It was sad to say goodbye to Carmen and Angelo and our home in Trecastagni. But after a lovely breakfast by the pool it was time to pack up and head off towards Taormina. My first thought for the day had been to drive up to the Aeolian Islands and spend the afternoon there before heading towards Taormina. Once we were in Sicily, however, I discovered that I needed to at least double my estimates for travel time and that it really was not feasible to do the islands on the way to someplace else.
John was somewhat intrigued by descriptions of the Gole Alcantara, a volcanic gorge on the north slope of Mount Etna. This seemed much more doable than my idea, so we wound our way to the motorway — always an adventure in Italy — and found the spot without much problem.
Once we were there, however, we decided that the entire place had been oversold in the guidebooks. It is a pretty “aunt and uncle” attraction. There is a botanical garden at the top that lovingly showcases the sort of stuff that grows in abandoned lots in Southern California.
The gorge itself is kind of interesting. It was probably formed by massive fractions in a lava flow about 8,000 years ago. The Alcantara River flows through it. I am sure that early in the season, as the snow melts off of Etna, there is quite a flow of water in the gorge and that it is as ice cold as the literature warns. But on the first day of July, it reminded me of being in a Sierra Nevada stream at the end of the summer.
The rock formations are interesting. According to the information provided by the association that runs the park, there are different type of rock formations depending on how the lava cooled. These have fanciful names like “rosettes” and “woodpiles.” The “organ pipes” are the most prominent.
Even I had to check out the rock formations. I promise that was all I was looking at.
John loves to frolic in the water
and I like to take pictures of him doing it.
We both admired the lovely flowing stream
and gawked at some of the tourists enjoying themselves. There was a busload of British there today when we arrived, and somehow these look like refugees from Old Blighty to me.
It took us FOREVER to find our hotel in Taormina. We are staying at the Isoco Guest House here. It is often mentioned in guidebooks as one of the more interesting budget accommodations in this very expensive beach resort. The rooms are pretty small although each has a tiny balcony. Park of the shtick for this hotel is that all rooms are themed by artist. We were put in the Keith Haring room.
Less appealing is the fact that the bathroom is across the hallway. It is not a shared facility. Instead, each room has its own shower and toilet. But the whole bathroom is barely larger than a phone booth — for those of you old enough to remember phone booths.
In the evening we walked around and explored Taormina. This is Sicily’s premiere beach town. It was a favorite for many years of wealthy English and German artistic types. The town is located midway up a high cliff overlooking the straight between Sicily and the Italian mainland. There is a pleasant mix of medieval and nineteenth century architecture in the main part of town.
John and I shared a pizza and a big salad at a restaurant. The food was not particularly memorable, but we had a panoramic view from our table of the water and the outline of Mount Etna. After dinner, we walked through town.
John enjoyed looking in shop windows. They sell a lot of expensive pottery in the town. But the stores themselves are pretty posh, too.
