Taormina...been there, done that!!

Yep, thats right, I am no longer in Sicilia!!

After a 14 hour journey departing Taormina by bus at 10:15pm Saturday 15th November, I then arrived in Siena at 1:45pm Sunday 16th November.

I caught the local bus from Taormina down to the station in the town next door which is right on the water and then caught the over-night train to Roma. The train arrived in Roma at 9am and from there I hopped on an express train to Firenze (Florence). I arrived in Firenze at 11:20am and then had an hour before the local train to Siena.

I arrived in Siena to be met by the husband in my host family, even though I thought my "host Mum" would be there...as it turned out she had to stay home to look after her grandson...who is gorgeous mind you and now keeps following me around apparently because I am fair like his Mum...haha

So I made it and I am now exhausted!!

But prior to all of this I had my last week in Taormina, which was a bit of a whirlwind!!

As I thought might have been the case when I first decided to study in 2 places, I was just really feeling settled and in the groove of life in Taormina and I had to uproot myself for a new home...but at the same time, I am also happy to have a change of scenery and to have some new challenges ahead of me for the next month. I think I had also explored about as much of Sicily as is possible when you only have the weekends and are living on the eastern side.

So after a busy second last weekend of excursions and wineries and adventures, I planned out my final week with quite a few things that I wanted to do before I left Taormina...

Oh, and I also got another new house mate at Antonella's...Phillip, a 38yo South African now living in Swizerland who can speak very good italian from working in an italian speaking restaurant in Swizerland, but wanted to understand the mechanics behind it all...

This is him and I on my last night after dinner with Antonella's buddah...a story that will have to wait for another time...

We had beautiful weather nearly all week, so Monday afternoon I followed Danielle's lead and tried to go down to the beach in the afternoon for a swim after a bit of a walk...but as it turned out I took the wrong route, but still managed to find some beautiful views and scenery...which really isnt hard in Taormina!! haha

Tuesday, once again more beautiful weather all day and due to not finding the beach the evening before, I went for an early morning walk before school down to the beach and had a swim which was a FANTASTIC way to start the day...particularly when we were finding that the weather is always nicer in the morning and when we are in class and then by the afternoon the sun is gone and then it starts to get dark at 4:45pm!!

Wednesday morning I met Danielle outside her apartment at 8am and we walked up to the weekly market on one of the main roads to the upper outskirts of Taormina. It is mainly clothing and household items but also a bit of food and I had only heard about this market the week before and so thought it worth a look.

Oh and there was a VERY clear view of Etna on our way to the market...with snow on top now!!

On the way we stopped at the daily food market and bought a fresh fish for our dinner and then whilst at the other market werent tempted by any cheap clothes or boots but bought what we thought was fresh rocket and also some salted ricotta to go in a lentil dish which Danielle knew, with our fish.

Once again a beautiful day, so after class I walked up to a castel on one of the surrounding hills but unfortuantely it always seems to be closed to the public, even the grounds surrounding...but it was a nice walk none-the-less and i was able to do a loop back to my house.

So I got more great views of Taormina!!

The castel at the top of the hill that I walked up to.

So Wednesday night I cooked dinner with Danielle at her shared appartment organised by the school as I was curious to see what these apartments were like. It was very big but old and filled with miss-matched old furniture and was a bit on the cold side!!...even for Taormina!!

Our dinner was great though and we had bruschetta followed by the fish with the lentil dish...and some GREAT wine!!

Thursday afternoon before the rain hit once again, I went back to the Teatro Greco (Greek Amphitheatre) and sat and did a drawing of the magnificent view to give to Antonella as a gift to say thankyou...Im sure you all know how I feel about making gifts!! It is the best way!!

I then went along to a cheese tasting session at school which was fantastic!! We got to try about 8 cheeses and Pepe spoke a little about them and the differences and which were stronger and which more "dolce" (sweet, subtle).

Friday was obviously my last day of school and being amazing weather again, I went for another morning walk and swim. It was a little sad to say goodbye to school and all the teachers!! As they are all fabulous!! Friendly, helpful and very welcoming!!

I had hoped to go out for lunch with some of the other women who had been in my group for a while and were also finishing up but they had to go to Giardini Naxos, so after puddling on the net for a bit I went out for lunch with american Danielle.

In the afternoon I returned to the beach to search for my necklace which I had lost whilst down there in the morning for my swim...with no luck!! But I did get some nice photos...

In the evening Danielle, Danielle and I went to a restaurant called Tiramisu for dinner which is a favourite of the locals'. And it WAS great!!! I didnt take photos this time but I had pepper mussles which were AMAZING...and of course, I had to try the Tiramisu...another fabbo dish!!

My last day in Taormina, Saturday, was crazily stormy and perfect for being inside and packing bags and cleaning my room...

And then an amazing sunset, and clear view of Etna!!

I then had one last amazing dinner of pasta, fish, beans, salad and the mandatory bread with Antonella and Phillip whilst (as per usual) the two boys came and went!!

Antonella, buddah and I!! hahaha...I wasnt really looking at my prime with my red face from my hot shower in preparation to go straight to sleep once on the train.

Ci vediamo
Jo xoxox

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!

Moon Jumping...

Madonna mia!! Ho ancora solo due settimane a Taormina!!

Yes, my god, I am halfway through my stay in Taormina!! As they say time flies when you are having fun...and ‘fun’ is definitely an understatement for the weekend that I have just had!!

First things first though, my week at school...

I had a good week and once again feel like I learnt a lot, but maybe not as much as the first week. Becoming quite sick with a cold on Tuesday and suffering that for the rest of the week I don’t think helped, even though I tried to have a fairly quiet week.

So Monday we had more new students start at school and our class grew from 3 to 6 which was a bit disappointing as it meant less one-on-one time for each of us, but good to have different people with different knowledge and experience in the group.

As per usual there were plenty of activities planned for the week and I took part in a walking tour of Taormina (which the school only runs on the weeks when new beginners start, which is every 2nd), went out for a group dinner, attended a seminar on The Mafia and wanted to go on the group walk to the beach one afternoon but missed out which I think was a good thing as I needed rest!!

For the last few weeks in town there has been a little bit of visible lead up to Halloween, but more importantly to something which Sicilians celebrate (or commemorate) the day after our favourite american excuse for eating lollies (haha...not!!). November 1st is ‘Il giorno dei morti’ or ‘The day of the dead’....which seems like an odd celebration to me, but basically from what I can gather it is a day to respect dead relatives, to visit the cemetery and to spend time with family.


I guess the only real visible sign that this day was impending was the traditional biscuits for this day in all of the pasticcerias, which you can see en-masse in the window of one shop I pass every day. These biscuits are supposed to represent the bones of the dead...weird!! But I decided I should try one and had it with a cuppa after dinner whilst doing my homework...it tasted very similar to gingerbread but was more chewy.

This one wasn’t in the shape of a bone like some in other shops but of a person?!?

Despite this public holiday for the Sicilians, Patrick, Danielle and I decided to hire a car for the weekend and to check out Syracusa on Saturday and then Mt Etna with another woman, Turid, on Sunday. Patrick is Dutch and Danielle is another Melbournian currently living in London and are at Babilonia (the school) with me.

Saturday morning we set off at 9am in our hire car for Syracusa with Patrick in the driver’s seat, what with having much experience on European roads, he was definitely the best candidate for this role!!

We had perfect weather...clear blue skies...and so whilst taking a minor detour, stopped to check out the ocean and it was amazing!! This is Danielle checking out the vast ocean and lamenting for Australian beaches!!

We made it to Syracusa and onto the small island, Ortygia, that is the old town which is were all the action is, and there definitely was action what with not only the usual weekend food and clothing market but also public holiday festivities.

We walked around and looked at all of the lovely narrow streets and windy laneways, had a look at the beautiful old cathedral, outside of which was a very cute little boy struggling to get his soccer ball out of the bag on the back of his bike...

And looked at the coastline of Syracusa with it’s vividly blue water.

After this we headed off this little island to look at the big park (which ended up being closed due to the public holiday), but on the way stopped to have a look at a very intreaguing looking building that we had seen on the skyline from Ortygia, which turned out to be a very modern and very large church.


We stayed and had a drink in the main square and then headed back to Taormina for dinner. It was a late return and we had some dramas with our meal but that story can wait for another day!!

Then Sunday, we started even earlier and headed off for the mighty Mt Etna at 8am!! It isn’t too far from Taormina and was a fairly easy drive there...thanks to Patrick having so much experience.

For those who don’t know, Mt Etna is an active volcano on Sicily. And the night before when we were driving back from Syracusa we could see the lava glowing on the top from the Autostrada!!

Once we had worked out what the options were for going up, who we needed to pay and what we needed to do, we booked into a 5 hours tour where you take the gondola a third of the way up, then take a 4WD bus up another third and then trek the final third to the top to see three of the main craters in action!! There was then the option to go down the way you came up or to walk down...Patrick and I convinced the other 2 women to walk down.

Fortunately, since none of us really had the right gear for this kind of trip (and I think this made the guide VERY sceptical of our abilities), a fairly serious mountain climb, and in 0 degree temperatures with 80km winds mind you, they provided us with snow jackets, and proper high cut walking boots...otherwise we would have definitely froze and the other 2 women would have had very sore feet in their runners!!

We left the bottom at 10:15am, caught the gondola and then the 4WD bus. Once we reached this two-thirds point, we realised just how much further and higher we had to go!!

How cool do I look in my jacket and sunnies...the hood was even a necessity at this height with the wind blowing quite strongly.

We climbed a bit...

It looks hot but DEFINITELY wasnt!!

And the guide spoke a bit...

And we climbed some more...

And some more...

And more still...until we made it up to the main craters that were steaming away and smelt extremely sulphurous!!

Patrick, Daniell, Turid and I at the first crater...

We were suffocated by suphur as we walked around the craters and were told by the sicilian guide with his thick accent in his broken english "No photo...from here, no stop and no photo...indian file, 50 centrimeters to next person!!"...he was literally yelling at us!!

Noted how small the people are in this photo and that gives you some perspective...

The craters were amazing...but the wind!!!...it nearly blew us off the lip of the mountain which was only a meter or 2 away...it was a bit scary!!

You can see how strong the wind is here by the direction of my hair!!

Then we headed down...possibly the most fun part and this is where the moon jumping comes in!! To get down the steeper and softer parts that are very similar to sand dunes, the best way was to run, or bound might be a better description!! If you have ever bounded down a long, steep sandune you will know what I am talking about.

Here is everyone running down in file...but the photo doesnt do the movement and fun of it justice, so here is a little video, I hope it works for you all and sorry for not being up right way.

During the run down with Turid following behind...

We walked back across the lava flow from 2002/3 to the hut where the bus originally dropped us and had the food we had each taken for lunch. Then we commensed the climbed down...well after a little detour UP!!! onto another smaller crater... (and I thought it was all supposed to be down on the way back!!)

This is on the edge of the crater looking down...what a view!!

The rest WAS down and we manged it all very quickly with "moon jumping" (the name I have given it) the rest of the way.

When we returned at 4:30pm, we were very black, tired and in desperate need of a toilet!!

I forgot to mention about the dirt and the terrain...obviously since it is such an extreme environment with having been burnt but also having snow up there all year around, the ground is black rubble and rocks and sand-like stuff with no vegetation or colour (apart from yellow in places from the sulphur). And this is why I took many photos in black and white as it didnt make much difference.

So by the time we got home later that evening, we were all looking very tired and dirty. Our clothes were covered in black dust... as were our faces!!!

Me back at home pre-shower!!

It was an AMAZING experience that I would reccomend to all!!

Ci vediamo,

Jo xox