Monday, June 13
I left the campground heading towards Taormina. After a while, I veered off the main road to a small road with big potholes - closed for traffic – right next to the shore. I soon understood the reason for the closure - the road was washed out by a stream of water flowing into the sea. No issues - took off my shoes and crossed it. Now I was on a large sandy beach - a pity not to go in for a swim, so I thought. Spoiler alert - this turned out to be the last one in Sicily.
Right after the beach, I spotted a helicopter on the ground, they were offering 30-minute flights above Mount Etna for Eur 300 - I would gave gone, but they needed a full cabin of five passengers. I left my phone number, but never received a call back, so I saved €300!I soon arrived to Giardini Naxos, a seaside resort, and was surprised to see no garbage on the streets - quite to the contrary, they were collecting rubbish, cleaning and wiping the streets. The bay reminded me of Greece or Spain, white houses with colorful windows, very pretty, but also quite crowded. There was a wonderful view of Taormina.
At a small deli, I got a sandwich and the instructions on the shorter way up to Taormina. OMG. I do not know how I survived this ascent, so steep ad it was. Sweat was dripping from both my forearms- I must have looked like Rafael Nadal in a fourth-set tiebreak. It must have been a 23 degree angle in some places. Anyhow, after I caught my breadth stopping in the relative cool of a tunnel, I made it to the very pretty town of Taormina, once again full of baroque buildings.
...And of course I visited the world-famous ancient Greek/Roman theater, with the audience having a view of the peak of Etna just behind the stage. Oh, my dear ancestors, you were amazing architects and craftsmen! The town offered wonderful views of the coastline and the fuming volcano.
Even though the ride up to Taormina was exhausting, I had the urge to climb even further, up to Castelmola, especially as Google (with which I now had a love-hate relationship to) said the journey would only be 2.5 km long. Not sure what I went wrong, it was at least double that – and took me quite a while. Oh well, the road offered unparalleled views of the coast and of the fuming mountain.Castelmola is deemed as one of the nicest villages in Italy. I was relieved to see a fountain with fresh water on top, it helped me cool down and quench my thirst. I wandered the narrow streets and took a look at the remains of a Normanic castle from the 11th century.
I struck up a couple of smaller conversations and then checked my watch. It was just after 2 pm and I recalled seeing an earlier train to Messina at 14:28. Can I catch that...?The question is why would I want to catch it at all? I was split - on the one hand, I was eager to bike around the entire island, on the other, I was missing my loved ones at home. Some 60 km were to go to Messina, from there to 250 km to Paletmo, so like 3-4 days would have been ahead of me. Then I had seen so much, a volcano, many ruins, old cities, Unesco sites, wonderful beaches - somehow I felt that I was done, with Taormina having been the icing on the cake and Castelmola the dot on the I.