Day 20: Amantea

Taormina

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We woke this morning in Taormina, anxious to keep moving with our journey as we have to be in Rome on the 18^th to pick up our lease car. Pausing to watch the sun rise over the ocean and have a quick breakfast and we were on our way prior to 9am. First stop was Taormina itself.

It’s hard to describe the beauty of the area, but the houses and towns are literally on rocky hilltops far above the ocean (as well of course as absolutely beachfront at the base), beautiful blue waters and plenty of small water craft. We drove up to Taormina, to a car park ¾ of the way up the steep roads, and then parked in the major parking spot where a bus takes you the rest of the way. On top was the most charming town you would ever see. Beautiful views in all directions, awesome old buildings and the icon being an ancient Theatre built B.C. that is still used today, with views of the ocean and Mt Etna (live volcano and largest mountain in Sicily). Kim said anyone looking for a birthday present for her should send her back to Taormina for a couple of weeks (or buy her a holiday house there).

Theatre at Taormina

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We then headed back on the road towards Salerno. First was a ferry across from Messina to San Giovanni, this was exceptionally easy (signage for once was great), we barely slowed down as we drove onto the ferry, a five minute wait and we were underway and across in about 20 minutes. We then continued on, this was an easy drive and for once we didn’t get lost (it was on the main highway most of the way apart from a 50 km detour on the coastal road), we played Barnesy and Queen full ball as we barreled along at 150kms per hour – with Mercs passing us going at least 180).

We decided to stop once we got to Amantea, it was about 2:30pm and we had to find a hotel. Everything appears to stop at about 2-5pm (thankfully hotels are excluded from this), even the supermarket and all shops appear to be closed during this time…and we thought Spain were the kings of the Siesta. We found a nice hotel at 80 Euro for the night, which wasn’t too bad. A dip in the pool and gelati from the town and that pretty well killed the day.

On your bike

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It’s been a really nice low-stress day however, though we are missing Taormina which is breathtakingly beautiful, as opposed to the other coastal towns we have seen (and visited).

We are missing large cups of coffee, early dinners and Maria’s Fish and Chips (Edithvale).

Arrivederci for now!

Tool of the Day

Some retard for hitting our car most likely overnight, we didn’t notice until later on during the day, and unfortunately will most likely cost us 350 Euro excess.