Monday 24th October 2022
Well it was an early start this morning, up and on our way by 6.45am. In the dark again. We came home last night to our takeaway breakfast ready to go. So we headed down to catch the 7.15am ferry to Milazzo Port Sicily. To our surprise the wharf was so crowded. We were expecting a few people but there was an excursion of 75 boys from England leaving today as well. They were half of the 150 people on the hiking tour the night before us. So it was very crowded on the ferry and it was the first time on all our ferry trips that the boat left late.

Oh well, it was a magical day weather wise and a very pleasant 2 hour ferry trip. The ferry is a hydrofoil and goes very fast. We arrived at Milazzo at 9.35am, walked to the Del Porto Garage about 5 mins down the road, picked up our car and were on our way. David felt a little out of practice having not driven for 4 days, especially as the drivers in Sicily are like the ones in southern Italy. If you give them half a blink, they are on their way, even if there isn’t enough room. You just have to nudge your way in and go for it. By the end of the day, David was back in the swing of it and driving like an Italian.

We had a choice of driving back through Messina to Taormina (72mins) or head through the centre of Sicily through the mountains (2.5hrs). Now I am sure you can guess which way we went. Once we got through the suburbs near the port, after a few wrong turns, we got on the road to the mountains. David was in his element, it was winding, narrow and racing driver practice, He loved it. He should have been a racing car driver. We finally arrived at Taormina at about 1.30pm, after missing the turn into the car parking station, it took another 15mins to get back there. We then headed to the Old Town. This was really just the Main Street of the Old Town which was really nice. The buildings, the facades, the shops, the churches and the Duomo were all lovely. A typical old historical town. We spent the afternoon waking the main street, then out of the town to the gardens, then back in to the town to the Greek Theatre which was a huge outdoor arena and was quite spectacular. Then we walked the Main Street again for gelato, then down the cable car (only 3euro each, each way) to the beach and Isola Bella (Bella Island). The water at the beach was so clear and once again was walking on pebbles. We enjoyed our time there but are really looking forward to being back in the mountains tomorrow.

We then drove to Santa Venerina, to a lovely 2 bedroom apartment with all the facilities. Time for a home cooked stir fry veggies and chicken. Yeehah! We feel like we might turn in to a pastry, cake or pizza, we have eaten so many of them in the last week. We are situated at the base of Mt Etna ready for our trip up there tomorrow.