Taormina

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We are in Taormina, Sicily. We spent the morning traveling from Rome, picking up the rental van and waiting for the Frictons. We all piled into the Ford Transport (9 passanger van- like the van from paris) and headed up Etna, the mountain known to the Greeks as the home of Vulcan, God of Fire and the one eyed Cyclops. After a long windy and drive up the Volcano, we were turned away from the summit because the Funicular was closed for the season. We enjoyed the views of the craters and collected some lava rock. On the way down we saw beautiful scenery and a Volpe (fox). He was hoping to receive a snack of some sort. After a long look, he ran away, leaving us to continue our journey to Taormino. We had a great lunch in the sea side village of Galia. We had fresh seafood pasta and the kids play by the sea. This side of the Island is very windy, so the surf was dangerously high. We grabbed a Gelato and continued down the road. Our hotel in Taomina required a drive up into cliff roads with on coming “Italian drivers” trying to share my side of the road and hastily parked cars to my right, trying to find what little space was available on the mountain. This was exacerbated by the occasional cement truck and tour bus meeting me head on, while the impatient drivers to my rear, wondered what tourist would dare drive such a vehicle up on these roads.

We were delighted at the quality of our long awaited hotel. It was beautiful, with views of the ocean and Mt. Etna. The hotel Villa Dulace http://www.villaducale.com was a small boutique type hotel, with warm hospitality and a wonderful terrace breakfast. We had a fine pizzeria dinner in town. Bellys full with great pizza and wine, we called our hotel shuttle for the 5 minute ride back to the hotel. Taomino Centro is a “vail like” city, with expensive hotels and name brand stores. The kids and adults had a great time. We concluded the evening with Grady’s nightly “Bum wash” and both girls partaking in a long soak in the deep Jacuzzi tub.

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