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Published: April 6th 2010
The sun was shining once again when we woke up, and today was supposed to be the warmest (in the morning) so we made plans to go to the beach, because even though it was colder than we would like, we had to at least see the Sicilian beach.
To get to the Taormina beach you can take a cable car from the top to the bottom (aka, down a mountain), which all my friends seemed to think was an awesome idea. Me? not so much. i was petrified (cable cars may be the scariest thing in the entire world). but it was one of those things you would never be able to do again so i bought my ticket (yes i had to pay to be shaking in fear) and waited.
Going down the mountain was bad...although i knew going up it would be SO MUCH worse, because i am that person who hates going up (its not normal, i know)...but it was beautiful at least (there isnt a place that isnt beautiful in taormina). to take my mind off of it, tamar started a sing along haha. we changed into our bathing suits and started wondering towards
a free beach. We finally found one up the hill and walked down to it. It was gorgeous. The water in Sicily is so blue it is amazing. The water was rougher than normal and waves were crashing against the beach, pretty high up on it. The beach was rocky, which was a good and bad (good because i didnt get sand all over me...bad because rocks aren't the most comfortable thing). Although the Italians thought we were crazy (this was super cold weather for them and they were all bundled up) we went to the edge of the water and put our feet in. Of course, the water was FREEZING but your feet got used to it after a while (or you couldn't feel them, one or the other). I got doused by the entire ocean because i had to rescue my flip flops, so that was a little more water than i had wanted to be in. But it was nice.
The downside to the beach, besides the rough waves, and cold water was the fact that it wasnt actually beach season. so nothing was open. at all. our beach day ended up being a beach morning
and we headed back up to taormina center (also, it was getting colder). which meant we needed to go back UP the mountain in the cable car. i tried to keep my eyes closed but i was too freaked out, so my eyes were screwed shut and i was basically shaking. luckily the ride is pretty short and i ran off that cable car so quickly.
we ate at a restaurant called ciclope (cyclops) and i got the cannoloni, which was excellent. after lunch we walked around a little but it was starting to rain, so we took refuge in a...gelateria. obviously.
After the rain subsided we went back to the bus station to take a bus up to castelmola, which we thought we had visited the night before, but is really at the TOP of a mountain. awesome. more time spent going up in a scary bus that seems WAY too big for the tiny windy mountain roads.
once we got to castelmola, where the relics of a castle was, the wind had picked up and it was far too cold to be wearing flip flops but it was absolutely gorgeous. The castle was really cool,
but there wasn't much left of it. The view was absolutely amazing it was almost ridiculous. We were literally at the top of the mountain. the town of castelmola was super tiny, itself, and was even more isolated than San Valentino. apparently there's a great sweet wine tasting there during the main season, but it was closed.
after an hour we headed back down to Taormina--we were so cold--and wandered around the main street until 7 when the restaurants opened. We had dinner at a cute little place before heading back to the hostel.
Plan for tomorrow; Catania
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Mom
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Gorgeous
What beautiful views even if you had to be scared to death to ride the cable car -- the view was worth it! I hate the going down part (which is the opposite of you) but it was lovely so i am glad you went -- Love, Mom