Paris - Helsinki. Nine months on the road in
Europe. With a travel
partner and more time and
money to spend this was
going to be a differnet
trip to my last.
From Malta we took a pretty basic overnight boat to Sicily, which consisted of us sleeping on the floor of the living quarters, not the easiest in sleeping bags on rolling swells. I first port of call was to a place called Syracuse. In Syracuse we had to navigate our way a few kilometers to the beach front campsite. That proved more difficult due to the lack of buses and with little to no sleep last night my pateince was fast wearing thin. Our location in Syracuse was a bit disappointing as we were hoping to go to a nice beach there. However once we got to the campsite we found out that the beach belonged to a holiday beach club and you weren't allowed to use it. We had to hike to a less than impressive section of the beach. Syracuse town itself did how ever have some awesome Greek ruins. The 5th century BC ruins of the Neapolis-Parco Archeological site housed a theatre carved out of solid rock and a coliseum that were both really impressive. We pretty much spent a whole day wandering around the sites before heading north.
From Syracuse we travelled by train north to Taorimina which more than repaid the slight disappointment of the beach in Syracuse. Although we didn't have a sandy beach we had probably the most stunningly positioned campsite I have ever seen. The campsite was situated on top of a cliff will a clear view over the blue/green ocean below full of million dollar boats bellow. The Volcano mount Etna was also puffing away in the background. At the campsite there was a new litter of kittens to play with and there was also the disturbing presence of the resident artist who liked to stroll around in the buff.
The town of Taormina itself was a hard, steep hike up the cliffs to an amazingly charming little town above. There were again Greek ruins situated near the town with another Greek theatre. The views from this town were again stunning and there was a calm but vibrant feeling to the place. We also ended up taking a bus to Mount Etna driving through a couple of other charming towns and climbing part of the active volcano. For the rest of our time we hiked down to the gorgeous also Isola Bella beach below the campsite to the left. The pebbely beach was awash with sunbathers and Itallian holiday makers. The water was typically lush justifying its positon in the mederterrian.
8 votes 
This is a top pick!
