Saturday June 15, Letojanni

Stunning Italy! View from Taoromina.

It was another hot Sicilian day as we walked up the steep hill to catch the bus this morning along with other campers including an English and a German couple. The bus trip into was worth it just for the ride, as the driver negotiated the narrow roads calling into a few other villages before winding up to the hilltop town of Taormina. Spectacular views but our heart was in our mouths as he climbed through quite a number of narrow hairpin bends narrowly avoiding cars parked in odd places and traffic coming the other way including buses. It was chaotic but we made it to the top and at least Ian didn’t have to worry about driving!

Taormina is a beautiful medieval town still with its historic town gates at each end of the very long main street. The street is lined with the usual tourist nick knacks along with very high quality clothing and jewellery, and restaurants and bars are everywhere. Little alleyways wind up and down from the main street, and prolific bougainvillea cascade from balconies and fences creating a really picturesque and vibrant town. This is a very popular place with tourists and there were certainly a lot of them around.

Met a very nice Belgium couple and had a long chat as we cooled off over a cold drink. We opted out of taking the steep walk up to an ancient Greek amphitheatre as it was just so hot.

Back to camp this afternoon and another very good ocean swim…getting used to this!! And this evening we went to the camp restaurant and sat out on the balcony as the sun set and enjoyed a woodfired pizza. The end of our last day on Sicily, tomorrow we are catching the ferry back to the mainland. After ten days on the island we feel we have really got to understand a little about the real Sicily and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience…except maybe for a few hiccups!!!

Got to love these vehicles.

Views of Mt Etna from the town square.

..and down to the coast.

Vibrant bougainvillea everywhere.

Marble sanctuary.

Maybe I should have got this tee shirt
for Ian....he thinks he is the "Don"