Sicily

April 21, 2016

We have booked a three-night stay in Sicily, in a town called Taormina. We leave on Thursday afternoon after Gary finishes work and drive from Soverato to Villa San Giovanni, where we take the ferry across to Messina. The ferry ride is short-only about 30 minutes. To swim across would be a breeze for both Richard and Giuseppe's father! Taormina, which is a 45-minute drive from Messina, is a picturesque hilltop town with a stunning view of Mount Etna. After navigating the winding streets, we make our way to Hotel Taodomus, which is in the center of town on the Corso Umberto.

April 21, 2016 (Continued)

The Hotel Taodomus is a lovely boutique hotel with only ten rooms. After unpacking, we go up to the rooftop terrace, from where we can see Mount Etna and the Gulf of Naxos below. On the terrace we meet Peter and Patrick from Manchester, England. Peter is a retired IT manager who is now in the travel business and Patrick is a lawyer. We sit and chat with them a while before leaving to go to dinner. The front desk clerk, Daniele, recommends a few restaurants and we decide on the "Trattoria Tiramisu", which is just a short walk from the hotel. After a very nice dinner, we take a stroll and stop at "Le Quattro Fontane" for dessert, then back to the hotel. We have to get up quite early on Friday for our Aolian Islands tour. We have to catch the bus at 7:00 A.M.- ugh!

April 22, 2016

Since we have to catch the bus so early, we will miss breakfast, which is served at the hotel beginning at 8:00 A.M., but Daniele has seen to it that there are two box breakfasts waiting for us at the reception desk when we leave. We take a taxi down to the bus station, where we join several others for the Aolian Islands tour. Franco, our tour guide, explains that we are going to visit the two largest of the seven islands, Lipari and Vulcano. The Aolian Islands, grouped together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, are off the northern coast of Sicily.

April 22, 2016 (Continued)

The bus takes us to Messina and then to Milazzo, where we board the boat to the islands. The boat sails over the Tyrrhenian Sea to the island of Lipari, which is the largest of the Aolian Islands and the most populated, with about 12,000 year-round inhabitants. During the summer season, the population swells to around 20,000. We have about three hours to explore the island, so the first thing we do is take a

Page 25: A pensive Gary on the trip to Lipari; views of Lipari town from the boat

Below: Cathedral of San Bartolomeo in Lipari; "cellophane" dress in shop in Lipari

April 22, 2016 (Continued)

"coffee break", stopping at the Trattoria Da Bartolo. Then we head off on our exploration of the city. We climb the steps up to the Cathedral of San Bartolomeo and stroll around the Archeological Park. We begin our walk back to the boat, stopping for a leisurely lunch, again at the Trattoria Da Bartolo. We make our way back to the harbor, where we board the boat for Vulcano, the second-largest of the Aolian Islands.

Below: Greek sarcophogi in the Archeological Park dating from the 5th to the 3rd century B.C.

Right: Sights from Lipari and the harbor; the crystal clear Tyrrhenian Sea

April 22, 2016 (Continued)

The boat sails the short distance from Lipari to Vulcano (they are separated only by a wide strait), the island from which all volcanoes derive their name. Other than the volcano, whose last major eruption was in 1890, the main attraction on the island is its mud baths, in which neither of us is interested in frolicking. Gary decides to try his hand at hiking up to the volcano's crater, an altitude of 391 meters. He makes it up about halfway before deciding to turn back, due to the increasingly difficult foothold in the volcanic ash, the weight of his backpack and the steep climb. On the way down, he passes the mudbaths with their strong smell of sulfur. In the meantime, I amuse myself by having a beer and perusing the rather dreary landscape (the pictures on page 31 show the volcano, path to the top and statue in the area around the mud baths). After a couple of hours, the boat departs (top of page 32) and circles the islands, giving us a view of the Faraglioni Rocks (see picture to the right) and the Grotta del Cavallo (horse cave - see picture at the bottom right of page 31). The picture at the bottom of page 32 shows how we both feel by the time we get back to the hotel!

April 23, 2016

We decide that, after the full day yesterday, we are going to stay in Taormina on Saturday, since we haven't really spent much time here. It is a beautiful city, spectacularly perched on a hilltop, with winding streets lined with some very high-end shops (see picture below), gorgeous medieval churches and scores of restaurants. There are plenty of examples of the use of ceramic tiles in the architecture (see picture on page 34), and the stores are full of ceramic items for sale (see picture below). We stroll through the streets and when I get tired, Gary deposits me at the quintessential Taormina watering hole, "Cafe Wunderbar" (see pictures at the bottom of page 34), while he continues his walk.

April 23, 2016 (Continued)

Gary makes the 378-meter climb up to Monte Tauro, from where the pictures on page 35 were taken. The path leads up past the Santuario Madonna della Rocca, and beyond towards the windswept ruins of a Saracen castellon (castle). After he returns from his victorious summit, we continue our sightseeing.

One of the highlights of Taormina is the Teatro Greco (Greek Theatre), which is the second largest ancient theatre in Sicily and was built around the third century B.C. It is still in use today for operas, plays, concerts and even a film festival. Below are pictures of the cavea (top right), where the spectators were seated and the amphitheatre (bottom right).

April 23, 2016 (Continued)

As luck would have it, we happened to be visiting the theatre at the same time that a French choir was taking the tour and, to our delight, they assembled on the stage and performed an impromptu chorus. It was an amazing and moving experience: to be listening to such beautiful music in this ancient structure from where we can gaze at the Gulf of Naxos and Mount Etna!

After our tour of the Teatro Greco, we make our way back to the hotel to rest a bit before dinner.

April 24, 2016

Sunday dawns bright and sunny and offers us the best views yet of Mount Etna (see top of page 40).

Left: View of the Gulf of Naxos from the Teatro Greco; French choir performing in the amphitheatre

Right: Kerry (not ready for her closeup) is caught by Gary in a rare "unposed" moment, after being attacked by mysterious berry-like droppings from a tree (or a bird????)

April 24, 2016 (Continued)

After breakfast, we check out of the hotel to begin our journey back to Soverato. Before we leave Sicily, though, I am looking very much forward to visiting two of the towns that were "stand-ins" for the village of Corleone in the first two "Godfather" films: Forza d'Agro and Savoca. There is an actual town in Sicily called "Corleone", but Francis Ford Coppola thought it was too developed, so he found these two villages to be substitutes for Corleone. Until this trip, I must admit that everything I knew about Sicily I learned from the "Godfather" movies! Below is the coastline as seen from Forza d'Agro.

April 24, 2016 (Continued)

Above is the church that appears in the original film when Michael goes to "Corleone" for the first time along with his bodyguards. It is also seen in "The Godfather: Part II" in the scene where Vito flees Corleone hidden in a basket carried on the back of a donkey while Don Ciccio's men threaten the neighbors. You can also see it as the backdrop for another scene behind young Vito and family during their visit to "Corleone". We spend a bit of time in Forza d'Agro (all the pictures on page 43 were taken there), which is the first of many hilltop villages that we will visit in Italy. We then set out on the winding road for Savoca, our next "Godfather" town.

April 24, 2016 (Continued)

Now one must be willing to suspend his/her disbelief: imagine that the man in the below-left picture is Al Pacino, as Michael Corleone (ignore the obviously star-struck woman with the sunglasses!). He and his companions have just returned from a hunting trip, and Michael has been hit by a "bolt of lighting" from the gaze of Apollonia. After speaking with the owner of the bar, who happens to be Apollonia's father, Michael manages to ask for Signore Vitelli's daughter's hand in marriage and deliver a veiled death threat all in the same sentence!

April 24, 2016 (Continued)

The structure in the below-right picture on page 44 was made by a local artist, Nino Ucchino, and was erected in honor of Francis Ford Coppola. You can see Gary's reflection right above Coppola's name at the bottom of the monument.

We would love to explore this unspoiled village a bit more, but unfortunately, a tour bus has arrived and the place is teeming with tourists eager for their look at the bar and another church featured in the movie. So, we must bid "ciao" to this charming island and make the journey back across the Strait of Messina to Soverato.