Taormina - Capo d'Orlando

Taormina 1/9 - 6/9/07

After a leisurely 1 hour train ride we walked to our 4 star hotel in Taormina (Giardini Naxos). After hostelling in Catania - this place was flashpacker heaven! An unbeatable deal on the Internet (asiarooms.com - thanks little Waz) gave us free breaky, an awesome pool, Sky TV and free...... yes FREE Internet!! We settled in for the Liverpool v Derby game with a few Sicilian beers for company and watched the Pool demolish them 6-0. Torres is the real deal!! 5 nights here allowed us to catch up on calls to family and some long needed emails - that is when Eddy the 16 year old English kid let us on!! The place is pretty stylish with a fair bit of $$ getting around.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK

After overhearing a tour guide talking about an 'explosion' we followed a group of old fogies for a 45 minute walk around the bay to see Mt. Etna in all her glory spurting lava high into the sky. We were later informed via Australia that there had been several small earthquakes that had caused Mt. Etna to erupt. We sat and watched spellbound!

HIGHLIGHTS

- Limone granite!!

- Best gelati we have had in Sicily.

- Lounging around the pool.

- Having a cheeky vodka and soda by the pool!

- Exploring Taormina.

- Unable to find a bus down the mountain from Taormina (height of 1,500 feet), we decided to walk down back to our hotel (sea level). TC wasn't happy, but hey we can't spend our holidays waiting for buses!

- Sampling a great bottle of local Vino Nero D'avoli.

- Eating some delightful seafood dishes with the lobster ravioli a standout.

- Losing 4 kilos each - not sure if it was food poisoning or gastro, but who's complaining!

- The local family at the mini market who were watching the Motorbike GP in their shop. After dropping Casey Stoner's name, they made a big fuss over us (free fruit) and were super friendly to us all week. That's what we love about travelling - meeting friendly locals!

Capo d'Orlando 6/9 - 10/9/07

Another train ride - this time to a small beachside town. I saw a good picture of this place in a mag, so we thought - why not? We got an apartment (with a massive kitchen!) in the centre of town that was a whole 100m from the beach. It was a 8km stretch of sand that had fantastic sunsets. We soaked up plenty of sun and cooked up many a feast for lunch and dinner. Great to have a home cooked meal!

HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK

Talking to Narelle and Glen to find out that the PIES and CATS had both won!!!! Finals fever has hit Sicily!!!

HIGHLIGHTS

- watching some amazing sunsets.

- cooking up plenty of spaghetti con aglio é olio é pepperoncino as well as a mean snitzel!!

- watching cheesy Italian game shows (a highlight for TC anyway!)

- 6am walks around the coast.

- mauling sun!

MOC MOC AWARD - or as this week called the moc moc moc moc moc award (literally). After a bit of gastro we were both running at 0% for 3 days. Lucky we had 4 star toilets. Good prep for TC in Asia!