Taormina

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This morning we had breakfast at our hotel again. Fresh squeezed orange juice and a variety of eggs and breads and croissants and sweet treats along with some typical Italian meats. Cappuccino is also always a great way to start the day. After breakfast we headed to the archeological area in Naxos. We saw the tower that was built by the Greek about 300 to 200 B.C. And also a variety of anchors from the same time period. We walked to the port area. There was an Olympic torch monument there from the 1960 Olympics. After our morning walk we drove to Taormina. We drove to the hilltops and went to the church Madre Della Rocca. We had parked at the bottom so we had a hike up, but the view and the church built into the rock were amazing to see. We then headed down to the city center of Taormina. After some driving around, a stoppage of traffic from the FedEx guy and nearly parking illegally, a nice local gave us the directions to the parking building in the city center. We had lunch at Villa Zuccaro. It had outdoor seating and we had pizza and eggplant appetizer. The weather had predicted wind warnings for the day and part way through lunch the umbrella at the table next to us flew out of the base and hit a child of about 10 years old on the side of the head. Luckily it was the side of the pole and not the end. He was OK, but with every wind gust the diners all grabbed their umbrellas to secure them. After lunch we headed to the archeological area to view the theatre. It was very amazing to see and again there were sea views as well as views of the city and the Madre Della Rocca. We walked back through the city center and then headed back to our hotel in Giardini Naxos. We had dinner at another local restaurant 1 block from the hotel. The weather was sunny and windy and warm enough for short sleeves. The driving adventurers in Taormina will be memorable as Google Maps did have some issues with the hillside driving and roads. It directed us down a steep dead end driveway with a gate at the bottom. Pedro skillfully backed up the steep drive and got us back on the main road.

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