Taormina, Sicily
We left at first light, the plan being to position ourselves for the passage through the Messina Straits; we wanted to get there between the tides as the current can be very strong when they are running. All hands were on deck to get Skyelark underway; Fred and I drew the 6:00 – 9:00 am watch, I guess Dan figures if you want someone to get up early and go straight to work pick the country boys.
Again the winds didn’t allow for much actual sailing, we took advantage of winds shift as they presented themselves but mainly it was another day of mostly motoring. Seeing the size of the tuna at the market in Siracusa we thought we might be using too small of bait so we switched over to a large squidy looking thing but still no success.



Approaching the town

We arrived at the anchorage about 4:30 or so and quickly made our way to shore; the rocky beach was hard on the feet as we hauled the dingy ashore and tied it to a tree. Luckily the buses run every 15 minutes so we grabbed the first one by and rode it up the long winding road to the town which is 1000’ above sea level.
From the sea the town doesn’t look very big, but once up there you could see it spread out quite a bit; it had a very quaint, but upscale appearance to it and there were many boutiques selling designer merchandise.



One of the shops in town



The church


We got off at the bus station and walked past the shops and cafes to the Teatro Greco, the ancient Greek Theater. This one was built out of red bricks rather than marble like the ones we say in Greece. The guide book says there are more Greek ruins in Sicily than in Greece itself and some, such as this one were modified by the Romans, adding the tall columns and arches they are noted for.





The Greek Theater

There is a film festival going on and the stage at the theater was set up for showing films, it took away from the photogenacity (yes I made that word up) of the place, but it is nice to see it is being used. We explored the different areas of the ruins and got some great shots of the sea from it heights.



The anchorage looking down from the town

Once we had filled ourselves of culture we stopped at one of the nearby cafes for a couple beers; Dan had said this island was very popular with the well to do in Italy, this was evident when we got the bill and found out the beers were 8 Euros a piece.
We all met at the bus station at the appointed time and rode back down the hill; there is a cable car that goes down to the other side of the island and you could take a bus from there but no one opted for that experience.
Back on board Fred made shrimp Etouffee over rice, it was very tasty and satisfying. We had a few nightcaps of wine, our drink of choice on this trip and made ready for our 5:00 am departure.