Sicily 2016

Thu Sep 1^st

Fly Malaga to Rome, change terminals, then Alitalia flight Rome to Catania.

Lovely clear skies all the way down Italy’s west coast, and then over the Aeolian Islands, until we reached Sicily. Then dense cumulus, and heavy rain as we descended. Took the coach from Catania to Taormina, but it was a tortuous journey visiting every possible village on the way. We were meeting the agent at the apartment at 8:00, but got to Taormina late.

We’d decided not to get a taxi, as it was only 1km from the bus station to the apartment. Big mistake… the noise of our wheelie suitcases on the uneven mosaic pavement was bad enough, but it was uphill, we’d been travelling all day, and the Corso Umberto was a heaving mass of humanity.

But the lady agent (the owner’s mother) was waiting patiently for us. She insisted on showing us all the amenities of the apartment (without any English), when we were just desperate for a drink. Nice place though, with terrace and views of Etna and the Mediterranean. Shame about the spiral staircase from the sleeping (1^st floor) to the living (2^nd floor). And a shame about a shared wall between our bedroom, and the dining room of the apartment below.

Went to the fairly up-market restaurant Déjà Vu, and had pizzas and a litre of Rose.

Fri Sep 2^nd

Around Taormina

Nice weather.

Supermarket shopping, then a pretty awful set lunch at the Trattoria Carpe Diem at the west end of Corso Umberto. We then wandered around, taking in the Roman Odeon, The Piazza Duomo, Piazza IX Aprile and all the up market shops on the Corso Umberto.

Drank wine in our local bar, and then as it was a pleasant evening, more wine on our balcony.

Sat Sep 2^rd

Down to Mazarro, boat ride.

Another nice day.

Walked down the steep path and steps to Mozarro.

Had a beer at Lido la Pigna, and decided to enquire about a boat trip. 50 Euros would get us an exclusive hour long trip trip to the Coral Cave, Blue Grotto, Isola Bella and along the coast. Expensive, but we went for it, and it was excellent. I took 92 photos! Back to the Lido for a Panini lunch and more beer.

Took the cable car back to Taormina.

Went for an evening stroll to a modern place called Bella Vista and were charged 16 euros for two ordinary beers. The place was empty and we now knew why.

Strolled back and saw many brides in Piazza IX Aprile.

Went to the Bar Cafa @ Internet in our local alley for pretty good pizzas and wine

Sun Sep 4^th

Taormina

Another nice day. Walked to the gardens of Giardini della Villa Comunale with their crumbling follies… the inspiration of an English woman, Florence Trevelyan. Walked for miles looking for a way to the Greek Theatre (Teatro Greco), but what was indicated on the map as a short cut was private property. Found a crowded bar in a nice little back street for beers.

Eventually got to the Greek Theatre and found it was the free day, otherwise it would have been expensive. It’s regularly used for concerts, so had modern seating and a modern stage, so a little disappointing.

Found a nice little pizza restaurant for lunch on the way back.

In the evening, we went to Billy and Billy in the Piazza Duomo for very odd Caipirinhas, then Aperol spritzer and Pina Colada at a bar on the Corso Umberto for a little people watching. There was a conspicuous number of beautiful people, window shopping in the very up-market shops of the Corso Umberto. There were some very fancy looking motor yachts anchored below us, and judging by the people passing, there were a lot of rich men parading their trophy wives and girl-friends.

Mon Sep 5^th

Taormina.

Overcast.

Some supermarket shopping,

Took a taxi up to the hilltop town of Castelmola, wandered around, beers. Taxi back to Taormina.

Booked an excursion to the Aeolian Islands for tomorrow.

Dinner at the Rosso Peperoncino… Lin mussels, Rod lasagne.

Tue Sep 6^th

Taormina, excursion to Milazzo and the Aeolian Islands.

A gloomy overcast day. Walked to bus station to get the 8:00am coach for the excursion. The coach took us clockwise around the island via Messina, to the port of Milazzo on the north coast. We’d driven through some rain, and it was an unpromising start.

At Milazzo, we joined the ferry boat ‘Nadir’, another bad omen! We travelled in heavy seas, and finding our way round the boat was pretty dangerous. Especially when we later found out what happened to the Nadir’s sister boat ‘Masaccio’!

Anyway, heavy seas notwithstanding, the weather improved and we now had blue skies and warm sunshine.

We were dropped off first on the beautiful island of Panarea for a couple of hours… time for beers and pizza at the Il Geco Pizzeria, and also for a wander round the village.

Then the ‘Nadir’ returned, and took us to Stromboli for three hours. Had lime granitas on the waterfront, then walked up to village and church. Bought a tee-shirt on the way back, then more beers on the waterfront.

Afterwards, the boat took us round to the Strombolicio basalt stack and lighthouse, and then to the active side of the volcano, but we didn’t stay long enough to see anything. We had to make an unscheduled stop on Lipari which compromised our schedules.

Anyway, it was a fantastic few hours amongst these islands, and I definitely think we had the best of the weather.

Long, tedious coach trip, but I was entertained by watching a distant thunderstorm on the Italian mainland across the Messina Straits. Very late back.

Wed Sep 7^th

Taormina

Overcast. Supermarket shopping, but otherwise lazy day, Rain most of the afternoon and evening. Dinner at our local Bar Cafa @ Internet, and it finally stopped raining.

Thu Sep 8^th

Taormina

Weather Overcast early on, but improved…

Supermarket shopping for detergent, and then a washing day. Rained during morning. In the afternoon, we took the cable car down to Mozarro to visit Isola Bella. We walked across causeway and paid 4 Euros to get on the island, but disappointed to find that you couldn’t go anywhere… everything was fenced-off!

On our way back, I took photos of a wedding photo-shoot in the Piazza IX Aprile.

Dinner at the Cisterna del Moro with spectacular views, unfortunately, we didn’t have a reservation and our table was in the middle.

Fri Sep 9^th

Taormina

Overcast start, but got better.

Took an open sided bus to the Alcantara Gorge, via the resort of Giardini-Naxos.

The gorge was spectacular. Had lunch in the surprisingly nice restaurant near the gorge… slow service but good food. After lunch we did a circular walk of the area. Then got the bus back, but the walk from the bus station to the apartment, now getting a little old!

Tired, so stayed in for the evening.

Sat Sep 10^th

Taormina

Nice day…

Supermarket for bread and beer.

I walked up to the Castello Saraceno for panoramic shots of Taormina while Lin packed and tidied apartment (our last day in Taormina).

After walking past the ‘Wunderbar’ with its flunkies, its grand piano, and its well-heeled and well-dressed customers, umpteen times during the holiday, and as this was our last night, we thought we’d give it a try for cocktails, but the prices were outrageous. We ended up at our ‘local’ bar for more people watching.

Then dinner in our local Bar Cafa @ Internet one last time.

Sun Sep 11^th

Train from Taormina to Cefalu via Messina

Nice day….

We booked a taxi to take us to the Taormin-Giardini station. It arrived 20 minutes early, and then the train to Messina was over an hour late. We’d missed our first-choice train, so we had some time to kill and had basic lunch in Messina Station, then took the coastal train to Cefalu on the north side of Sicily.

The walk to the apartment was around twenty minutes, but hard work with our wheelie suitcases on their corrugated pavements. Anyway, we were very pleased with the accommodations. Shame about the sockets being (slightly) different to Spanish plugs. My shaver had run out of charge, but I eventually found that if I pushed the plug in very hard, it did make some connection.

Had beers in local square in front of cathedral.

Found a good restaurant for dinner.

Mon Sep 12^th

Cefalu

Sunny…

Shopped before breakfast after fair walk to supermarket. Couldn’t find everything we needed so we had to checkout some of the smaller shops. We went for a walk along sea front, and ended up at a nice bar called Porta Ossuna Cefalù for beer and free tapas. Back to apartment for lunch.

Then back to beach for a swim (Lin anyway), and back to Porta Ossuna Cefalù for more beer and bruschetta.

For dinner, we had a disappointing meal at restaurant with courtyard (and a sniffing German!)

Tue Sep 13^th

Cefalu

Sunny…

I went up La Rocca for photos looking down on Cefalu. Pretty spectacular.

Came back for a boozy lunch at back street pizza place, mine was OK, but Lin said it was the worst pizza she’d had, and described the seafood on her pizza as tough and sinewy! Siesta in afternoon.

Cocktails and nibbles in the local square, then back to apartment for wine and music.

Wed Sep 14^th

Our last day in Cefalu

Sunny… and my birthday.

We wandered around Cefalu, had beers and sussed out restaurants for my birthday dinner.

Back to apartment for lunch.

For my dinner, we’d booked a table with sea view at Lo Scoglio Ubriaco. An awful evening. This is the review I left on TripAdvisor…

I think the hallmark of a great restaurant is not so much that they never make mistakes, but more how they try to resolve things when they do.

In that regard, sadly Scoglio Ubriaco cannot be considered a great restaurant. We’d heard good things about the place, so as it was my birthday we decided to have dinner there, but taking no chances, we popped in at lunchtime to make a reservation.

When we got there in the evening, there was no record of our reservation, so rather than sitting next to the sea, we were several tables away. Then we made the mistake of asking for a cocktail. They seemed completely wrong-footed by this… our cocktails arrived, but we were left alone for the next 45 minutes, mostly with empty glasses. People who arrived after us were already getting their food and nobody had even come to take our order.

We eventually ordered… some wine, a starter to share, and our main courses. We’d probably been there a total of 75 minutes before our starter arrived… 5 minutes to eat it, then they took the plate away. We were not in a hurry, and were happy sipping our wine, but after a further 30 minutes, we started trying to catch a waiter’s eye. This took some time as our waiter seemed to have disappeared, but eventually we managed to get across the message that we were ready for our main course.

The gap between finishing our starters, and the main course arriving was more than an hour. By this time, some of the people who had arrived after us had had three courses, coffee, and had left.

But our main courses duly arrived; meat and fish I think… but not the potatoes that we had asked for. We mentioned this to a waiter… who did nothing. And our food was getting cold. Our potatoes arrived after 10-15 minutes, but only because my wife was nearly incandescent by now, and went over to speak to the manager.

It had taken 3 hours to get to the end of our main courses. The staff must have realised that we’d had more than our share of delays and foul-ups, but no-one offered an apology.

The food was OK, and reasonably priced considering the location, but we’re not in a hurry to repeat the experience!

Oh, and some mosquito repellent would have been useful!

Thu Sep 15^th

Train from Cefalu to Palermo, coach from Palermo station to airport. Fly Palermo to Rome, Rome to Malaga

Overcast.

Early start, 20 minute walk to Cefalu station, 7:15 train to Palermo. Confusion in Palermo as to which coach we should take for the airport. Delayed take-off in Rome. Back home about 8:00 pm.