I don’t think it was the terrible wine I mentioned in my last post, but more likely the minestrone Kath had last night. The poor thing was violently ill all night, not that we found out until around 6.30am when I was heading out for an early morning walk / explore.

Kath subsequently spent all day in bed trying to get her strength back and to catch up on the sleep she’d missed out on.

Walking the streets of tourist locations like Taormina early in the morning is such a treat.

Not another soul for most of the way.

Even the main Piazza IX Aprile was empty.

I took this photo for Kath as she loves cats and she might well like to paint this when she gets home.

After breakfast, Mick and I headed out to catch the cable car down to the beach.

I had spotted this on my walk.

It was a great ride and we found ourselves near one of Taormina’s beaches.

We stumbled across several boats at the end of this path, and accepted the offer to go for a one-hour cruise.

Carmelo took us in his boat and showed us the sights around Taormina for €50. We both agreed it was well worth it. The water here is an amazing colour.

Carmelo drove his boat into many grottos including the one below, once the kayakers had moved. It is actually a tunnel.

He told us he was a fifth generation boats man and his experience was evident. We felt very safe.

The water was so clear we could see fish, jellyfish and large rocks beneath us.

Carmelo pointed out many huge private homes perched on the edge of cliffs as well as several 5 star hotels that charge €2000/ night. The hotels have lifts down to private beaches. The season actually starts here in a few days and we saw lots of work being done getting the private beaches ready for the rich and famous.

We had an interesting afternoon taking Kath to the first aid emergency centre by taxi. It’s a long story, but my poor Italian helped me find a place for Kath to be thoroughly checked out by what we think was a doctor. Between Google Translate and my poor English, we managed pretty well, but the bloody star of the show was Mick. Apparently his brain just “clicks” and he can comprehend Italian. But, really he was excellent.

Thankfully Kath does not have a chest infection, but has asthma.

We celebrated by heading out to the restaurant /bar I’d read about.

It was great.

We took Kath home and then had an extra hour people watching at a restaurant next door.

A big day!