We woke to find ourselves already docked in Messina, Sicily.  Today’s excursion took us by bus to Taormina, about an hour south.  Taormina is most famous for its Roman ampitheatre, and as the location for series 2 of The White Lotus TV series (which we don’t watch).

The bus ride took us across some very rugged, and very dry countryside; Sicily is suffering a prolonged drought.  After hugging the coast, the road made some very tight switchbacks, with the bus slowing to a crawl.  As we pulled in to the bus parking lot, another bus was trying to manoeuvre.  There was a lot of very Italian gesticulating, head shaking, shoulder shrugging, and general pantomime performance which was entertaining to watch! Finally we were let off, to climb 7 flights of stairs inside the not very salubrious parking station.  We emerged into bright sunshine, blinking and bemused, to find ourselves outside Porta Catania, one of the two entry ways to the town of Taormina.

Behind us, Mt Etna was putting on a show, smoke billowing away from one of its three craters.  Today, Catania Aiport was closed due to the ash, but luckily it wasn’t blowing our way.  We could see more plumes on the lower slopes where the massive volcano was venting.

With three hours of free time, we joined the tourist throng and made our way slowly along the main street, pausing every time we found a seat or bench in the shade, and enjoying a welcome fresh breeze.  Taormina is extremely touristy, full of high end shops and restaurants, and most of the visitors seemed drawn by shiny things in shop windows.  Just like Mallorca, if you take a few steps off the main street, it’s suddenly calm and quiet.

The tourist stuff is punctuated by small but charming piazzas with the obligatory churches and fountains, and with panoramic views from terraces, over the unmistakeably deep blue of the Med.  Etna continued to puff away.

The queues for the ampitheatre were taking longer than we had time for, so instead we meandered down many stairs, to the Villa Communale public gardens.  These were a lovely shady oasis, with more gorgeous views from the extended terrace.  They featured a series of playful, Gaudi-esque structures known inexplicably as beehives. Ian also came across a mini submarine from WW2, a nod to one of Italy’s few success stories from that conflict.

Back in Messina, we paid a visit to the main attraction, namely the astronomical clock.  We read that the various figures did all sorts of things at 12 noon; unfortunately at 4pm, all they did was ring a bell.  Things were being set up for tonight’s Assumption Day Parade, a huge religious festival in Messina which has taken place on August 15 for hundreds of years.  Unfortunately it would start after we sailed, but we could see gigantic floats in front of the town hall, which were paraded the previous evening.  We also had some nice views of the city, from the ship.

Later at dinner, we sailed past Mt Etna, as the sun set over the lower northern slopes.  Her smoke plume was now leaving a horizontal, curliqued trail back over Catania.   It was a spectacular show; even more so when darkness fell, the lights fringing the coast twinkled into life, and we could see a fireworks display in one of the towns part way down the volcano!  Sometimes you just have to be in the right place at the right time.