Last Stop in Sicily

My oh my, it is October. How did that happen? Still a few more places to go but the trip is definitely getting close to its crescendo. We have to leave Cefalu today but breakfast must be eaten first. Another nice morning on the heavenly terrace at Scirocco BNB.
Then we must pack and are out the door at 0945 for our 1008 train. We arrive with 10 minutes to spare and of course the train is ritardo which is late. We have lots of time with our connection in Messina so it doesn’t concern us. Only 10 minutes late which is considered on time here. Our two hour ride to Messina is very nice as we ride along the northern coast of Sicily. The weather is changing and there is a little bit of rain as we pull into Messina. Even with the delay we still have 30 minutes until our train so we decide to put our time to good use. There is no line at the ticket window here so I go to buy our train tickets to leave Taormina in two days and go to Caserta. On line the price was showing 54 Euros a piece, as it is a long train ride from Sicily to Naples and then to Caserta. When she rings me up, the total is only 53 Euros and I ask “for due” thinking she may have only done one ticket like happened to us in Poland. She says yes for two, there is a special price. This is quite a savings so I am now very happy and we don’t have to worry about buying our ticket in Taormina, which saves us time there.
We see that our train now has a platform number attached to it and head there. It is already there so we get on board and grab a seat. We pull away and I notice we are in first class but figure we will play stupid tourist if they say something. From Messina, we can look across the sea and see mainland Italy. It stays in sight most of the journey until the mainland runs out of land and we have only water to look at again. No one questions us about our seats on our hour long journey, so that is nice. We pull into Taormina and get off the train. Now the hard part as we have a two mile walk and it is all uphill. To make things worse, it is starting to look like rain. There may be a bus, but we are not smart enough to stop and ask as we start to walk along the road and turn uphill. Not even 10 minutes goes by when it starts to rain so we stop near a parking shed with an awning to put our pack covers on the packs. As we do this it starts to rain really hard so on go the raincoats. This only means that I will get wet with sweat instead of rain. The climb gets a little steeper and we end up walking right to a hospital where the road ends. Since I have not passed out yet, we turn around and I ask someone where the road is to the center of Taormina. She points at a steeper road above us. We huff and puff our way up the road which looks in a bit of disrepair. According to my map, there is supposed to be a walk path or steps off this road cutting off some twists and turns. We do not come across it and then the road is no longer. There is a large dirt pile where the road used to be and then more blacktop of sorts on the other side of it. Applying my hiking mantra of I don’t like going backwards, we climb the wet muddy pile of dirt and cross over. Then we go by some not so great looking houses and some people with barking dogs staring at us like what the heck are you doing here? I am wondering this myself. We do see the main road up and are able to reach it from here. That doesn’t make things better as we are walking on an automobile grade which makes our legs none too happy. The rain almost stops so I take my jacket off as I am overheating. Carol does the same. She does follow me everywhere but I can tell this is not one of the happier followings. I try sticking out my thumb a few times as we can see where we have to go and it is quite depressing. We are a long way from the Pacific Crest Trail and nobody stops to pick us up. We come to a spot where the walking trail we did not find joins the main road just like it shows on the map. I cannot fathom where it comes from. We climb to where this is a multilevel parking garage and see where the road winds its way up and around it. I see people up above at what must be the edge of town. I walk off the road with my lovely wife still in tow. I figure the 7 to 8 story garage must have an elevator for all those lazy car people. I wish to join them and we walk into the garage and my wish comes true. 8 levels up and just a short inclined plane later, we are on the edge of Taormina. Our place is 2/3 of a mile on the other edge but at least it is flat and we have hope for an end to our short Sicilian backpack trip. We plow down the Main Street which is full of more tourists than anywhere else we have been in Sicily. Somebody has done a good job of advertising this place. Reaching a church landmark we turn left, then right, then left, dodge a few cars and walk up about 70 steps to the front door of our BNB. I ring the bell and Fabio opens the door for us. He gives us some water as I drip dry for the next 15 minutes or so, maps, room and breakfast info, passport check, and here are the keys process. That done, we get on with the task of cooling off with the AC and unpacking our things.

Pistachio Goodness

We have earned a treat and since we have not opened up our pistachio cookies, it seems like this is a good time to do so. Carol makes some tea in our common area kitchen and I just have some much needed water to replenish what I have lost. The cookies are incredible and it takes restraint to save some for later or tomorrow.
Once we get settled and it appears like the rain has temporarily stopped, we decide to explore a little and look at possible dinner venues. The town has emptied out some both due to the weather and the fact that the day trippers have now left. About midway through the town by the church of San Giuseppe, there is a nice plaza overlooking the sea, coastline, and the train station where we started.

We Started at the Sea

Now it is confirmed that we are a little bit crazy to have walked up here.
We come to Piazza Duomo and have a quick look inside the cathedral. The outside looks almost more like a fort than a church and the inside nice but a bit on the plain side. There is a nice carving of the last supper on the main alter. By this time we are pretty hungry and look for a pizza restaurant that had looked good on line. We are hoping since it is a pizzeria and restaurant that it will be open earlier than the normal 1900-2000 time. It is a little after 1800 and we find it down a small side street. One of the waiters takes us down the street to a covered patio outside. There is only one other couple there and Carol wisely chooses a table in the middle of the patio. Why this is wise will soon be brought to bear. We order and decide to get a pizza as our antipasto and then two pasta dishes. We go with just water for the meal as our bodies are craving the rehydration. While we are waiting for our pizza, they bring us a small piece of bruschetta on the house. A good start. Then our Diavola pizza arrives with spicy salami and pepper. It is very good and we do not waste a lot of time polishing it off. The pasta we have a chosen is Norma ( eggplant, tomato, and ricotta) and a mixed seafood spaghetti. They are both very good and flavorful. The place has filled up while we start to eat and we have also had free entertainment. There is a pizzeria restaurant right across the alley and their owner/manager is very aggressive at trying to get people in her place. She tried to steal us from our waiter as we were walking in and we watch her steal a few customers away from here. We then watch the waiters from our restaurant start to walk people through the inside door before coming out another door to the patio so they can avoid her. It is pretty comical and I comment to the waiter , “is this every night” and he shakes his head unhappily. When we are in the middle of our meal, the rain starts pouring down and people sitting near the edge of the patio are getting wet.

Frutti di Mare

They have a plastic window that they put down but not before several diners get a bit of a shower. We definitely have the best seat in the place. Then near the end of our meal, all the power goes off on the whole street. It is turning out to be quite an interesting dining adventure. We do talk with some people from England that are sitting next to us as we all try and eat in the dark. Eventually the lights come on, we pay our bill, and walk back not wanting to navigate the wet, steep, stair ridden streets in the dark. Carol gets a cannoli to go along the way. Safely back in our room, we have time to journal and read before bed. There is also tea and cannoli for Carol. Hoping for a drier tomorrow.
Expenses
Train from Cefalu to Taormina 26.1E
Dinner at Shelter Pizza Ristorante 36E
Pasticcheria Etna Cannoli 2.5E
Cielo di Taormina BNB 87E
Walked 4.8 Miles