Week one in Taormina...check!!

REMINDER: This is an old post re-published because I was stupid and deleted the original!! haha

Ciao a tutti da Taormina... e si, penso mia italiano e meglio!! Translation for the non-italian speakers or understanders: And yes, I think my Italian is better!!

I guess you would hope it would be with learning new words every day and being forced to speak Italian (and no English) at home and at school...we get told off in class if we speak English as obviously not everyone has English as a first language.

There were 4 other women and myself in my class last week, but all from different countries; England, Japan, France and Germany!! But week two will bring a slightly different group as there are new people starting every week. I have had a fairly full week of settling in and getting myself sorted out but also trying to make the most of my free time from school;

On the first day of school, last Monday, I met another guy (Chris) who was also from Melbourne but currently lives in London. He was starting also but only for a week and didn’t know any Italian already...so we ended up hanging out a lot this last week and were each others break from speaking Italian.

He left yesterday (Sunday) back to London and so we went out Saturday night to a very popular bar with the locals, particularly those who enjoy posing, but I think this is nearly all Italians!! Haha. They were all very entertaining.

Chris and I also caught the cable car down to the beach on Wednesday as it was really warm and even contemplated swimming, but we took too long over our late lunch of seafood, salad and wine on the edge of the beach!! It is definitely a hard life!! ;-)

Otherwise during the week after school I was having lunch with and getting to know others from school and that is always good as normally we speak Italian the whole time as it is good practice and it is the only language we ALL share.

On Friday I went out for dinner to a fantastic restaurant which specialises in fish and seafood. A lot of Sicilian dishes are based around seafood as it is so readily available and SO fresh...the meal was amazing!! And Sicily has great local wine which is reasonably priced too!!

On Saturday I went out on a day excursion with a group that was organised by school. Each week they have activities organised for every afternoon, whether they be group lunches or dinners at a local restaurant, seminars or lectures on italian culture, group games like scrabble, watching an italian film or going on a walk or small excursion around Taormina. Then every Saturday they run a day trip to somewhere on the east side of Sicily.

Last Saturday we went almost to the most southern tip of Sicily to a Nature Reserve called Vendicari which is on the ocean and then after that to a small town called Noto.

Vendicari was beautiful and despite it being a bit cool when we left Taormina, it was quite hot by the time we got down south as the environment and climate is also quite different down there; more dry and arid.

We were driven to these places by one of the teachers from school, Pepe, who seems to know a lot in general about many places in Sicily, if not Italy. He acted as our tour guide and spoke to us a lot (in italian obviously) about the flora and fauna, what different buildings and remains were and what we were looking at. For the parts that I could understand, it was all very interesting!! haha

To begin with Bepe explained to us about where we were and about the landscape. We then basically went on a bit of a walk and a wander for a couple of hours and we stopped and talked about different things along the way, like this seaweed that is common in the area...

Yes, I do not tell a lie, this IS seaweed...or a seasponge...just different to what we get in OZ. But it looks very different where it has gathered on the beach, a bit like a bunch of pebbles...

Vendicari is a place where they used to have a tuna collection farm type thing, which they call 'la Tonnara'. Remains of this structure still remain and they are currently in the process of restoring it. Bepe told us a lot about this and the process for collecting tuna, which were then killed in a less stressful way for the fish than today.

We then stopped part way for our packed lunches...nothing like at home though. Mine was un panino con prosciutto, provolone, pormodoro e oregano made by the very sweet old man at the mini-mart for €2.80!!

After Vendicari we drove to Noto a small town a little further north with a lot of amazing old buildings which were constructed using the local stone which is a very rich yellow and ochre colour. A lot of these buildings have been restored in recent years and so the town looks even more spectacular.

The weather was quite up and down both with changing locations and just cos that seems to be how the weather is in Sicily. It was a long day but nice to see some areas outside of Taormina.

Then on Sunday afternoon I decided to do a bit of exercise and see where my street (the flight of endless stairs) took me cos it just continues off every map that I have...

I ended up walking all the way up to a small settlement nearby on the top of the hill behind Taormina called Castelmola. I had originally thought I would do that on Sunday but the downpour of rain put a dampener on that idea...literally!! But funnily enough I made it there anyway.

Since it is up on the hill behind Taormina, there were great views and it was quite a strenuous walk but only 20min for me. It was also beautiful as I got up there just before dusk and so saw it all start to get dark...needless to say it was a bit dangerous trying to walk back down again!!

Me wondering how much further it is...

Yes, that is a massive cruise ship parked in the bay at Giardini Naxos...

Ci vediamo
Jo xox

This is the ultra naughty “Cat” trying to climb up me and he continues to pester me whenever I am outside or tries to run inside my room or through my door at any chance...but there is NO WAY!