in Taormina and if you look to the left, you go up and if you look to the right you go down or vice versa depending on which direction you are walking. There is a restaurant on the steps part way up that hill. 

Looking up the mountain

That’s where we decided to eat. Here’s a closer view. 

There is a restaurant on these steps

This is our view looking down to the street. 

My view from my seat

And yes —- those chairs sit on two steps. Yikes. They gave me that chair to sit on and if you slip, then you fall down the stairs! But since heights aren’t an issue, I’m good with that!!!

Unique chairs to fit on the steps

This was the view from one of the look out points which are all along the street. There are some beautiful hotels in the area which I’m sure aren’t cheap! 

Beautiful view

We have walked up and down the street several times and each time we see something different. There is such a mix of shops —- high end brands selling watches, clothing, etc, and then the shops that sell hand made items. We spotted a shop that sells hand carved items with the Pinocchio theme. 

The Pinocchio store

And shops where you can buy hand made items with your name stitched on them. Or anything else you want stitched on. They were handing out cards with Sicilia on them. 

Sicilia stitched on the card

And of course, there are the shops with souvenirs - we have seen T-shirts, magnets, ceramics, socks, and so much more. We will need to settle on one magnet before we leave. It has to be a magnet that has some meaning to us - like the gelato or at least something ceramic. We’ll see. 

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but traveling with four people can be challenging. Not in a bad way- but it just takes a lot more coordination to get everyone ready on time or to figure out what we want to do etc. But all is good and lots of good bonding time with M and Dillon. I wouldn’t trade it for the world!

As per European architecture, thee are balconies galore and some of them are so beautifully adorned, while others remain a blank canvas. 

Beautiful balconies

We took the furnicular down to the beach and when we arrived, I realized that it was NOT the beach that had the geocaches that I wanted to find. But no worries - I might have some time myself to do that today. 

Heading down to the beach

We were lucky on the way down and the way up that we didn’t need to wait for the cable car at all. And it only took a few minutes to get up and down. I’m not a fan of cable cars as they tend to swing when it goes over the support, but these were pretty stable. 

The beach is pretty pebbly and a lot of large rocks in the water. So we didn’t really go in, but at least put our feet in the water. I believe that is called the Ionian Sea. In the far distance you would find Greece. 

Standing in the Ionian Sea

We watched a couple jump off the small rock just behind my head. He seemed to have no problem to dive off, she was a bit hesitant and it took quite a while before she got the courage to jump! I wouldn’t be up there to begin with!!!!

OH — I found the picture with my HUGE chocolate croissant. It was yummy, but I much prefer the flat ones we found in Spain. They are much easier to eat!!!

The chocolate croissants

I’m getting the hang of blogging on the iPad and moving pictures, etc. around. OK — so perhaps I’m glad I didn’t find that little keyboard. I would NOT hike with the iPad, but I would certainly bring it on a trip like this in the future. 

This is how small some of the walkways are between buildings!! Yep —- there are steps behind me that lead to somewhere!!! No wasted space!!!!

A tight walkway

When I was in Europe some years ago, I discovered these Ritter chocolate bars. YES — I know we have them in North America, but I had never seen them at that point in time. Now, they are my favourite and I happened to bring one along with me. I like to have snacks and don’t typically bring chocolate because of the melting factor, but I brought one. When we were at the grocery store the other night, I discovered them. The same flavors as what we have at home. Can you tell which one came from which country?

Ritter bars - my favourite chocolate bar

Maybe by the end of the trip, I will have figured out to rotate pictures on the iPad. It’s OK —- you can see pretty well which is which. 

After our visit to the beach, we came back to the apartment to have a nap. And then I read for a bit while the others had longer naps. I will say that this morning I’m feeling pretty good after a good sleep. I think we are now set to the new time and so should be good for the rest of the trip. 

Then it was time to head back to the pizza restaurant that we ate in the night before for the welcome dinner to the wedding festivities. I’m glad we went on two different occasions because the experience was totally different. First there were about 50 or 60 of us last night and we were tucked into the perfect spot. 

If you look close, you can spot me in pink!!! Yep — my travel fleece is pink. I’m like the Queen (god rest her soul and happy 100th birthday!!!). She always wore bright colors so she would stand out. I agree!!! 

The welcome dinner last night

We sat with some of my SIL’s hiking friends and that made for an interesting visit. They are going on some short hikes later this week and I had the opportunity to join them, but I’m glad I didn’t. While they all seem like vey nice people, I would feel like the odd man out and hiking with 14 people and getting ready with 14 people? Not my thing. I’ll be happy to be on my own and do what I want, when I want. 

My goodness, you would almost think I’m anti-social. Nope —- not at all - I just like total freedom. 

Anyway — the food experience from one night and the next was totally different. We got to try five different appertizers, and if I had to choose my favorite, I wouldn’t be able to do that. They were all amazing. Then we got five different pizzas. I will say that the first three were fabulous and the last two not so much. I’m not sure if we were all getting full by then, but it was an amazing dinner. And we got to meet more family members on both sides and of course the friends. 

By the way — we didn’t each get five pizzas. They were passed around and you took a slice if you wanted. 

This is how we are progressing in our familiarity with the neighborhood. On the first night, we needed Google Maps to get to that restaurant. Last night, between the four of us we managed to get there in a shorter manner than Google had done the night before. And on the way home, I walked by myself and it’s like a one-minute walk through the back street. Yep —- a “seasoned” tourist. Hardly, but it just seemed so far away on the first night. 

There is this massive tree in that restaurant and I meant to take a picture of the trunk before we left. But I got a picture of the tree top. It’s huge —- I”ve no idea how old or what kind of tree this is, but it’s huge! 

The tree in the restaurant

I think I got the phone thing figured out. I had done all the typical steps - turned on roaming, installed the eSIM, but nothing worked. So support told me to ensure the APN was working. It was not and I struggled the first day to install it. Then I tried again yesterday - NOTHING. So I asked DH to spell it and OH — I spelt it PHONE, not FONE and it worked. Hopefully all will continue to work while I’m here. I had to type that in - it didn’t come up automatically. 

But I will say that the support people were on the ball and responded to my messages very quickly. So while I was very frustrated, all was good. 

I took loads more pictures, but that gives you a good overview of what happened throughout the day. I’m up early and I think I’ll get dressed and go for a walk this morning. That will help me to warm up!! 

So much to see and so much to do!!! The wedding is today so I’ll switch my pink fleece for the pink jacket!!!

On one of my trips to North Battleford, I spotted a very long charging cord with three different connectors. I really only need the one, but I am so glad to have it. The plugs are not always close to where you want them and this way, I can lay on the couch and read my book and charge my phone at the same time!! Long charge cords are good!!!

On that note, I'm out of here!!!! Have a wonderful day!!!

Ciao!!!!!

Again —- no grammar checker or spell checker —- take it for what it’s worth!!!!!