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Published: June 10th 2011
Monday 9th May to Sunday 29th May 2011.
For the next 3 weeks, I am at school from 9am to 1pm.
Monday 9th May 2011
Taormina/Letojanni
Tom doubles me in to school on the motor scooter – slowly!!! Later he heads out to Messina on his bicycle. 30kms out into a strong head wind but 30km back flying with the wind. This is part of the route of Stage 9 of the Giro d’Italia to be held on 15th May.
I get home and after dinner do homework and Tom reads. This ebook was worth buying.
We had a heavy rain storm this afternoon.
The bus system is pretty lousy here. I have to catch a bus at 7.45am and it is a 20minute trip into Taormina. If I miss the bus there is not another one until 10am, so as I am there rather early, it’s a stop at the bar every morning for a caffe’ with some other students. The bus home is at 1.40pm and if I miss that one, then I have to wait until 4pm, which would be a pain, as all the shops close at 1pm when I am coming out of
school and don’t open again until 4 or 4.30pm.
Tuesday 10th May 2011.
Tom does his domestics and has a really nice salad waiting for me when I get home from school. He’s getting lots of brownie points.
Wednesday 11th May 2011.
Tom’s ride for the day - up and down along coast then more up than down along valley to Francavilla di Sicilla and then up to Castiglione di Sicilla up to Linguaglossa 700m where he gets a free banana as he offered a €20 note and they had no change, then heads down road -WRONG - dead end and have descended 150m so back up he goes. At village he is stopped by two police bosses in jeep and tells them dead end that way, they laugh as they know. He tells them ‘Australiano’ and asks which way to Lingulossa and they tell him back 100m and left. Then they ask how old are you. He replies 60. No way you look 50. No,I’m 60 and they talk to each other and shake their heads and drive off and he keeps climbing. From Linguglossa all downhill so fun till he hits towns with old stone paved
roads have to stand up to absorb shock - lost the pump and then bottle - back he goes to bottle - NO pump so from then on slows down. All up 81ks @18.88av and he took 4.23hrs - got sunburnt and the wind was blowing quite strong.
He got home just in time to immerse himself in the icy ocean (belly button cold) and make our salads for lunch. The rest of the afternoon Tom fiddles around repairing his biddon cage.
Thursday 12th May 2011.
Tom only rides on the trainer today. Lots of domestics to do – he pulls out all the carpet from the van and gives it a good scrub by washing it on the driveway. The grey carpet dries in the one day, but the other one didn’t properly dry until the next day. Me, I’m very happy, now that they are clean.
Tom went on scooter to a larger supermarket that we had found up one of the back streets, and they had mostly everything we needed. It’s great when we find a large supermarket as they are always up the back streets somewhere so it can be a challenge finding one
and where the locals shop.
Friday 13th May 2011.
Tom puts back the long centre strip of carpet and screws it back down to the floor.
He goes out for a ride to a Cannondale shop and buys a new biddon cage, Elite in Italian colours – now says he needs another one to match!!! On the way there, he went up to Forzo d’Agro and then on the way back did again 4km @ 350m of climb – great view of coast.
Later he meets me for the music at the church at 6pm. I had told some of the other students, and that those that were interested in it, met us there. This concert went for 1.5 hours. After, as we were walking back down the main street, one of the other students pointed out a great restaurant which also had a pizza area downstairs, fantastic view over the ocean and cheap pizzas. Tom had to convince me that it would be OK to ride home in the dark – so we went in for dinner. The road down the hill from Taormina is extremely long and winding and if you lost it in one of the
corners, you could go over the edge and drop about 50 metres (looks like 500 metres), hence my hesitation with Tom’s lack of motor scooter experience. On the very dark stretches, a driver, coming from behind, puts on his high beam, so Tom puts on his left hand blinker – worked well.
Saturday 14th May 2011.
Up early and into town to meet the other students and the teacher at the school at 8am for an excursion to Noto. We visited the old Tuna fisheries of Vendicara (now part of the National Reserve), and next to a beach area. We had a good walk around and then back to the beach for some lunch. Tom and some other students went in for a swim. No waves, but the water was great. Then we went into the town of Noto to have a look at the Infiorata 2011 which is held on the 3rd weekend in May each year. This is where they transform a whole street into a floral display of different scenes using flower petals for the creation. We could then wander around the town on our own and meet back at the bus at 5.30pm – well
14.5.2011 - Sicily - Noto
Balcony supports along the streets - many different sculpturesthat’s what I thought - but it was supposed to be 4.30pm – oops. Peppe finds us and we get to the bus, only to have to wait for some others who were shopping. We get back home about 7.30pm. A great day.
Sunday 15th May 2011.
Tom up early and heads off to Mt Etna to watch then end of the stage 9 of Giro d’Italia. Well it was a long day for 30 mins of watching racing. He talked to a NZ couple who had a bicycle shop for 34 years and had only sold it 10 months ago. Tom asked him about Tour de France and he replied that you are there waiting longer than here and you do not leave your spot, or someone else will jump into it. So Tom has decided not to bother again with going to see a race go past. Total waste of a day – will try a triathlon but will not make an effort to go and see one unless it is very close to where we are staying at the time.
Me, I had a nice day on my own, doing some homework and resting in the
20.5.2011 - Sicily - Taormina
Farewell drinks with other students sun on the beach.
Wednesday 18th May 2011.
Tom decided to do a walk along the track to Taormina, so he is up and farewells me at the bus stop at 7.45am and heads up the hill – up, up, up and up for the first 2 hours. Along the contours then over the top and sees a farmer and asks which way – more up and then along. Tom chose to go left as it seemed to be heading away from Taormina. He meets a guy, who speaks perfect English and tells him that he is going in the right direction but does not say how far it is to go. He gets to Melia, above Letojanni, keeps walking up and on a crumbling road – took videos of sheep up above him on mountain top – later he was on a mountain above the sheep. Road goes up and into valley and then at end goes round and up and over to the next valley. He had hoped to meet me after school at 1pm – no way – no phone signal. Eventually, a sms came through from me– this is his reminder to pick me up.
He laughs and rings me to say he has no idea how long he will be as he is heading to Castelmola which is the town above Taormina. So on and on he keeps going to the top of the hill where there is a large Cross on it about 800m ASL. He begins the long descent to Taormina – his knees are shot – tendons around them are sore – he gets to Taormina about 4.30pm – has a beer and gets a taxi home €20 – shafted by the taxi driver and absolutely shattered – I had to cook dinner – that was not the deal.
The things you do when you have all day – luckily he is fit or as he says, it would have been a search and rescue.
Through the day, there has been a rock slide further north along the road, which meant the buses couldn’t get through the whole way but detour, and that meant when I went to go home, I couldn’t get the whole way, so walked 2.5km back from where the bus could drop me off.
From now on, it means that Tom takes me to school in the
morning as there is not a definite time for the bus, and in the afternoon I can get back most of the way on the bus and he collects me at the last bus stop 2.5km away.
Thursday 19th May 2011.
Tom recuperating all day – no sympathy from me :-) .
Friday 20th May 2011.
Tom tries to do trainer – can only do 20 mins – too sore. He went for a ride on the scooter to work out how far he had walked. The walking track from Melia to Taormina was 12kms, so he looked at the map and figured he had walked 30 kms.
He meets me at the school at 4pm and we walk around town for a while and then head to the church for another 1 hour concert – tonight the piano and the flute will be played – it was fantastic. Then we wandered off with the other students and had dinner as a Trattoria restaurant. For most of them this was their last day at school. Great meal. Home by 11.30pm.
Saturday 21st May 2011.
Up and head into Taormina to meet Jean, also a student at school,
at the bus depot and we take the bus to Catania for the day, about a 1.5 hour bus ride. Jeans friend, Benedetta who lives in Catania and has offered to show us around for the day. She is a journalist and also takes Italian students to USA.
When we arrived we wandered towards our meeting point, and we happened to come across the Teatro Massimo. A police presentation day had just finished there and so we wandered inside and pretended to be part of the crowd, to have a look – lucky us – very grand. Further along we had some lunch and were met at 1.30pm by Benedetta. Did some shopping in the markets, visited the ancient Greek/Roman ampitheatre. It was a great day – back home by 9.30pm.
Sunday 22nd May 2011.
Rest day. Raining off and on all day, so that stops us using the motor scooter as we had planned on going to Taormina to meet Jean, go to the concert at the church and have dinner, but didn’t want to risk coming home in the rain.
Monday 23rd to Friday 27th May 2011.
Tom had to rest all week in bed as
he had a bad chesty cold and sore throat. I avoided him as much as possible – slept up on the top bed and he slept on the bed down the bottom, but in a small van there was not much hope for me.
Saturday 28th May 2011.
Went on a tour to Palermo and Cefalu. Met the bus at 6.15am. It was a nice trip through the centre of Sicily. The bus drove around Palermo first and then we did a walking tour of part of the city with a local guide. We had on earphones, so it was good as we could hear all he had to say. First we went to the Cathedral, then onto the local Markets. We then went to another chapel. The church of San Maria dell'Ammiraglio. The mosaic decoration inside on the walls and the celing was fantastic.
The guide was not a great guide – seemed like it was all too much for him.
Then off to Cefalu - beach side town – with yet again another church – so Tom gave it a miss. I went with the group and saw where the local women used to wash their clothes
21.5.2011 - Sicily - Catania
The Elephant - the symbol of Catania – this sight was used from the 1600’s until approx 1965 – as there was no water to the homes as only the wealthy people could afford it. The water is fresh and runs down from the mountains to the sea
Back onto bus and back home by 8.30pm.
Sunday 29th May 2011.
Rest day – clothes washing. Tom went into Letojanni for some cough medicine and antibiotics.
Into Taormina for the last concert at the church. Tonight is an 11 piece orchestra and they played the music of Nino Rota ( he wrote the music for ‘The Godfather’) .
Dinner in the Trattoria restaurant again. Great food. Home by 9.30pm.
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