Villaggio Alkantara Apartments (Giardini Naxos)

... Taormina for a better view of Etna than from Catania and to check out the town.
We foolishly thought it would be easy to walk the 850m from the train station to the town, but didn't count on most of it being some ridiculously steep gradient. Got there in the end, but bus would have been the better option...

Catania, Sicily, Italy richlum

Sometimes I let myself wonder, not always a good thing but regardless an effort I must make. I wonder if things are going to feel different when I get home, if I will view things in a different way. I have already made some discoveries about the differences between Italy and Canada that I love, and like, and don't feel all that warm and fuzzy about, and no matter what it leads me towards, I always seem to come back to the same ...

... are following. I LOVE THAT!

So, hope you all are enjoying the silliness that I'm putting out there for you, and keep on reading, rating and most importantly, commenting. I can't tell you the smile I get when I see that I have responses.

Alright, enough house keeping. Back to being crazy so I have new, exciting things to blog about!

... a bus tour to Mt. Etna but it was just a bus not guided. So I looked at other options. I found all sorts of different options. Many of them left early in the morning. So while I spent my time calling and researching the other options, my original bus tour departed and I was no longer going to Mt. Etna by any of the many options I had unearthed. Hmpf. (Haha, unearthed. I just caught that on my second read through for proofing. Nice one, Jos.)

But, I had a lovely time in Taormina ...

... br>B&B Massimo, ha una lunga tradizione di
ospitalità e accoglienza, che ha reso la nostra struttura B&B, tra
le più affidabili della città. Veniteci a trovare, per prenotazioni o
maggiori informazioni, compilate il form nella sezione contattaci.
I nostri servizi: Parcheggio e prima colazione
le nostre stanze Ampie, spaziose, dai colori caldi
e gradevoli, parquet ...

... in a beautiful dress, enjoyed a beautiful dinner with a window view, thanks to Elsie who had the forsight to book reservations.

Our post dinner ritual had us stop by the International Cafe for a piece of cheese cake, on the way to the Princess Theatre. Nothing like those double desserts! That's why we get friendly with those cardio machines in the fitness center!

The evening ...

With our bus leaving at 11.30 to Catania we decided to get one more arancini and do one last sweeping tour of the market, that move nearly cost us our seat, OK we were the last ones to get a seat but we didn't get to sit together, mind you we didn't have to stand for the 3 hour journey, so things could have been a lot worse.

Catania is a laid back city, much of it is constructed from the black lava which poured down the mountain and engulfed the ...

... probably have shortened stays at a couple of them. I loved the look of this port but we were only there for one hour and weren't allowed off the ship. You will have to look on the map to find out where we have just been. Weather is absolutely fabulous, sea is calm and the drinks are still flowing. Keep the emails and messages coming, we love them. Bye for now.

... halt pressieren und dann lange es absolut und verkaufte mir die tickets. Als wir rennend auf dem perron ankamen,war der zug weg und das billet natürlich bereits agestempelt. Zurück am schalter fragte ich, was ich nun tun könne. Die höfliche dame meinte, das ticket sei nun ungültig und der nächste zug komme erst in 5stunden wieder. Auf meinen einwand, dass SIE mir das ticket ja verkauft habe und hätte wissen müssen, dass der zug schon weg ist und ich es ja nicht bebraucht ...

... A small village perched high above the Mediterranean sea. It's church tower was spotted by Francis Ford Coppola from below and that was how he picked this for the movie the Godfather. It is the village where Michael spots his bride to be and the wedding party winds through the small streets. Very beautiful.

We then went to Taormina ...