V5 travels: On the road to get to Sicily, Taormina

We left Matera early, knowing that we had a 5+ hour drive to Sicily. The drive was spectacular. We went through fields and huge mountainous areas and we must have gone through at least 30 tunnels and viaducts over valleys. The infrastructure leaves NSW for dead! It was an easy journey in the trusty Yarris, which sat comfortably at 140km on the autostrade (and we were being overtaken)!

We caught the ferry from Villa San Giovanni (right at the tip of the toe) over to Sicily. V4 did very well negotiating our way onto the ferry, buying the tickets (which there were no instructions in English to do). We sat on the front deck and watch as we moved slowly offshore toward Sicily which was covered in a sea mist, so looked very mystical!

The wind got to us, so we ventured inside and had a Cannoli each to celebrate - so decadent - filled with sweet cream ricotta!

On arrival at Messina, we took our turn to leave the ferry, negotiating the massive traffic funnel 5 lanes to 2 and left the town, being surprised at the wonderful road conditions - more autostrade and tunnels that made the one hour trip to Taormina so easy. We left the autostrade at Taormina and wound our way up the mountain - the hotel had given us instructions to park in a parking station a few hundred metres from them - I’m so glad we did as if we had driven into the town, it would have been a nightmare of traffic, pedestrians and one way narrow streets - there is no parking!

It was Labour Day holiday, 1 May, and the streets of Taormina were jam packed with tourists. Lots and lots of Italian families wandering the streets, but also French, German, Slavic, some Americans, a few English, but we have not yet met another Australian (with the exception of Erica in Matera).

Our hotel is the top of the mountain, and we have a small balcony that looks to the sea. After checking in, we walked the streets around the main thoroughfare - Corso Umberto - up the hill to the Ancient Greek theatre (which we did not pay to see) and then down streets and stairs (hundreds of them) to the water, and then took the cable car back to the top. By this time we were starving, but it was too early for dinner (which happens late), so we had apparition in a small bar and wandered to look for a dinner place. Our host had recommended a place around the corner but it was booked out until 8.30 (far to long for tired and hungry travellers, so we found a table in a place nearby called ‘Carpe Diem’. It was the worst food and most expensive of our trip so far - the only saving grace was the cheese plate we started with which had a variety of cheeses. Our pasta Primi was shop bought pasta (something we haven’t been used to) and then we had grilled lamb chops and a green bean side dish——neihther of us could finish. We paid and left as quickly as possible - not succumbing to the hosts attempt to sweet talk us. We just couldn’t eat it.