Taormina, The Lotus Position.

Taormina is probably most famous now for season two of The White Lotus and now, having visited there, I can see why they chose to film there. It's not a bad little town.

I'd taken the very scenic coastal railway down from Messina, just a 45 minute journey, and arriving at the railway station I decided to walk up to the town proper. It was uphill and I had a trolley but how steep could it be?

Very fucking steep turned out to be the answer. On a hot and sticky day it was bloody tough going and by the time I was halfway up the hill I'd regretted it. I couldn't roll my trolley along because much of the path was made up of broken paving stones (and because it's only got two wheels) so I either had to drag it or, at some points, carry it. 

Luckily I like to travel light. As I was halfway up it seemed more of an effort to go back down than it was to carry on to the top and once I finally reached that top it was well worth it. The town was buzzing and the bars were doing a roaring trade. I'd visit some of them later but first I had to get to my AirBnB, check in, and have a now much needed siesta.

Luckily, the room (a kind of granny flat not attached to the main residence) was very comfy and once fully rested I headed back into town (the bnb was a little walk out in a rather pleasant suburb), had a little browse about, and took a very enjoyable Aperol spritz at Caffe Wunderbar on Piazza IX Aprile where they were playing an agreeable mix of Ray Charles, Elvis, James Brown, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Chubby Checker, Billie Holiday, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Wunderbar was once the haunt of Greta Garbo and Reiner Werner Fassbinder but it seems that, back in the day, they all used to hang out in Taormina. DH Lawrence, Oscar Wilde, Roald Dahl, Giacomo Balla, Tennessee Williams, Ezra Pound, Bertrand Russell, Luc Besson, John Steinbeck, Rudyard Kipling, Jean Reno, Roberto Benigni, Peggy Guggenheim, Christian Dior, and Truman Capote. That's the sort of company I was in. That and several thousand other tourists also drinking Aperol spritz and buying pairs of socks and fridge magnets festooned with images of fresh Sicilian lemons. Back at the hotel I had a birra Messina and watched The Rest Is Entertainment podcast on my phone.

Before heading out again to the Time Out bar where I watched Man City vs Napoli and Newcastle vs Barcelona on the big screens while texting my nephew Daniel and, later, moved on to the bar's pleasant garden and chatted with a nice couple who lived in Suffolk. Something that only made me even more certain that next year's TADS two dayer should take place in that county.

After a nice lie-in, I headed down to Sike for a brunch of maccheroni al Norma and a Coke before taking a quick wander up to, and around, the Teatro Greco with its panoramic views across to Calabria and, even more impressively, out to Mount Etna (though more on that in a future blog). That earned me a chocolate and lemon gelato and as with every Italian gelato I've ever had it was absolutely delicious.

I had a look around Santa Caterina and the Duomo, had a general walk about to see more of the town and get my step count up, took another siesta, and wandered down to and then around the rather wonderful public gardens taking in all the eccentric follies, the cacti, the views, and the noise of the local ragazzi.

Then it was time, again - so soon, for another Aperol spritz at the curiously named Bar Billy & Billy before a pizza at Ristorante del Corso Umberto and lasties in the Re Di Bastoni pub. As you can probably gather, my time in Taormina was mostly spent leisurely. It's that kind of place. I could get quite used to it.

But the next day I was moving on. So I had brunchington at Licchio's (a continental breakfast with a cappuccino) which made me feel like James Richardson on Channel 4's Football Italia in the nineties (although minus a bright pink copy of a La Gazzetta Dello Sport) and followed that with another chocolate and lemon gelato - a huge one - before heading to the bus station.

There was a fair bit of hanging around, and looking for shade, before a bus took me down to the train station (two lots of door trouble on the way, the driver was not impressed with me) where I had such a long wait to my train to Catania that I not only worked up a few thousand more steps I also even tried to have a sleep on a bench. I'll pick up from Catania soon but, for now,  Taormina was simply lovely. Wish I was there now, Aperol spritz in hand.