Agrigento to Taormina. Wednesday

View from our hotel at Taormina

Woke to the beautiful chirping of birds and the soft yellow glaze on the temples. Bliss.
Want to the downstairs terrace for breakfast prepared by our host Nello (he's the one with the VERY trendy glasses). I'd heard his little scooter leaving around 6.30 and guessed correctly that he had gone to collect the pastries for breakfast. And how delightful was breakfast. Freshly squeezed orange juice, yoghurt then 3 types of pastry! One with ham, a croissant with marmelatta and another horn type with a pistachio ricotta! I duly wrapped some of mine to take for the day! Steve devoured his.

We went to settle the bill and found our cards didn't work and then were 3 euros short to be able to pay in cash! Poor Nello. He was very gracious and said the beers from last night were on him!

Taormina piazza 

We headed off for Piazza Armerina and the Roman Villa of Casale. What a villa it was. The villa has the most marvellous mosaic floors imaginable. There are 63 rooms and some are in such great condition you can see the design very clearly. It was all restored last year and is very visitor friendly. Each area is explained as you move around the villa on wooden walking platforms above the rooms so you can look down. The roofing has been either replaced with timber vaulted ceilings or is open. It is unsure when the villa was built and it was covered during an earth quake. Seems its about 4 th or 5th century AD! I'll put the photos in a separate  post to do it some justice.

We left there around 1:00 and got to Taormina around 2:30. A good quick run and Steve pretty well stuck to the speed limit though most others around us didn't.

more views

Did a (partly accidental!) circuit of the gorgeous town of Taormina before finding our Hotel which is just lovely with beautiful views to the coast. The greeting was warm and we were given iced tea whilst the porter got our luggage and parked the car. Good break for Steve as the parking is tight.




Went for an afternoon ramble. Saw the little pink tutu girls preparing for their performance.

Young ballerina preparing for the show in the ancient teatro

It will be a long evening for them as we think the show is this evening!

Climbed the stairs of the teatro and gasped at the view. I'm lucky enough to have bee here before with my sister Catherine and sister in law Margaret but the beauty of the place still takes my breath away.

Went strolling aln the Corso and once agaian Steve "won" the shopping. He bought a beautiful white linen shirt and I bought nothing!
Now he's all set for Demi's  christening (Bertie and Fabio's new little daughter. We're going to the christening in Lerici (near the Cinque Terre) in another 2 weeks . After the swim trek!

Our hotel from the teatro Top floor balcony 

Our room on the 3rd floor is lovely - not overly flash but very very nice and comfortable and has a terrace with sun lounges and a view to the sea. I'm sitting on the trace with a glass of red writing this now - listening to a combination of birds, bells and orchestral music which I suspect is coming from the Greek theatre nearby - which despite its ancient beginnings still has concerts etc. This afternoon when we walked there we saw all these little tutu girls in pink with hair scraped back into buns dusted with glitter. They were followed by mommas with wheels suitcases with I guess a change of costumes. There was to be a performance of some sort of ballet and I can now hear the music. Would be lovely to go to a concert there.

Went out for dinner and passaggiata along the corso to the pizza and the wonderful lookout over the bay . Lovely way to finish the night

Scenes in a piazza at Taormina