Gray's Academy

I planned to take the bus to Savoca yesterday. It is a very small medieval village about 7 miles outside of Taormina. I desperately wanted to get out of this beautiful little town. It gets extremely crowded on weekends.

Thankfully, before I bought my bus ticket, I realized that I had made a visit to this little town when I was here in April. Yes, its medieval. Yes it’s quaint and charming. And, no, I don’t need to visit there again.

Instead, I took the train to Messina – the port of call that connects Sicily to mainland Italy by ferry. This is a much more modern city. It’s was a Saturday and I had trouble finding a place for lunch – in fact I had trouble finding anything redeeming about Messina itself, which made the experience exactly what I needed.

There is obvious wealth connected to Taormina and the people who come here. I want to know what it is like for the people who work here. They can’t afford to live in Taormina unless they own real estate. Most of them commute from nearby Catania. They don’t frequent the restaurants or shops.

The people who keep Taormina humming are incredibly hard workers. They take pride in their work. It would not surprise me to find out that co-workers are either family members or feel as if they are.

As soon as the line thins out at a gelato shop someone is sweeping or mopping the floor. These people are happy to have a job and it shows.