Siracusa & Taormina

Ciao tutti!

I continue to have excellent adventures in south Italy!!  I am currently in the town of Matera in Basilicata, supposedly one of the oldest cities in the world!  Sadly, I left Sicilia a few days ago to return to the mainland.  I had a truly fantastic time on the island!  As promised, here are select photos from the charming town of Siracusa that I visited for a day.  Highly photogenic, but then again... isn't all of Italy? :)

piazza del duomo

within the cathedral which was once a greek temple to Athena, on the left you can see an ancient doric column.

visited a castle too!

coastline of Siracusa from the castle

eccolo!

small streets of Siracusa are just oozing charm

the fountain of Aretusa.  Artemis turned her devotee Aretusa into a spring to avoid an obsessed river god.  legend has it, here she is!

colorful laundry billowing in the wind

more laundry, more iron balconies...

went to the local archaeological museum.  so boring!  sometimes these museums are good, sometimes they are deathly boring. 

piazza del duomo al tramonte

quaint scenes of children in the evening light

the lovely fountain in the evening glow

After Siracusa, I took the train on up to Taormina.  I had heard it was a gorgeous town situated on a bluff above the sea.  It was absolutely gorgeous, also absolutely overrun with tourists!!  I found it challenging to be around them after spending so much time away from the hordes of foreigners.  It is so funny how after traveling for a while you start to distance yourself from other tourists.  I know I'm no better than they are but, I do try to blend in as Italian woman, don't I? :)

Yum yum, savoring the oranges I took from samadhi center.  In Sicilia most of the oranges are what we might call "blood oranges" in USA, and they are SOOO good!! 

Etna is beckoning..........  

citrus is also beckoning.....

small Asian children are beckoning as well....  ha ha

the water is absolutely transparent & gorgeous!!

the beach at Gardini-Naxos, it was a windy day

trying to shield myself from furthering "age face" 

a little danurasana

Etna, she is still beckoning!!

the gorgeous isola bella just below taormina

the water was a bit frigid here.  also, there are so many women badgering you to give you a back or foot massage here.  i had never experienced this before.  it was unrelaxing to have to deny them.

WOW!  Ben Harper is playing at the ancient greek theater in town!!!  this would be worth returning to taormina for!!

then I ventured up the hill to the town of Castelmola to seek some of the almond wine I had heard of & catch some (as lonely planet would say) EYE POPPING VIEWS! :)

POP!  I found them!

i am happy!

then i had some almond wine in a penis themed restaurant!  

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Also, I met a fabulous new friend in Taormina who is traveling about doing WOOFING like myself.  She is American, which I found refreshing & it was like hanging out with an old friend for a few days.  Thanks, Erica!!!  We climbed Mt. Etna on her birthday.  I will attempt to blog post about this ASAP!  She gave me some great ideas about finding volunteer/work opportunities here in Europe.  Now I am all inspired to prolong my overseas adventure as I have been feeling fully unready to return to the USA.  I seem to be having a small scale, early mid-life crisis!  Currently, I am considering moving to Montenegro for the summer season to teach yoga & relax at the beach.  I didn't even know where exactly Montenegro was until last week...  do you?  It sounds wonderful.

I have been having some crazy long travel days making my way to Puglia, south Italy is not as well connected for transport.  The other day I left Taormina at 9:30 on a bus to Messina, took a ferry across the strait, caught a train to Scilla but, missed the stop (due to talking to some Italian man about why I wasn't married & didn't have kids, this is a favorite topic of Italian men!  So much so that I have this great story invented about an amazing Italian boyfriend I have waiting for me in Rome.  No, we don't want kids but we are very happy, he is busy with work so he can't travel with me.  I am starting to believe in my imaginary boyfriend & am looking forward to seeing him!! :)  Anyway, I decided to go to another town after missing that stop, to Tropea, home of amethyst sunsets.  So I then got off at a less ideal station & had to run to catch a bus & then take another train to the small beach town.  I deserved a relax on the beach when I arrived at 3pm.  And today I was in transit from 8 am to 5:30 in a combination of 3 trains and 3 buses.  Whoa!!  I am outdoing myself!

I have also achieved a strange nerve injury today to my lower left leg causing foot drop & steppage gate.  I am unable to dorsiflex my left foot & have been clomping along.  Hoping for a miracle recovery during the night!

Hugs & kisses!  thanks for reading!  xoxo