Sicily

Of all of the Italian towns we've ever visited, which do you think is the prettiest, I asked Bill as we were riding the bus home from Taormina, Sicily. Hard to say, he answered.

And it is hard to say. I love the way Montepulciano looks as you approach the town that sits haphazardly on the side of a Tuscan hill. Assisi's pink buildings fill you with a spiritual peace and serenity. And Vernazza – one of the towns in the Cinque Terre – just, well, takes your breath away.


But today we visited Taormina, which is a village in Sicily, not far from where the ship docked in Messina. And it just reminded me that there are many faces of Italy, and all of them are beautiful.
Our day in this beautiful Sicilian seaside village culminated our Mediterranean cruise. It couldn't have been a nicer port of call, or a nicer day.

At the last minute, we decided to take a tour bus to Taormina. The port town of Messina has been destroyed several times in its history – by earthquakes, tsunamis, and, most recently, World War II bombings. It has been rebuilt, but isn't particularly pretty or historic. However, Taormina is only about 35 miles away from the port. We elected to take a bus because, frankly, at this stage of our trip, it is nice to have someone else take care of getting us where we wanted to go. We could have walked to the train station from the ship, taken a short train ride to Taormina, and caught a cable car up to the town, but for a minimal cost, a bus would drop us off at the town gate. We chose the tour that simply got us to the town and back and allowed us to explore on our own.

Taormina is up on a hill that overlooks the Mediterranean. Taormina (and I presume all of Sicily) is warm and tropical, so there are beautiful flowers and tropical foliage such as palm trees all around. Taormina is a popular spot for tourists, so we got off the beaten path as soon as possible. We only had three hours to spend in Taormina. While others might want to shop, Bill and I wanted to eat Italian food and drink Italian wine.

We found a restaurant that had an outdoor patio that overlooked the sea. We ordered pizzas and a liter of Sicilian wine. We ordered in our rudimentary Italian, which seemed to throw the waiter a bit, since I'm sure he's used to Americans who don't speak any Italian (plus I know our Italian is horrible). After a bit, he came back to us and said, “I just wanted to make sure. Did you say a liter or a half liter of wine?” I'm afraid, Sir, we said a liter. We had three hours to kill, after all. Bill ordered a pizza with anchovies, capers, and olives. I ordered a pizza with hot pepper flakes, zucchini, and mussels. They were both very tasty. The house wine was one of our favorites – Nero D'Avola.

There was a table nearby of young Americans, and I overheard them tell the waiter that they had visited this same restaurant a number of years ago and it was their favorite restaurant in all of Italy. One of the girls specifically mentioned that she copied the salad and serves it to her friends back in the United States. When they got the salad, they commenced to ooh and ah. Curious by nature (as you know, it gets me in trouble), I went over and introduced myself and asked them what was so special about the salad. They all laughed and said there was really nothing particularly unique about the salad, but they just loved this restaurant and the salad just tasted so good to them. I told them that I knew just how they felt because there was a pastry in a Tuscan town called Certaldo that I have never been able to forget or recreate. It's funny how food can contribute to such good memories.

We got a notice night before last that there is a norovirus on the ship. Norovirus is a fancy word for stomach flu. While it's not a particularly serious illness, when an outbreak hits a cruise ship, it's very bad news. We are all in close quarters, and the illness can spread like wildfire. So we have noticed a significant increase in cleaning, and the staff is really encouraging everyone to wash their hands and use antibacterial lotion. Bill and I are being very careful, because getting sick in Rome, or being sick while flying back to Denver, would stink. Norovirus is one of a cruise ship's biggest nightmares.

We have one more day at sea, and then we will be in Rome. I may not have another chance to blog until we reach home since I don't know the status of internet access. Stay tuned.