Riviera Day 8: Taormina

Taormina is a beautiful little town perched above the resort-y beach town of Giardini Naxos. We had to tender in to the port (using our life rafts)

then we hopped on a local bus to transit up to Taormina.  First up was a quick visit to the Greco-Roman theatre

which was interestingly located at the end of promontory so it offered wonderful views of the sea on 3 sides, and the mountain behind on the 4th. I guess it was for defensive reasons that they built so high up but it definitely required some major engineering work to carve a village out of the mountainside.

Sightseeing is such hard work! Already hot & bothered Mom steered me next door to a very elegant hotel for a 10:30am cuppa beer. An Orient Express hotel, no less. I'm afraid the tab might have cost me my inheritance but it was refreshing!

Being the stalwart tourists that we are, we persevered with our strolling down the main passigiata, glancing in fancy dress boutiques, touristy shops,and OTT rococo churches. Marveling at all the wonderful window boxes and fantastically growing ivy that color the pale stone buildings, we were starting to feel a bit drained so we revived ourselves with some creamy homemade gelato for the return trip through the shopping crush to the bus station.

Back on board we started our usual routine: lunch, read, tea, read, internet when lo & behold - no internet connection! Well, that just wasn't acceptable. Trotting up to the computer lounge with our devices in hand, we came up a grumbling mob of iPad-clutching passengers, demanding their Wi-Fi!  The poor tech guy was blabbering: "It's not me, it's shoreside. It's not me, I promise."  Just relieved it wasn't a problem with our apples, we left him to sort it out, figuring it'd be announced when we were all back in business.

Tomorrow: Amalfi, Italy