Gray's Academy

Yesterday I was dealing with the effects of jet lag and , or should I say not sleeping in Sicily. I was awake for much of the middle of the night and woke up in a fog after 9 am. I did some writing and then gently kicked myself out the door to see about getting myself to the train station so I could visit Fiumefreddo – a small town I noticed on my drive from the airport.

I knew the train station would be down by the coast. Taormina sits up high on a hilltop right on the Ionia Sea. It’s still peak season so the beaches are packed. I was looking forward to finding somewhere a little more laid back on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The trains in Sicily are not like many of the high speed rail in much of Europe. The track basically just hugs the coastline and is used for freight and regular folks like me. It looks to be a bit rickety and that suits me just fine.

In my effort to follow my instincts I thought it would be a good idea to take the funicular down to the beach and then take a short stroll to the station. Did I actually look at the map? Nope. The funicular drops you off in the opposite direction from the trains station. What would have been a 20 minute walk was now going to be more than an hour. Did I mention just how hot it is mid day here? Imagine it is.

It was time for a pivot. I decided to stay at the beach and grab some lunch at a beach front restaurant. The food was awful! Do not eat at Ristorante Il Gabbiano.

That was yesterday, today I had my first Italian class. My brain is mush. I managed to form a sentence in Italian stating I would be back tomorrow. On the advice of the teacher, no more studying today. Just let it sink in.

Ciao, more tomorrow morning on how things are going. It is a beautiful day here in Sicily and I don’t want to sit in my apartment. It’s not as busy as it was over the weekend but it’s a relative thing. The little town is quite crowded again today. And it’s a town, not a city – a lovely little town perched on the rocks below Mt Etna to the right, the sea straight ahead and the mainland of Italy to my left.

It doesn’t get much better than this.