Blogs from Taormina, Sicily, Italy, Europe

June 10, 2019 Monday - Siracusa to Taormina - left June 15 We had decided it was time to leave Siracusa and head up the coast to Taormina (still on the east coast of Sicily) but even though we set the alarm for 5:30AM for a 6:30AM departure we always take one last look at a weather update (just in case). It still looked fine, but in fact if we were “real sailors” and not just travelers who sail we would probably wait until tomorrow as there is more wind, BUT we are also looking at the calendar and all the places we still want to get to and decided “let’s go today”. Our main sail and anchor was up and we were heading out of the harbor at 6:23AM – a good start. Once out ... read more

I will say that our tour guide was overly informative regarding Taormina and Castelmola on the island of Sicily. She, tongue in cheek, informed us that all Sicilian women DO NOT wear 100% black clothes nor do they all have mustaches! Also, there are Moorish planters EVERYWHERE in Sicily. The legend is that a Sicilian woman fell in love with a Moorish man. The Moorish man already had 7 wives. When the Sicilian woman found out his secret, she cut off his head and used it as a planter for basil!... read more

As we conclude our 2-week stay in Taormina, Sicily, we might be inclined to lament the cool, rainy weather we experienced. Then we became aware of the snow and frigid temperatures covering most of Europe the past few days, and suddenly our predicament didn't seem so bad. Snow events in places like London, Paris, Rome, and especially Naples, are relatively rare. Hopefully we won't need snowshoes in Vienna in a couple weeks! We decided yesterday to make a major, last-minute change in our itinerary - we'll now be staying in Sorrento instead of Ravello. Why the change? Well, the short answer is: 90 steps. For months we've been in contact with the pleasant young lady who manages the apartment in Ravello for her mother. She and Dee have been exchanging messages, and we were looking forward ... read more

Despite being awake for 24-hours-plus, sleep did not come as easily as we expected last night, so neither of us got more than five or six hours of shuteye. No doubt it will take a few days for our systems to adapt to the time change, but otherwise we awoke in good spirits without much of a travel "hangover". After one of Dee's delicious bacon and egg breakfasts, we were eager to do some exploring. It was a chilly 45 degrees at sunrise, but temperatures reached the upper 50s under clear, blue skies as the day wore on; ideal walking weather! We were out the door by 10 AM, walked through a small park that abuts our residence, and then located the series of sixty or so stairs descending to reach the main drag of Taormina, ... read more

We wake up an email from Ryan Air telling us that we need to check in on-line for our flight to Malta on Monday. This includes a reminder to print out our boarding passes, and that if we don't we'll need to pay a 50 Euro fee each to get them printed at the airport. This seems like an awful lot of money to print out a piece of paper; the fare was only 65 Euro each. Maybe this is how Ryan Air makes its money. We don't usually carry a printer with us in one of our suitcases, so we're not quite sure what to do. We look through the Ryan Air website and are relieved to find that they also accept electronic copies of the boarding passes. Our relief is shortlived; the fine print ... read more