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Other entries in Taormina

Taormina - Italy

She says:

We were looking forward for a while to come to Sicily for a number of reasons.  Warmer weather and cheaper prices were the two main ones.  Well, the weather has not been very friendly to us lately (rain, overcast, cold, a little bit of sun) and of course the one place we come to in Sicily is like a rich tourist's mecca.  Having said all of that, our time here has been nice.  Walking the main streets, window shopping, sampling Sicilian fare, and taking in the breathtaking views over the cliffs and across the seaside.  Taormia is definately one of the more picturesque towns we have visited.  We had a nice long walk today, down the steep slopes to the rocky waters edge and I had a little cry......

He Says:

I'll explain the tear in Bev's eye......

We were keen on camping here but our ambition was turned aside by the cold weather.  The enjoyment of camping would be removed.  In fact, our tent needs major reconstructive surgery.  Aside from thick mildew, a few tears in the fly, bug and olive stains everywhere and ripped fly lines, we had major holes in the floor and a door that had immaculately been pinned together by Bev, the expert seamstress.  Our home, hence, is not salvageable and sad to say, there is not much point or merit to bringing it home and there is no use for it here as it is now too cold. 

We will leave our tent here on the road, where the memories are, where it has served us well and been a brave soldier and where it will rest and be happiest.  We awoke this morning to bright sunshine and the tear in Bev's eye is explained now as we both realized that today was the day that we had to put our tent to rest.  Taormina, Sicily, is built on top of an immense and steep clilff.  From our hostel, (I really wish we had been camping), it was about a 30 minute walk to the beach.  In order to capitalize on this great weather and sunshine, we decided to head to the beach immediately via cable car.  This town is infiltrated with tourism as there is even a cable car down the steep slopes to the beach below.  We hopped into the cable car, tent bag in hand and ended up on a gorgeous beach.  We weren't exactly sure what we would do to say our final good byes to our tent.  I had thoughts of throwing it off a ferry but this wasn't a viable option as I didn't even want to carry it on our 10 hour train ride to the port of Brindisi, tomorrow.  The tent was going to be either buried, commemorated, sailed, launched or cremated -- we were going to say farewell to the only house we knew on this trip, our home.  Our tent was at the forefront of our trip across 14 African countries and now, 8 in Europe.  A proper send off was deserving.  It had lasted 9 months with us.

We discussed a burial but we decided, since we were on Sicily, that a sail away would be most appropriate.  The beach where we were wasn't cutting it as most of it was private and there were spectators abroad.  I didn't fancy the thought of police showing up wondering why two people had launched a big tent bag in the small, quiet bay.  That would be lame ass.  So, we walked down the road, about 20 minutes to a vertical cliff and carefully scaled down the 150 feet to the flopping waves of the Mediterranean below.  Nobody was in sight for a country kilometre.  This was an ideal spot to have our moment together and say "farewell tent".  Bev bound the fly in the tent tightly and I heaved the whole thing outward and it landed softly in the calm sea.  Snow capped Mount Etna, the turquoise waters of the Mediterannean, nice beaches and colourful cliffside houses created the background for our sail away.  Our tent floateed off and Bev and I watched it until we could see it no longer.  Maybe we'll see it in Greece.  On the other hand, probably not.  Thank you tent and we will miss you so.  Sigh Sigh.......

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