Taormina, a place that falls in love

Taormina, a place that falls in love

Taormina fell in love with us. After sailing 400 miles, you go down to earth and that place is Taormina, you change the mood.

When we arrived, the day before the afternoon, we threw the anchoring and rested with Etna behind us. In Taormina there are no marinas, so right at the tip of the bay, there is a place called Naxos. The next morning, with the steaming Etna, we got ready to go and meet the beautiful Taormina. Many know it as “the Saint Tropez Sicilian”. With such a good press, the expectations were very high, but they were far exceeded.

We went down with the boat to the beach, there all stones, we burned super and punctured the feet, but nothing could get us the enthusiasm. We started walking, uphill and asking about the neighborhood, we learned that we could take the public bus that for 1.90 euros with air conditioning and long distance bus format, takes you to your destination. A pleasure. On the road that led us to the entrance, we came across a truck painted in all colors and exquisite Italian music, which sold fruits and vegetables. With just a stop to appreciate the beautiful panoramic postcard of that place and hear that music, I could feel the Bella Italia.

When arriving at the city of Taormina, we pass through the door of Messina and walk through Corso Umberto, the pedestrian street, full of palaces, shops, restaurants and many ice cream parlors.

We walked and arrived at Piazza IX Aprile, where two musicians played the Godfather song, ha! What a welcome! Then I caught the view from the panoramic terrace of that square, possibly the most beautiful in the city. It struck me, to see a sign in a building that said Work of Don Bosco, that as a good Salesian made me smile and remember the times of adolescence.

In this same square is the Chiesa di San Giuseppe, we went to meet her and when I left I noticed that the women took pictures on their steps to the Sophia Loren, surely evoking some passage of some movie that I did not see, but I said I want too! So with Pachi we settled ourselves so that Jorge could take that picture of us, posing as it is divas.

Obviously we had an exquisite pizza that had at least mozzarella, tomato, mushrooms, eggplant, onion, and I do not know how many more vegetables, but it was fabulous. And of course, for dessert, we had some delicious cones of pistachio, chocolate, melon, mmmm. Exquisite!

We walked more, we entered the Duomo di Taormina, I was fascinated with his images. On this trip I am making a collection of photos of all the images I see of the Virgin in each church we know, and with which, at the end of this  journey, I will compile to appreciate so much beauty together.

At the bottom we see a beautiful view of the Isola Bella, one of the pearls of Taormina, which is accessed by walking along the sand when the tide is low.

How hot it was, we decided to return to the ship and officially inaugurate the pool season, so Jorge, Pachi and Pachi’s pink donut were thrown into the water.

At the end of the day, a wind of 30 knots entered the bay, which made a wave so so annoying throughout the night that it prevented us from sleeping. The anchor chain hit hellish pulls. We lived on board 3 years ago, but that night was terrible.

The next day we were on our way to the Strait of Messina, but 35 knots of wind and horrible panzazos, convinced us to postpone for the next day the crossing of the Strait, which we would do for 2 days, the next day, course to the Aeolian Islands, which of course there is nothing better than traveling from the boat. Another nice find that I leave for the next post.