Baia Azzura Taormina

There's no doubt about it, Taormina is a magical place. We arrived after an interesting drive from Tropea. The drive on the mainland is up and down and as we neared Reggio di Calabria it hugged the coast in a picturesque manner. We passed through the interesting town of Scilly but unfortunately only had time for a brief stop.

The GPS took...

Catania photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album. php?aid=168080&id=613699523&l=b 66c2b2ea1

We were debating whether to do a Mt Etna tour but in the end decided to give it a miss as it was expensive and we weren't guaranteed on seeing much depending on the conditions up the mountain.
Instead we caught a train to Taormina f...

Today was a sea day. I shall attempt to tell you how we spend these wonderfully relaxing days, doing nothing...
I usually awaken early, 5:00 or 6:00am at the latest. Today, Jim beat me to it. He had a pilates class at 8:00am and woke me. After he left for the class, I showered and dressed. I love the bath products in our stateroom. The showe...

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 ab...

Cruel in some cases but true...
Athens
Piraeus, the port for Athens doesn't have anything to recommend it other than there are a lot of ways to get out of it, with the quick metro to Athens and extensive cruise, ferry and freight docks. After all Greeks are Shipping. If you walk anywhere watch out for doggy doo! The big set piece, the Acro...

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 t...

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 ...

Boo went to the kids' late night party last night. When they said "late night" they weren't kidding. The staff delivered her back to our room at 3:00 a.m. She had a blast, but was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Needless to say, we slept late today. Pretty much just another relaxing day at sea. I did become hugely aggravated when ...

Well, the lady in the restaurant where we ate lunch around 2 said it would be impossible to climb from Taormina to the Rocca della Madonna that is above the town, descend the other side, climb again to the higher outcrop behind again where the little town of Castelmola is perched and descend again in the daylight left in time to see the Greco-Ro...