Back to photos!!

Remember, once upon a time, so long ago we can barely remember, I went to Sicily. Husband had a conference and I sat by the pool. Well, those meanies at the conference decided to give everyone the afternoon off, so their brain didn’t turn to mush by the time it was all over.

Leif, Jim and I decided to take the afternoon and check out the town of Taormina. It is north of Catania, and according to the guidebooks, quite the tourist destination. But some friends at the conference had spent the week before there and suggested we check out (yet another) Greek Theater. Plus, the sights were supposed to be amazing.

We had to drive to the city. The drive wasn’t bad, if a little boring and uninteresting, scenery-wise. I think that’s because we decided to take the highway and not the more scenic local roads. Jim doesn’t like being honked at.

But on our way up, we see this:

Is that a city on that rock? Is that where we are going? Do you see a road leading up to that or are we going to walk? I’ll admit, I was a little concerned.

But Toarmina is definitely used to the tourist hordes. There were actual PARKING LOTS. With space to put your car. It was posted, with actual signs and everything. I almost felt like I was back in the states. But to get to the parking lot, we had to cross this terrifying bridge. I only have a very vague recollection of it because it freaked me out good. Thank goodness I wasn’t driving. We would have come to a screeching halt in the middle of the road. I vaguely remember that it was only two lanes wide, with no shoulder. There were guard rails, but come on now. I really don’t know how it was held up. Toothpicks probably.

But husband was driving and so we made it safe and sound. At the parking lot, there was a BUS that took us up to the main square of the city, so it was quite painless. No walking at all.

It was much more crowded than Syracusa. There were people everywhere, but it was a very pretty town. We made our way up to the Greek Theater and saw some of the most amazing views of the trip.

Well, of course, we’re not the amazing views, but the coast and Etna behind us are!

The ocean was SO stinking blue. I could have sat there for hours!

Above the city sits the castello. You can hike up there, but it takes about 30 minutes and it was pretty hot out that day. The views would have been amazing, but we made do with what we saw from the Greek Theater.

As usual, the “Greek” theater is now almost entirely Roman (rebuilt in 3 Before Canada) and of course obscured from our view by some stupid concert set. (We were 0 for 3 in the Theater seeing department.)

Remember, scientists can take the fun out of any occasion. They were talking about science.

I like this next photo:

I don’t know for sure, but I hope those columns are some of the original Greek columns that the Romans incorporated into the “new” theater. Plus, you can see the cheap stone on the inside of the walls with the more expensive brick on the outside.

Whew!! All that looking can make a person awfully thirsty. Plus it was getting late in the day, so we found a place to have a drink, right next to a beautiful church:

Can you imagine getting married there? Well, someone did! At some point, a bride passed us on the street. Plus we kept seeing all of these people dressed to the nines, promenading in the sunset. Very cool.

I left the boys to do some tasting of the local beverages while I did some shopping. I passed a shop and saw a rug that I really wanted:

I’m not sure if it goes into the “Dogs in Inappropriate Places” photo essay, but it made me laugh.

As we were leaving, I saw a GREAT sign:

If you don’t read Italian or English, or even if you do, does this really explain what is forbidden? Holding hands? Relationships? And what is the last one? No eating? Thank god they didn’t catch us at dinner then!

One thing I will miss about Italy:

Well, duh, the wine!! But beyond that, this is a bottle that we bought in Toarmina. Even though we were going to open it in about 3 hours, they wrapped in beautiful paper and tied a ribbon on it. Almost everything that you buy in the smaller shops is wrapped up in beautiful bags or paper. I will miss that pride.