This trip began nearly two months ago in Taormina, Sicily, Italy. Sicily was oh so much better than I ever expected. The landscape is incredibly varied, volcanos, olive and citrus orchard, vineyards and mountains.
Taoromina is a quaint little town and MAJOR tourist attraction. It's up a very curvy road, like something out of a James Bond film, about 800 feet above the Mediterranean. The image below is a view from our classroom window.
I have to admit, right upfront, many of these images are not mine. You would think after all these years of using a phone instead of a camera I would have mastered the technique of having something small and immediately available. Not so. Thank goodness others fill in the gaps for me.
Back to Sicily. We flew in to Catania early in the day and got a cab to Taormina and our hotel where we would meet up with our Road Scholar tour group. The city, itself, dates back to the 4th century BCE when it was founded by the Greeks. Subsequently it was occupied by the Romans, who lasted a couple of centuries only to give way to Byzantines, Arabs, and Normans. This rolling collection of different peoples seems to be the history of most of Sicily. Even Italy proper was nothing but an assortment of city states until 1861 when it became a kingdom and 1946 when it became a republic.
Next stop Mount Etna. It's a volcano and still active. You often see smoke and steam around the summit, that is when you can see it at all. Actually I think that is it on the right side of the photo of the Greek/Roman theatre. The cruise ships were in and there were tour buses and people like us with tour groups everywhere. The wind was blowing so hard you could lean into it and not fall down, made it a little nerve wracking walking next to giant depressions.
