I took the bus from Palermo to Taormina late on Wednesday afternoon in order to get to the east coast in time for dinner. Actually, I took the 107 local Palermo bus to the SAIS Palermo-Catania bus, to the Interbus Catania-Taormina shuttle. The trip wasn’t too long, it wasn’t complicated, and it wasn’t expensive. All in all, it cost me 20 Euros to get across the island.
I arrived in Taormina at the bus terminal with two very skittish Belgian women. Our bus driver set us up with Daniele, a fun Sicilian cab driver who gave me a deep discount on my cab ride for talking with him (in Italian) about Frank Sinatra.
Side note: Sicily adores Frank Sinatra.
I took a familiar walk from my hotel to Corso Umberto, which is the main street in town. The street is situated between Porta Messina and Porta Catania and offers some excellent high-end shopping and dining. I chose a place with a patio and panoramic views of the bay and, while it was pitch black on the water, it was kind of nice to be faced with nothing rather than feeling the constant urge to peek into every open church, like I did in Palermo.
I came to Taormina to relax and reflect on my time in Palermo. In the last two years I have viewed Taormina as much-needed retreat from the dirt and grime of Palermo. In my third year in Sicily, I missed Palermo but I had a leisurely walk and the arrival of my friends, Derek and Sam, to look forward to.
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