Shopping Ron has returned! I haven’t seen him since China. This is going to be turned into another water feature – Ron’s first water display is at my house. Water Feature 2.0 will be bigger and better, assuming it arrives in one piece – 10 days? 15 days? Unclear due to language barrier while shopping. Also, Ron wrote the shipping label out without my assistance and I felt it was so messy that it could only cause confusion, but we’ll see.
We’re packing up in a few hours so this will be it for me. We went up to Castelmola today, a village of 1000 perched on the cliffs above the cliffs that Taormina is already precariously perched on. Ron wanted to walk but I couldn’t even figure out where the path was and the climb was at least 3 miles straight up in the 93 degree weather. In the name of sanity, we took the bus. I refused to lay out the cash for the cab, which was going to set us back about $40 round trip vs. the bus at $8.
You see where this is going don’t you? For a good 20 minutes we wandered around looking for the bus stop. Then, once we found it, we stood around at least 30 more, sweat dripping freely from my face, my arms, down my back. We made snide remarks to each other to pass the time and Ron exclaimed, based on nothing whatsoever, that each and every person walking by us had come from Castelmora and that it was clearly a pleasant stroll. Finally the bus arrived and took us to the top and it was clear en route that this was NOT something to walk in July. I was so hot that we needed a granita immediately.
I should pause and tell you that a granita is a specialty of Sicily – it’s just ice and crushed fruit/fruit juice. They’re my food discovery from this trip. Here’s the one I ate most recently:
At any rate, we had our first granita upon arrival, which set us back 12 dollars. We relaxed a bit at the restaurant, as it was one of the main reasons we trekked up – it’s all phallic themed and it’s just awful. If you’re squeamish, don’t look at the following picture of the bathroom sink:
We walked around the tiny town and I got overheated again, necessitating another granita (5 dollars). We then got on the bus and rode back down, managing to get off at the wrong stop. This incorrect stop put us a good 30 minutes from where we needed to be (all uphill, of course), necessitating ANOTHER granita stop (7 dollars because we wanted to sit down for a minute in the A/C and they charge extra for that).
Tally: savings of 8 dollars but we spent at least 1.5 hours standing in the sun or walking in the sun to do it.
Here’s the view from Castelmora. We’re standing on the grounds of a castle from the 12th century. Can you see the soccer field that they’ve squeezed onto the side of the town?
Another great trip! I’ve loved it all. Traveling is my favorite pastime and I’m grateful to get to do it. Thanks to my office partner for covering my job for me:)
Final shot just for Book Club – me…with a drink in my hand!
Travels with Valerie 