Italy – Sicily – Acireale and Taormina

Day 60 Sunday 15th October 2023 - Acireale and Taormina

With breakfast included we walked to a nearby busy cafe and mentioned the Bolano name. We received a coffee and a colazione, an option of pastry sweet or savoury which also seems to be the staple choice for the steady stream of customers. Not a very healthy start to the day but wrapped in a small tissue it is easy to eat at the counter and chat without needing a table to sit down.

Still using Catania as a base we did a day trip to both Acireale and Taormina today. Being a Sunday the roads initially were a little quieter but picked up as the day went on.

Acireale is a baroque town and was said to have 100 churches. We parked and headed up the main street on foot past the coffee shops where the local men seemed to gather for a chat. Passed a few piazzas, saw a couple large churches but being a Sunday the bells were noticeably quiet.

After a coffee we drove on through the many narrow one way streets out of Acireale and eventually came upon a toll station. An ideal opportunity to sort out the previous outstanding toll between Palermo and Cefalu before we left Sicily and prior to it attracting penalties.

Onward to Taormina and the traffic started to increase.

Situated on top of a mountain near Mount Etna, we wound our way up and around the hairpins until we stopped and crawled for some time. It was a Sunday, we were entering a tourist destination and now the realisation of possibly a parking issue. The multi level car park sign ahead stated full !! We drove on, through a tunnel and found another full car park but eventually entered and lucked a spot not far in.

The coastal resort had a lovely main shopping strip full of high end stores, restaurants and hotels, piazzas and typical souvenir shops selling local products. Either side of the street both upward and downward steep stairs opened up to a restaurant tucked away or accommodation out of our price range. A cruise ship was in town and we heard a lot of English speaking tourists, American and Australian voices.

We stopped and ordered a toasted sandwich and pizza slice at a cafe for lunch but a couple of the staff members seemed a little stressed as they went about their job snapping at different customers. Located nearby under the menus, Tania picked up a paper placemat to read about a local fable and was chastised for not asking first if she could take it. The tiramisu looked delicious but we decided to give that and a coffee a miss and move on.