The Amalfi Coast is stunning, but it doesn’t have anything on Taormina. From our hotel we can look out at Mt. Etna and down to the Ionian Sea some roughly 650 feet below. Seems high enough, until you go to Castelmola (as in castle on the hill that looks like a molar), which is at more that 1,500 feet above sea level. First, we took the cable car from Taormina to the beach below, where we got a good view of Isola Bella, a small rock island in a cove that has a private residence at the top; don’t know who owns it, but it was mildly famous for Truman Capote striking a drunken deal to buy it years ago for $10,000. He wrote a check for it that bounced; happens when you strike a deal with a drunk novelist, of course Capote was enlarging the truth.

Next, was the bus to Castelmola. Anyone who has visited the Amalfi Coast knows what a harrowing ride it is on the bus over from Sorrento. It has nothing on the bus from Taormina to Castelmola. Along with narrow roads and the potential for careening down the sides of cliffs, add hairpin turns, switchbacks, a steep climb, and a typically aggressive Italian bus driver and you have a truly white knuckled ride. Luckily we’d bumped into some Canadian travelers on the cable car ride to the beach earlier who told us they’d bussed up and walked back down via some winding steps. It was a less harrowing walking trip than going downhill on that road, not to mention that it was drizzly today. We got a bit lost finding our way back to the main part of town because once the path ends there were no signs directing you back to the central part of the town. Earned a good dinner tonight; could be the first time in a couple days that we’re truly hungry in the evening after some big lunches.

The accompanying pictures may give a sense of the height of Castelmola; the top picture was taken from the remnants of a 16th century castle that is at the uppermost portion of the town. The village below is Taormina; the green patch in the center of the frame is a soccer pitch with artificial turf; the cable car passes over it going to and from the beach. The second photo was on the path down to Taomina.