November 10 - Taormina

 The views seem a little clearer today - but you can see the clouds coming off in the distance.  We have been promised fresh bread and croissants by the hotel manager - he just didn't say when they would arrive!  He had mentioned that he would be at the hotel by around 9am - so I am thinking that is when it will arrive.  I was right.  The tapping and banging on the elevator starts around 8 am.  It still isn't fixed.  

The bread was delicious - the croissants not as much.  They had a sweet almost citrussy flavor to them.  After breakfast we decide to walk around our area and then go to the entrance to the cable car which should take us to Taormina.  We get to the parking lot for the cable car - only a few cars.  Doors locked, signs on windows in Italian which we try to interpret.  It becomes clear that the cable car is not running - the season is over.

We walk back to our hotel and get in our car we are thinking of driving up to Taormina, but we have done no research on how to get there and where to park.  We sit in the car for a while figuring it out - the road looks very winding with switchbacks.  The other option is to wait for the shuttle that seems to be running hourly now.  We decide to drive.  

The road is winding and has switchbacks.  At times the road is completely off earth - I have no idea what or how the road is supported - and I try not to think about it.  It is not far - almost 9 minutes of driving and we are there.  But where to park?  We find a parking lot, but all the sports are lined in blue.  Previously blue lines meant it is for the handicap.  We go to another parking area - all of the lines are blue, clearly not all the spots in the parking garage are for the handicap.  Next problem - how do we pay.  We saw someone else go to the machine and pay - so we go next.  It is all in Italian.  I get out Google translate - but the words don't translate right.  Michael sees an options to change language.  We breathe a sigh of relief and figure it out.  

Next, we need to figure out how to get the covid test in able to get back into the US.  Michael has looked up the lab and has the address - It is an easy process and only costs 15E each - not hundreds of dollars as in the US and other countries.  

At last we can get into sight-seeing.  The city center is close - but all up steep hills.  We first come to a church that used to be a temple dedicated to Isis and Serapis.  It is dated to late 3rd century to early 2nd century BC.

Across the street from the church we see these heads.  There is a legend about these heads that seems to have taken a life of its own in Sicily.  We have seen them everywhere.

View back to the church.

We walk a little further away from the church and see these ruins.

We are heading for the gate that will lead us onto Corso Umberto I - the main shopping street.   As we get close it suddenly starts raining, first softly then very hard.  We take refuge under a store awning to wait it out along with many other people.  When the rain lightens we head off to find a restaurant to sit down and have a cup of  coffee/chocolate.  We find one across from the street below.  The sun comes out briefly and then we are back to grey.  But at least it is not raining.

Mask wearing is mixed here.  Everyone wears one to go inside a building, but outside some do and some don't.

We walk back o the gate where workmen are still putting up Christmas decorations.

We decide to head toward the Greek Theatre.

Men's hats - worn in Italy are called Coppola hats.

This is a scene from a hotel near the entrance to the Greek Theatre.

Just as we go to this point, Michael realized that one of his hearing aids were missing.  These are expensive so we started searching.  He had just taken off his mask - that is usually when the hearing aid gets caught in the straps and can fall off.  But it was not anywhere.  I thought - maybe it fell off when he put the mask on just before we got to the kiosk to buy the tickets.  And sure enough, it was just outside of the exit.  Michael went out and picked up and came back in.  People in the ticket office were watching us - I mimicked something falling off my ear - and that seemed to do the trick.  It helped that Michael was in the process of putting the hearing aid back on - so we were good.

We have been to a lot of Greek theatre's - but this one was all it was hyped up to be.

They still use the stage for performances.  But they have put in modern chairs for people to use.  They seemed to glare out that they didn't belong!

Views of the city of Taormina from the amphitheater.

And views way down to the coast.  My actual pictures did not look this good - too much haze.  Thank you photoshop.

The winds were picking up - would it rain again?  We decided to call it a day and go back to the parking garage.

A few more photos of the gate now that the workmen had finished putting up the decorations.

The two roads coming up past the church are both one way streets in the same direction.  One is for busses and taxi's and the other for cars.  All traffic exits on the right.