Athena Hotel Giardini Naxos

... it was a bit cloudy and overcast and we couldn't see the peak - probably a good decision to not do the tour as well...
Catania is a nice quaint quiet town and wouldbe lovely in summer.


Caught the 10pm overnight train to Rome with Laura.
Overnight trains in Italy are definitely a lot more sketchy than in Germany.

... 8217;m Done Like Dinner.
Maybe I have a lack of truly being able to live in the moment, I never thought about that before. I am always moving towards the next phase, the next process. When I was leaving, I wasn’t allowing myself to enjoy the process, I was stressing about my apartment, and my new job and my friends dog. Even while on my trip (this is a natural thing I hope) but I was constantly concerned with where I ...

I just checked out my 'stats' section and I'm quite pleased with my little blog and how much people are enjoying reading about my travels. I have over 20 5-star ratings and over 2,000 viewings. That is so incredibly awesome!

Apparently my photos are also not so bad. Travelpod has selected almost a dozen of them to be included in the daily ...

Sheesh, my blog is turning into a Grey's Anatomy show will all these song lyrics in the title. Hey, by the way, is Grey's on? I can't believe I'm missing a whole season of my shows. (Yes, I would rather be in Italy than watching McDreamy. But it's a close race. KIDDING.)

I arrived in Giardini Naxos yesterday. I had originally planned on taking the train, but the bus worked out better so I was a couple hours early. I found the hostel without any hitches. As you know, that is rather ...

... condizionata, tutte le comoditā per
trascorrere durante la permanenza gradevoli e rilassanti momenti,
all'interno del cuore di Catania, le nostre stanze, curate nei minimi
particolari, rendono perfettamente il nostro concetto di ospitalitā,
dove pulizia e accuratezza permettono una piacevole permanenza, ed č
questo a renderci tra i migliori B&B di questa stupenda cittā.

Buon Giorno! Ok! For clarification, we didn't stop at Messina. We merely went through the Messina Strait, where our Italian built 100,000 ton boat "Ruby Princess" continued south and navigated around the toe of Italy. Today was a day at Sea! A day to relax on our balcony and enjoy that local vino we purchased in Naples.

We did begin the day at the fitness center. Being a fitness instructor and ...

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 ...

Hi Folks,
Just thought I would include this port as we stopped there unexpectedly this morning to disembark another ill passenger (or maybe it was the same on). We are supposed to be having a day at sea today which we are but by stopping at Messina it has delayed tomorrows' arrival at Piraeus, but the Captain has just announced that we will not miss any ...

... amazing town with fantastic views. We saw 4 weddings. The father and the bride walk through the streets and meet the guest who are waiting outside the church and then they all proceed into the church together. We saw the amphitheater where the Taormina film festival was taking place.

Beautiful views and fun places to shop.

... then met at the hotel to take the tour bus to the airport.             Sicily was a really nice area, at least where we were staying and visited.  The people were much friendlier than Florentines, which is not hard to do, and the weather was pleasant except for a little storm on our way to Siracusa.  We were a little sad to leave, but hopefully Kendyl and I can take some day trips the second half of spring break to other regions in Italy.