We woke up early this morning to catch a hydrofoil from Lipari to Taormina, a small city on the much bigger island of Sicilia. While its never fun to get up at 5:30 AM, we did get a treat and were able to see the sun rise over the water. We took a 90 minute boat ride to the city of Messina, a major port city in Sicilia that is very close to the mainland of Italy. In fact, we traveled through Messina on our way to the aeolian islands - this is where the train got off the boat and took us to Milazzo.
We had a couple of hours in Messina before our train to Taormina arrived, so we checked our luggage at the train station, and went to explore the city. We've been making somewhat of a bad choice and traveling mostly on Sundays, when most everything is shut down. Even the train station was very quiet and the employees there were eager to strike up conversations with us - the guy at the baggage drop and the custodian for the restrooms. It was good to get some more practice speaking Italian, but I still haven't heard a lot of the Sicilian dialect I've heard so much about...
With four hours to explore, we went our our way to see the main catheral - the only thing our guidebook recommended. (short aside: we're becoming increasingly frustrated with our Lonely Planet "Sicily" book - the information is very limited, and in most cases, not very helpful). On the way to the cathedral, I caught a glimpse of 30 or so bicyclists whizzing by - it seems from my limited knowledge of bike racing (thanks, Erica), that this was a time trial. There was about a 20-block stretch on which the cyclists were doing a loop over and over and over again. We watched for a while and checked out the snazzy bikes (and I thought about how much I miss mine), and then we head over to the cathedral.
It was quite a remarkable building, and apparently has been rebuilt several times after being destroyed during wars and earthquakes. There was a mass going on since it was Sunday, so I took a few quick shots and stepped out. Adjacent to the cathedral is a 180' tall campanile with the largest astronomical clock in the world. The clock includes a map of the solor system with the accurate alignment of planets, the day and month of the year, and the sign of the zodiac. There are also many moving parts on the front side of the tower and every day at noon there is a huge performance - a lion roars and waves a flag, a rooster crows and flaps its wings, prophets circle and bow to Mary, and a castle raises up through the clouds - all while Ave Maria is blasted at full volume on several speakers (this sets off car alarms all througout the neighborhood). If you've seen the astronomical clock in Prague, its quite similar - minus hundreds of people, and with more theatrics.We went to see another cathedral and a fountain, and happened upon another great galleria. It was so hot out that we each had two granites and walked back to the train station.
It was a quick ride to Taormina, where the woman we're renting an apartment from picked us up. We couldn't have been happier! Taormina is a very hilly place and if we have schleped our bags all the way to the apartment, we would have melted halfway up. This aparment is also great - a nice open space, great kitchen area, a washing machine, and a great view of the sea (though no internet connection so unsure about how often we will be able to make posts). We got settled in and then head uphill even futher to go meet our friends Michael and Sylvie who are staying in Taormina as well. From our quick observations, Taormina has a mideviel feel to it, and is very touristy like Sorrento, but with a much more upscale feel to it. The four of us had dinner together and worked out the details for yet another volcano climb - Mount Etna, which we'll be doing tomorrow.
Gelato Gusti per il Giorno:
Mike - Banane e Mandorino
Aviva - Melone e Mela Verde
No comments:
Post a Comment