Taormina

Today we took a bus to Taormina, a picturesque town perched on a cliff with Mount Etna for a backdrop.Taormina is a well preserved medieval town with loads of beautifully presented but expensive shops.  It was established in the 9th century and was the capital of Byzantine Sicily.  We visited the remains of  the Teatro Greco a horseshoe shaped amphitheatre built by the Romans in the 3rd century BC.  They had great visual representations of what it was originally like and the progress of their restoration.
It is the height of the tourist season and very hot.  Litres of water are consumed but still we need to sit at a cafe, pay exorbitant prices for a lemon soda, just to get out of the sun!
There are bush fires in Napoli, on the main land and this is causing a general haze, which has prevented us from seeing Mount Etna at its best.
Too much sun today, so an early night beckons.  Tomorrow we have a long journey to the Amalfi coast, crossing the Straits of Messina by train ferry and then a train to Salerno, and a bus to Praiano.
Ciao 
























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