We have made it to a new anchorage in Taormina on the East coast of Sicily just South of the Straits of Messina. This evening will be our third night at this anchorage. The city of Taormina sits high upon a hill. In the first picture, taken from the boat you can see the city up on the crest of the hill. It's a really steep cliff and from the boat we could see no way to get up to the top of the hill. There is a train line that runs right along the edge of the water along with a road. We figured if we got to the train station we could find out how people got up to the top. Getting to the train station ended up being a little trickier than we thought it would be. Some local knowledge would have really helped at this point.
There was a nice arch shaped tunnel in a stone wall with wooden steps leading down into the water. That looked like an ideal place to leave the dinghy, walk through the tunnel to get on the other side of the railroad and road. We got through the first part of the tunnel and found a sturdy steel gate padlocked on the other side. Hmmm. The tunnel opened up into a draining canal with stone flooring up a very steep angle. I climbed up the drainage canal hoping it would pop me out somewhere nice. It would have been ideal if I were a mountain goat but I'm not.
We ended up backing out and moving the dinghy to another location and trying a different tunnel. This one was better and obviously well used. We still ended up exiting at street level though a gate with a Privito sign on the outside of it. Mi Italiano is still not so good, I wonder what that meant?
After some talking to folks at the train station we found we could either take a bus all the way to the top or take the bus part way and then ride a funivia to the top. I've never ridden a funivia before so that's what we decided to try. It turns out that it's a cable-car that all the cars are together like a little sky-train. It was a fun little ride and passed right over a soccer field.
Taormina has much history in and around it. The main attraction is a theatre built and used by the Greeks and the Romans. Some construction was going on during our visit adding a stage and lighting for performances of some kind. It was quite a neat place and well worth a visit if you are ever close.
The rest of the town of Taormina is very tourist oriented, lots of shops and street vendors. One finds very old churches and city gates mixed in with newer buildings. Sometime a portion of an old wall or building is integrated into the design of a more modern building. It's a facinating place. As we were walking around we stumbled upon another old theatre that looked like it had been excavated out right in the middle of the city. Everywhere you look there was interesting things to see.
I included a picture taken from a plaza up on top looking down on the boat. I also did a pretty good pano from up around the greek-roman theatre.
There was a nice arch shaped tunnel in a stone wall with wooden steps leading down into the water. That looked like an ideal place to leave the dinghy, walk through the tunnel to get on the other side of the railroad and road. We got through the first part of the tunnel and found a sturdy steel gate padlocked on the other side. Hmmm. The tunnel opened up into a draining canal with stone flooring up a very steep angle. I climbed up the drainage canal hoping it would pop me out somewhere nice. It would have been ideal if I were a mountain goat but I'm not.
We ended up backing out and moving the dinghy to another location and trying a different tunnel. This one was better and obviously well used. We still ended up exiting at street level though a gate with a Privito sign on the outside of it. Mi Italiano is still not so good, I wonder what that meant?
After some talking to folks at the train station we found we could either take a bus all the way to the top or take the bus part way and then ride a funivia to the top. I've never ridden a funivia before so that's what we decided to try. It turns out that it's a cable-car that all the cars are together like a little sky-train. It was a fun little ride and passed right over a soccer field.
Taormina has much history in and around it. The main attraction is a theatre built and used by the Greeks and the Romans. Some construction was going on during our visit adding a stage and lighting for performances of some kind. It was quite a neat place and well worth a visit if you are ever close.
The rest of the town of Taormina is very tourist oriented, lots of shops and street vendors. One finds very old churches and city gates mixed in with newer buildings. Sometime a portion of an old wall or building is integrated into the design of a more modern building. It's a facinating place. As we were walking around we stumbled upon another old theatre that looked like it had been excavated out right in the middle of the city. Everywhere you look there was interesting things to see.
I included a picture taken from a plaza up on top looking down on the boat. I also did a pretty good pano from up around the greek-roman theatre.
