Our taxi ride to Siracusa’s railway station was a hoot. This elderly driver tried to convince me he could drive us directly to our hotel in Taormina for only €140. I told him Mick loved trains. All of this in my poor Italian by the way. He insisted I sit in the front. He did seem to take a few diversions along the way, but we had plenty of time. When I told him my mother-in-law was 90 he immediately said “complimenti” or congratulations to Kath. He was very impressed.

We were able to get on the train about half an hour before its departure. Which was handy as our luggage ……

…. had to be hoisted a great height to get onto the train. I’d forgotten how high off the ground Italian trains were. But Kath managed them very well.

The train was delayed about 40 minutes due to maintenance work but we were in no hurry. The taxi ride from our stop in Naxos to the hilltop town of Taormina couldn’t have been more different than our experience earlier in the day. It was clearly advertised as costing €15 and our taxi driver navigated the windy road beautifully. We were gasping at the view all the way up.

Our hotel was expecting us and gave us adjoining rooms, each with a balcony over Corso Umberto and only a few steps from the breakfast room.

As it was lunchtime, we headed out to find somewhere for lunch. There was a restaurant every 15 metres. We just needed to time our entry to our chosen spot in between the movement of tour groups like this one.

We settled for here and Mick tried the Italian IPA.

He wasn’t too impressed that a group of street performers started their act right behind him. But Kath and I rather enjoyed it.

This town is beautiful and I’m sure we’ll happily spend a few days here.

I went for a walk on my own around 5pm and spotted these two on the balconies when I returned. Too high for the antics from the previous night.

We enjoyed dinner at a restaurant I’d read about on Trip Advisor.

Mick thought it the best pizza ever.

But the house wine was terrible. 😬