Italy September 23 - 25

9-23-09 Wednesday Day12

Taormina at leisure

We drove through the lava flow and then to the church in Sicily where, in the movie, the Godfather, this church was used as a setting for the marriage of Michael to the daughter of the local Don.

The path up to the church was steep. I was having trouble trying to climb it on my own. Clive, from Australia, and John, from Arkansas, each took one of my arms and practically carried me to the church door. John and his wife, Barbara, had owned a hardware store which they sold to go into retirement. Barbara had been the pharmacist in their store. She went to work at another store and is still working. John said, “That’s the hillbilly way. When you retire, keep your wife working.”

The church was small but beautiful inside. There was very nice paintings and wood carvings. The ambiance was pleasant and restful. It was not as overpowering as some of the large cathedrals were. Coming down from the church was not as difficult as going up but the cobble stones were still hard to travel on.

In the evening we went to another fish dinner. There was very good entertainment consisting of a guitar player, an accordion player and a man with a tambourine-drum who was also the vocalist. They played Italian and Sicilian songs with great gusto. It was a pleasant, fun evening.

9-24-09 Thursday Day13

In the morning we packed our bags and left them in the hallway to be loaded on the bus. We were finished with Sicily and returning to Italy. On the way to the ferry the traffic slowed down and finally came to a stop. The reason for the stoppage was that the road had become impassable because a landslide had shut down the only road to the ferry. We sat there a half hour while Tony was on the phone exploring our options on ways to get back to Italy. He finally was able to book passage on an overnight ferry back to Italy. This ferry was newer. The cabins were larger with wider bunks on both sides. We each slept on a lower bunk.

9-25-09 Friday Day 14

Isle of Capri Excursion

We ate breakfast on the ferry and, after some sightseeing, we boarded another smaller ferry to the Isle of Capri. We walked from the ferry dock to an incline car that took us to the upper part of the city. An optional tour had been planned but we didn’t go because Tony thought the walking would be too difficult for me. Lorene and I walked through the shops and found a restaurant to have lunch. This was a popular destination for tourists so the sidewalks and streets were crowded. There was no evidence of a world economy slowdown here.

We road the incline car down to the lower level and found a place where we could get an ice cream cone and eat it at a table under an umbrella. Some of the members of our group who had not gone on the optional tour began collecting on the empty tables around us. The waiters let us sit there because it was late in the day and the crowd wads thinning.

By the time Tony showed up with the excursion group, we were all together and ready for the ferry ride back to the mainland. We rode the ferry and were driven to our hotel. We were given our room key but couldn’t find our room. The desk tour attendant gave us directions but we were still lost. With the help of John, from Arkansas, we finally found our room. We had time to take a nap before collecting in the hotel dinning room for our evening meal.