Taormina, Sicily Thursday, April 12, 2007

On our schedule, we were supposed to port in Messina, Sicily. Luckily for us we got to stop in an inlet and pull up very close to the village of Naxos and we tendered in from the ship there. That saved about 45 minutes by bus or taxi to get to the village we wanted to see, Taormina. This was it was only a 10 minute bus ride up the steep hills to this beautiful piece of the world! Let me start by saying when we arrived at about 7:00 a.m. I opened the drapes to see one of the most beautiful sites we have seen the whole trip. It was a snow capped Mt. Etna, that luckily for us had erupted the day before so we could still see smoke coming out of the top and could certainly see where the lava had obviously melted all in it's path as you will see from the pictures. The pictures are not great, as I sent them to our provider in Birmingham to post and they turned out grainy. When we have several sea days in a row, I will try to do a better job with them. Mt. Etna, who knew that Sicily had an active volcano?? Not me! What a site. This is a ski resort area. I would not have wanted to be on a ski lift when the volcano erupted! The local people only call it a disaster if the lava takes out the first two cable car stations. I guess this eruption did not, as it was not all the talk. However, they could have been speaking of it in Sicilian and we would not have known!! For us this was a postcard stop. Many of our photos could be sold for that purpose. If you have seen the movie, The Godfather, some of these shots may trigger your memory, as Frances Ford Coppola filmed many scenes in this area for that film. Taormina, they say is the jewel in Sicily's crown. They are right on with that. This tiny medieval town literally hangs off the cliff over looking the Ionian Sea. I had never heard of the Ionian Sea before until I was looking at it. Go look at a world map, it's there! There are many ancient remains in this small village. Numerous alleys, narrow passes, boutiques, galleries and cafes are all up and downthe hillside. There were ancient wwalls and gates, some of the most impressive were leftover from the Greeks. The Greeks knew thousands of years ago about location, location, location! The theatre the Greeks built here is named Teatro Greco. The open air theatre was built up on the crest of the hill so you could have the most spectacular views of the entire hillside, the whole coastline and of course the magnificent Mt. Etna in the distance! The Greeks knew what they were doing!! It was one of the most beautiful panoramas you will find i the world. The theatre was built in the 3rd century BC by the Greeks and was refurbished by the Romans in the 2nd century AD. Still today, there are plays and concerts held there! It was definitely built to last!
About Mt. Etna,herre's the story, or at least the one we got. It is Europe's largest active volcano. The Greeks believed it was the home of the god Vulcan and Cyclops, the one eyed monster. Mt. Etna has only had 4 major eruptions of consequence, those did destroy the top two cable car stations, but no human life was lost.
Let's look at our day....we had a wonderful time...
The harbor view before we started up the hillside,

Kathleen posed in a narrow street but the picture is blurred, I'll try to replace.

The archways of the Thearte Greco were wonderful.



You can certainly see where the lava melted the snow!! Very cool. The smoke was still coming out of the top of the volcano!! Very exciting for us.

Nicholas made a friend. Does he look like anyone to you? Send your comments and I'll tell you who he is at the end of the trip!!
Kathleen and Nicholas got on the stage, no performance. I think the climb up the hillside wore us all out. Kathleen was even too tired to pick up this several hundred pound boulder! Nicholas has a new favoite shirt. You might see him in it even in the summer months! Hang gliding in Sicily..who would have guessed it??

Everywhere you look there are flowers. It is almost like everyone in this village was having a window box contest to see who could have the most flowers, the most variety of flowers and the most cascading ivy!!!


Lunch was of course pizza! The best ever. Kathleen opted for the calzone and it was HUGE!!! There are frescos on the walls of a gallery.


The hillside was just breathtaking. I wonder who goes around potting all these flowers?? There were everywhere!!

There was a church in the city center square that had a drinking fountain of cool mountain stream water...Nicholas was not going to drink that!! I apologize for the quality of these pictures. I hope the next posting can be done from the ship. You can add Sicily to a must see spot. We loved it. Hated to leave.