Taormina (Part 2)

Looking down from the vantage point at Madonna del Rocca chapel we had spotted that the public gardens seemed to be worth a visit. Our instinct was absolutely correct. The contrast on entering the gardens was stark; we had moved from a delightful but relatively busy tourist area to a peaceful and amazingly empty garden.

Set high up on a terrace the views down to the sea were breath-taking and scattered throughout the gardens are numerous fairytale-like buildings. The whole effect was lovely and we really enjoyed walking around the gardens. It seemed strange that there is so little mention of them in the tourist literature but then that does help to keep them tranquil.

I gave up trying to pick which photos to include in the blog so I have included all of the nice ones. It should give you a feel for the place.

We were delighted that we had made the effort to go up to Taormina but, after a tiring day on our feet in the heat, we were also pleased to get the bus back down the hill and back on boad BV so that we could cool our aching feet in the sea.

The following morning (23 June) looking at Giordini Naxos from BV, Mount Etna was the standing out the clearest we had seen it. We wanted to see if we could get a guided trip up the volcano and so decided that it was time to leave our anchorage off Giordini Naxos and head 8 miles down the coast to Riposto. There is a marina there where we could safely leave BV and it is a little closer to Mount Etna which would hopefully make arranging a trip to Etna easier.