If there is one thing that’s a must with hostels, it is having a sleep mask and earplugs. You can never count on hostels being quiet. This was definitely the case last night. I slept okay and gave myself plenty of time in the morning to get up and eat before my 9:00 AM train to Taormina.
Another tip with hostels is to always book always book ones with free breakfast. Staying at one without it may save you some money, but is not worth the hassle of having to find a place to eat. Plus, I am not really the type of person who likes to hang out at cafes.
The breakfast was simple but enough. I had bowl of cornflakes, apple, croissant and an espresso. I know I’ve been spending too much time in France when I start to miss their croissants. Italian ones just don’t compare.
I brushed my teeth, packed up my bag, and got ready to check out. I had completely forgotten about my five euro deposit, so that was a pleasant surprise to get back. I left the building and took a new route to the station which was much more scenic than the way I came from.
Here is a picture of a cool statue I saw.
I found the train with no issues and was soon on my hour long ride to Taormina. I used this time to finish up my blog post from yesterday. When I arrived at the train station, it was already huge change in scenery. It was right next to the incredibly blue sea and luscious mountain. I put the address of the main street of Taormina in google maps. It was only thirty minutes, so I opted to walk it.
Sometimes when Google Maps says something is walkable, you shouldn’t follow these directions. One thing Sicily strongly lacks is sidewalks. The way it had me walk went along the shoulder of windy roads. On top of that, it was incredibly sunny outside and the walk wall uphill. I was able to avoid the wrath of the zooming vespas and made it to some parking garage. It said I had to follow the road for another five minutes, but there was barely a shoulder and the road looked too busy.
At least I had some great views on my tiring walk.
Using common sense, I guessed that since we were on the hill, the top of the parking garage would lead to the touristy Corso Umberto. Why else would you need a giant parking garage? My guess was correct and after climbing seven flights of stairs, I had found my destination.
The Archway that is the start of Corso Umberto
I knew this for certain because in front of me were picturesque streets and groups of senior citizens. I was pretty exhausted from the hike up and sat for a good ten minutes. I had read online that the best thing to do in Taormina is just walk along the main street. Once I felt rested enough, I began to walk. There are a huge variety of different stores and places to eat. I stopped in a bunch of tiny stores whether they sold expensive clothes or touristy items.
The fountain I sat at to rest, featuring a dad holding up his child to a water fountain.
Views of Corso Umberto
After walking for a bit, the road opened up to small piazza that had an incredible view of the sea. I used my Italian skills to get someone to take a picture of me here.
The picture, which is not the greatest
The view and other pictures
I spent about fifteen minutes just basking in the sun and admiring the view. This also made me realize that I really need a pair of sunglasses. I didn’t bring any to Europe and have been in many situations where they would be helpful. It also didn’t hurt that there were a ton of sunglass stores in Taormina. I stopped in a couple of them to do some browsing. I found a reasonable priced pair I liked, but didn’t want to impulse buy them.
It was pretty much lunch time, so I used yelp to find a place to eat. The highest rated restaurant on yelp was nearby so I headed there. I got a nice table in the sun outside. One of the specials for today was pasta nero, which is pasta made with squid ink. To continue my adventurous eating kick from last night, I decided to get the pasta nero. If it was a special, it probably means that it was made with fresh ingredients. I also got a beer because why not. It is so stupid that I legally can’t order a beer with dinner in the United States.
I didn’t know the special came with an appetizer, but they brought out a bruschetta for me that was extremely delicious. Soon my pasta nero came out, complete with tiny squids in it.
The pasta nero
The pasta nero was pretty good for the first couple of bites, but started to be a bit too much the more I ate of it. I ate about two-thirds about it before giving up. It was not my favorite, but I’m still glad I tried it.
Despite sitting for a while eating, the pasta nero was not doing great things for my stomach and I wanted to find some place to sit in the sun. On top of that, I knew if I raced to do everything in Taormina, I would run out of things to do. I find that trips like this become much more relaxing when you have ample time to just sit and chill. It is very easy to get burnt out while sight-seeing. I was sitting in one of the open squares from earlier to myself and thought, “Wow, it is really sunny”. Thinking about the one pair of sunglasses I really liked from earlier in the day, I went to go buy them. I figured they would be a good investment and I am typically good with taking care of expensive items.
Me and my new shades
Equipped with my new sunglasses, I headed to the Teatrico Greco. Sicily is a fantastic place to visit if you have a hankering to see ancient theaters. This one was much more impressive than the one I saw yesterday. From a tour group I overheard, this was used by both the ancient Greeks and Romans. Sicily was conquered a bunch of times, so that makes sense.
Here are some pictures of the theater.
After I left the Greek theater, I walked past a bunch of school groups going towards. I must have beaten the crowds by thirty minutes. The temperature had also risen significantly, and so did my desire to eat gelato. I had to fulfill this desire.
My Gelato
I spent another hour exploring Taormina and looking in shops. I went to some tourist office and asked the best way to get to the train station. I had a feeling they weren’t going to say walk along the shoulder of a busy road. They gave me a paper map and pointed to a shuttle bus that went there for a few euros. Upon further inspection of this map, I noticed a road leading to the station that was not on Google maps. My curiosity had been peaked because I knew there must be some path down the mountain.
I made sure I had plenty of time and headed towards the mysterious road. As I followed it down the mountain, the tourists quickly disappeared and the road got much smaller and steeper. A bit further down, the road was blocked by a fence. It didn’t even seem like there was a road behind the fence, but after further inspection, I noticed a small trail and some stairs. I was not even sure this trail headed to the right place, but I went with my gut and followed it.
The cement stairs in the beginning quickly turned into a hiking trail that curved down the mountain. It did not seem very maintained, but the footsteps I saw gave me faith. Soon I was rewarded with some spectacular views and had the trail to myself.
The view
What was even cooler was that I saw an insane amount of lizards. Every few steps on the trail, a lizard would run across. I was amazed.
Here’s my poor attempt at taking a picture of one.
After about twenty minutes of hiking, the trail finally turned into a road that was right next to the train station. I can’t believe this beautiful path up the mountain and had been here the whole time. This was much better than the sides of roads and parking garages I went through earlier. I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
I had about twenty minutes to kill at the train station and it went quickly. While on the train ride back, I typed up about half of this blog. When I arrived in Catania, I headed to my new hostel. If you’re wondering why I changed hostels, it was to make my life much easier tomorrow morning. One thing I have learned from travelling is that if you have an early flight or train, stay somewhere as close as possible to the station or airport. My new hostel was 500 meters from the train station, which should come in handy for my 5 AM train tomorrow.
Once I got to my hostel, the manager wasn’t there and I hung out in the lobby. There was some man in his forties there who I made conversation with while waiting. This was an interesting scenario because he only spoke Italian. I find that it can be really difficult to find places where nobody speaks English. This was great practice for my Italian while waiting to check in. Eventually the manager came and I got setup in my room. I facetimed my friend Kyle for a bit after dropping off all my stuff.
It was close to dinner and I was really in the mood for pizza. After some online research, I found a place that seemed really good. It was twenty minutes away, but I was down for a walk. During my walk, I was amazed at how familiar I had already become with Catania. Once I recognized a few landmarks, I barely needed to use my phone for guidance.
The pizza place was not a sit-down restaurant, but they had two tiny tables outside. I ordered a small pizza for myself and an Italian beer. When my food finally came out, I was very impressed. Not only was the pizza delicious, but really cheap too.
Everything in the photo cost 4.5 euros. Not even Dominos can beat that price.
I took my time eating and tried to enjoy the moment. It’s not every day you can be eating great pizza outside on a warm night in Italy.
I headed back to the hostel and took a much needed shower. I made sure everything was ready for my early rise tomorrow and headed to bed early.
Foreign Tourist with No Grasp of the Local Language 
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