Arrived in Taormina, a beautiful hillside town on the east side of Sicily. We have a truly spectacular apartment with incredible views, A very modern building which is a sharp contrast to our other more traditional Italian places. First off, the interior. It's all white. The carpet. The furniture (sofa's, coffee tables,end tables, etc). The walls, doors, ceilings, beds, etc etc. White. You pour a glass of red wine and then your hand starts shaking in fear of spilling. We have a huge covered ground level terrace with humongous outside sofas made from black granite, with white cushions of course. Looking out to an infinity pool where the water appears to drop off the edge of the cliff we're straddling. Million dollar views. Next door is a hotel that charges over 600 Euro a night (close to $1,000 CDN). I'm not quite sure how we managed this but I ain't complaining!

Unfortunately though our first day was mostly on the inside looking out due to the rain. Now we're used to rain living on the west coast of course, or so we thought. This rain is like a tropical monsoon, rain coming down from the god's above type of rain. Even with our rain jackets and cheap umbrellas it's a bit much. We did manage to sneak out for some excellent pizza later though. I seem to recall gelato being consumed as well. Gaye and I popped into a small shop and met Angelo, a nice older fella who sells a variety to locally made liqueurs. We tried some wine made from almonds, kind of a sweet after dinner drink. Also tested was a liqueur made from fennel and a pistachio cream. Purchases were made for consumption later.

The next day, Thursday, we woke up to cloud and rain again. Beth and I were feeling restless so we sped off in the BMW in search of sun. Down the hill we went, winding and twisting until we were zipping along parallel with the sea. After a bit we needed a snack and found Johnny's, a bar along the beach. The sun broke through as we sipped cappuccinos and shared a ricotta-filled croissant. Thanks Johnny! Things were looking up. Short stroll along the beach and then headed a little further north towards Messina. This is the part of Sicily that is the closest to the mainland. I'm kind of surprised there's not a bridge to connect the island to the toe of the boot. It doesn't seem that far. This is a very hilly region and we went through many tunnels and over many bridges to get here. The Italians seem to figure this stuff out. I googled this and found they've been talking about a bridge since 1854. That's almost as long as the talk about the bridge between Vancouver Island and the mainland.

Well, when we arrived in Messina it was nice and sunny. The town itself was pretty nondescript though. Turned the Beemer around and took the autostrada back to Taormina. It seems as though the sun had broken out there as well, yay!.

Did some exploring next and visited the outdoor amphitheater. Originally built by the Greeks, and then re-built by the Romans, it sits high in the town with a commanding view below. Still used today as well. In fact my friend Novella saw Bob Dylan there some years ago. That would be pretty cool. Forecast calls for sun tomorrow, might even have a dip in the pool. Logging off for now, the almond wine is calling me. Ciao.