Blogs from Taormina, Sicily, Italy, Europe - page 5

Cold and rainy today, Sunday (when this is being written) -- my first full day in Taormina. I arrived the afternoon before, into Catania (Sicily) airport from Munich, having made a connection there following the flight from New York. This after being delayed in my first leg of the journey (Medford to San Francisco) and my second one (SF to New York), not getting my checked suitcase until the next day as it had missed the connection to JFK, sweating out a stop and go, agonizingly slow-moving traffic jam on the way from friend Shelly’s house to the airport in New York, a delayed flight to Catania because of snow in Munich, my checked suitcase not coming out at the final airport with the other passengers’ luggage and seeing everyone else (except for one other passenger) ... read more

Geo: 37.8531, 15.2878Jess, Andy and I went on a day trip today to Taormina. We caught a bus from Catania. The drive only took an hour and a half. This was one of the few holiday destination that I did not do any research for. Andy was in charge of research Sicily and he suggested that we come here for a day. The entrance to the town through Porta Messina was only a 5 minute walk from the bus station. Taormina is on the Ionian coast. The town is up high- 200 metres above sea level, which explains the cable car service. ... read more

When the Travel Bug Bites So here it is, my first official blog. I can think of no better place to start my travel blogging experience than to write about my first adventure outside of the United States. Even though I only lived there for one month, the experience truly did completely change me. I came back with a thirst for foreign language, culture and food. To this day, I truly believe that the only real way for us to learn about ourselves is to see the world, and to experience everything it has to offer; even if it is "foreign" to us. Living in Taormina, Sicily was truly an experience that I will never forget, if it was for one month, 5 years ago. For one month, I shared a hotel room with 5 college ... read more

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 ... read more

29 Sept 2008 (these blogs being uploaded from Letojanni -have to do pics later) Another sunny day awaits us: breakfast was excellent. The residence provided fresh croissants, normal cornflakes, chocolate cornflakes, coffees, fruit juice and jams. I imagine the jam was for toast, but didn't see anyone having toast. We asked for bowls for the cornflakes (you can guess what flavour the boys chose), but apparently there were no bowls. The idea was to fill a plastic cup - like a glass - with the cornflakes, add milk, and eat with a spoon. The boys liked this as it meant they were left with chocolate milk to drink after eating the cornflakes. Ky went for a run down the hill - yes down only! She walked back up. Suggested later that she may run down to ... read more