Sicily
September 2007
Page 1
Having spent the summer on an exhausting career break, Lynne was very much in need of a holiday, even if this was the second one in a aonth (having previously gone to the Maldives). With me, obviously. So, as a nice contrast to the Maldives, we also fancied an excursion to the large Italian island. Unfortunately, given that I am updating this webpage over three years afterwards, my memory is a little hazy. Hopefully the photos will help to lever out some information trapped in obscure corners of my brain. We'll see.
So then. We stayed somewhere. For about 9 days between Tuesday 19th and Thursday 27th in September. Or maybe it was 10 days, I'm not quite sure. This was the view from our room. The sea was not too far away.
Once we had made our way down to the sea, there was a long, long promenade that we could walk along. The place where we were had a relatively high proportion of locals and so it wasn't quite the garish tourist trap that we were more used to seeing. And that was generally a good thing. Lynne poses on a bench in a slightly modest fashion.
The countryside nearby was very mountainous and gave a splendid backdrop.
Ooh, I've found the hotel name. It was thusly. A bit of research later and I discover that the Giardino De Greci is located in Giardini Naxos, which is (broadly speaking) a town in the province of Messina, located on the north-east coast of Sicily.
Nearby Taormina (which a ten-minute taxi journey up a steep road away, if I remember rightly) was evidently the real touristy bit, as I struggled to get a photo of this archway without ruddy people getting in the way. Move out!
Taormina featured narrow, busy streets...
...but also grand buildings overlooking squares...
...and girls checking out menus whilst people crouched on steps.
Given that it was fairly high up, it also enabled far-reaching views of the coastline. I think this is more or less a shot of somewhere near Giardino Naxos, i.e. where we'd come from. See on the right hand side the road running round the town, situated outside the walls.
Looking back inland, the escalation continued, and the stunning architecture was also evident.
This was in a shop window. It has my name on it. That is all.
We evidently trusted a local enough to lend them my camera to take this photo. We are happily drinking bottles of Moretti, I think.
This was the shot from a busy crossroads in Taormina.
Oooh, that building before but at night.
A rare pose from me by the sea.
This unusual, distinctive looking building was a good guide for us as to how far down the sea front we had walked.
As the sun set, it was time to get another picture of the scenery.
Meanwhile, Lynne was very much enjoying her tomato and mozzarella starter Somehow, one of my pieces of bruschetta seems to have crept over there.
We were clearly up for a night on the tiles, as Lynne demonstrates her rather upright pool technique.
It must therefore be time for the obligatory reverse shot. This is probably the best of a short sequence of similar photos. Ok, so I didn't get the angle right, but at least I am smiling. Well, it's sort of a smile.
Lynne's cocktail drinking technique needed a little perfecting...
...as indeed did her nibble consuming method. At the bar later on, they brought out lots of snacks, some of which we didn't even pay for (if any). That photo is quite, quite scary. But also funny. So it stays.
Back to Taormina the next day (the Thursday by now, I think) for some crouched horse gobbing into a bowl statue action (always a favourite).
The weather had somewhat brightened up, but that did not stop Lynne from shop-shop-shopping to her heart's content, here looking at teeny weeny colourful things, no doubt for Avis's collection.
Look how beautiful things can look in the sunshine.
This time, we wandered up a bit.
Where Lynne did not at all worry about the increased height.
And we could see for even further around. I'm not sure what the building in the foreground is, but it would be a great place to sit on the roof.
We headed to some gardens, where the plants were somewhat exotic and vibrantly-coloured.
And some of the plants' growth was a little crazy.
Lynne wasn't quite sure what this was. Nor am I.
So we'll go back to more weirdy-looking plants. Isn't nature bonkers? Look, there's even a heart-shaped leaf on the top right.
Oh lordy, we seem even higher up now.
Ready, aim, fire! With Lynne having spent most of the summer on a career break, I wasn't sure what new skills she had acquired and hence I was a little nervous when taking this picture. I was going to say 'shot' and not 'picture' but that seemed inappropriate.
And that will do for now.
In fact, let's go crazy and start another page.