Simply fantastic!
Well yes I could certainly get used to waking to this view, couldn’t you?
Delighted to say our parcel arrived so we’ve got the gypsy, hurray! It’s bright and shiny, I just want to kiss it. We stopped at Riposto marina for the night, http://www.portodelletna.com, first impressions are so easily clouded as within 20 mins of tying up there was thunder, rain and gusts of wind. I wasn’t happy, but then the sun came out and we went exploring. Loved the market, such beautiful fresh produce and the fish? Outstanding! Bought a bounty of reasonably priced goodies and got very excited with the asparagus and gorgeously ripe avocados (food excites me, what can I say?). Asparagus is going to be lightly roasted then dipped into soft boiled eggs 🙂
Also in my parcels were these incredible oils that I’ve not been able to source recently. Had to chuckle, opened the coconut oil and made the Boss take a whiff. His reaction “ooh are you coating that in chocolate?”, sometimes I think there’s no hope…
The boatyard is making a small modification to the bit we need for the chain counter so I won’t have to rely on 1 Mississippi anymore, heading back to collect that this afternoon so knowing we had nothing keeping us there we headed over to Taormina and wow!
The views here are spectacular, the little seaside village (?) idyllic and so much more to explore when we return mid-August. We’re on a mooring buoy, a concession run by our friend George at www.yachthotel.it Anyone cruising here I’d recommend giving him a shout, he’s an absolute mine of information; contacts and more. A nice guy too (no, I’m not on commission hehe).
People are so friendly in this part of the world especially if you take the time to learn a few pleasantries. Brief stint ashore (where I seriously banged my leg, duck sized egg lump bleeding and throbbing – I’m so clumsy, ooh duck eggs….)with a good friend, great to have a quick catch up. She’s rather clever too, more on that in another post.
Just waiting for confirmation that our bits are ready for collection, hopefully that’s today. If so at first light tomorrow we start making the gentle trek over to the Ionian. Roughly (not rough, there’s barely any wind) 70 miles which should be about a 12 hour journey (estimating 6 knots an hour).
Excited for new adventures, places that are new to me and hopefully grabbing a few other cruisers for some early morning beach exercise sessions.
2 Replies to "Mount Etna, Risposto and Taormina"
Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor June 11, 2015 (4:02 pm)
Incredible views! Would love to sail in this part of the world one day. And eat all of that delicious food 🙂
admin June 11, 2015 (4:40 pm)
It’s magical Ellen, love your blog name – will definitely look later today 🙂