Exploring Taormina, Sicily
Holy cannoli, I love this place! Apologies for the radio silence the past week or so, after leaving Rome and arriving in Sicily, we’ve been on one huge, disconnected journey. Let’s just say that I might be “creatively borrowing” wifi from a mystery panino shop down the street from our apartment. Either way, a lot of memorable moments have occurred since we’ve touched down in the land of the Godfather. One, amazing food. Like, drool worthy cannoli, pistachio covered EVERTYHING, fresh squeezed blood orange juice, and just-caught-this-morning-seafood. I obviously didn’t capture the few seconds our food existed on our plates for this post. Sorry ‘bout it!
Toarmina is the perfect place for anyone interested in experience seaside living. I’ve jokingly called this place the Stone Harbor, New Jersey of Italy. Obviously this place has beaches New Jersey hasn’t even dreamed of… but it’s town center is clean and suits visitors just enough. Feeling enveloped in Sicilian culture, it’s food and history has been a warm and welcoming experience for us here, as I’d imagine it being the same for its other visitors. Its people are friendly, its shops are adorable and it’s town is suited perfectly for someone who wants to do and see it all. A huge thank you to Julie for recommending this little seaside town to us!
Luke and I are living the beach life like it’s our job. One quick stroll past our bus stop and we had this amazing moment where we were blown away by how incredibly close we are staying to the water. Our apartment is one bus stop away from the center of the mountain town of Taormina, so we look at the calm water speckled with a few sail boats and have woken up to pastel peach ocean sunrises instead. What can I say, life’s rough. We’ve become regulars at the stone cover beaches surrounding Isola Bella (literally translated as Island Beautiful… yeah, I know). It’s waters are as clear as I could ever imagine. Sidenote: I’m disgusted with how spoiled we’ve become by this place!
In other news, I’ve become slightly terrified of Mount Etna. Our first bus trip back to our apartment included us glimpsing at its newly formed chimney openings on the north east side, bubbling hot lava down onto the hills below. Yeah. I was TERRIFIED after peeking at that. There’s something really thrilling about staying so close to Europe’s most active volcano, but there’s also an underlying sense of fear I’ve felt being so close to Etna. Yikes!
Being a bit disconnected has been a blessing in disguise for this gal. Being here in southern Italy has been deeply emotional journey (more on that in my next post) and the time I’ve spent soul searching has led to some amazing insight. Sometimes not having wifi can do that for you! Although I don’t have an overwhelming amount of pictures and posts to share of our time here, I can honestly say that I’ve been more present and centered during our days and nights in Sicily.