{"id":2658,"date":"2015-06-14T18:53:46","date_gmt":"2015-06-14T17:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=2658"},"modified":"2015-06-14T19:49:07","modified_gmt":"2015-06-14T18:49:07","slug":"taormina-a-jewel-of-sicily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/?p=2658","title":{"rendered":"Taormina, a jewel of Sicily"},"content":{"rendered":"

On occasion, James and I think, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be nice?\u201d and the next thing you know instead of sticking with our plan, we abandon it.\u00a0 In this case, we turned left 90 degrees south and headed for Taormina.\u00a0 There are moorings run by George Risso \u2018en vicino\u2019 to the Taormina railway stop. This meant we could leave Mercier on a mooring and be ferried to land by the very friendly Branko and take a bus up the hill to Taormina. Perfetto!<\/p>\n

\"Mount<\/a>
Mount Etna is our backdrop. Today she was shrouded in mist and clouds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As we are on a mooring, there is no electricity, hence no coffee.\u00a0 As soon as we walk through the Porto Messina arch, we head for the sumptuous Hotel Timeo and their perfect coffee. We gaze over the Botanical gardens of Taormina with the stunning Mount Etna as the back drop.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View from the Hotel Timeo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We walk through Taormina after the coffee and call into churches and shops. Then we jump in a cab and ride up the tortuous road to Castelmola for a visit to the castle village and lunch. Etna was completely ensconced by cloud and wispy clouds seem to be floating up to us too.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>
View from Castelmola<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bus down the hill deposits us at the Arch again and we wait for Frosty to arrive.\u00a0 After Frosty arrives we arrange a quick tour of Taormina, which includes a short visit to the Greek Theatre, which is hosting a film festival but not tonight.<\/p>\n

Then we head down to Mercier, move to a quiet anchorage and row ashore for dinner.\u00a0 Frosty\u2019s celebratory birthday dinner was the main event. Today we have motored over to Reggio di Calabria and we found a berth in the Legale Navale.<\/p>\n

\"Bronzes<\/a>
Bronzes of Riace, circa 450 BC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This meant we were able to visit the Riace bronzes (circa 450 BC) at the Reggio Calabria National\u00a0 Museum. The Riace Bronzes were found by a scuba diver, vacationing in Riace, lying on the seabed and they had been there for thousands of years. There was no evidence of a ship wreck, although they may have been thrown overboard in a stormy sea. Their restoration is wonderful. It is close to miraculous.<\/p>\n

\"Bronze\"<\/a>
Bronze of Riace<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this part of Italy, you can not be non-plussed\u00a0by the beauty, the grittiness or the surprising. You can only enjoy it.<\/p>\n

\"Note<\/a>
Church in Taormina, Note the skull and cross bones over the church door.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On occasion, James and I think, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be nice?\u201d and the next thing you know instead of sticking with our plan, we abandon it.\u00a0 In this case, we turned left 90 degrees south and headed for Taormina.\u00a0 There are moorings run by George Risso \u2018en vicino\u2019 to the Taormina railway stop. This meant we … Continue reading Taormina, a jewel of Sicily<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,48,9,73,24,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-2","category-antiquities","category-history","category-italy","category-tradition","category-travel"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3VxXq-GS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2658"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2668,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658\/revisions\/2668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/merrington.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}