Left Carmelo's about 10:15 by Uber to the airport. Driver wanted to go to LA someday. Carmelo was sad to see his guests leave. We really could have stayed another day. Planning ahead really overconstrains you sometimes. This would happen again when we found Messina to be really nice and we could have enjoyed staying another day there.
Picked up Toyota Avyo. Was very busy at the pick up location. One Italian woman pushed to the front of the line and got served out of order. Another tried, but Chris appealed to the desk agent and the pusher failed. We had paperwork done by 11:05am and then it took us 35 minutes of walking around to find the car and get the keys. Driving out of the airport in a LH drive car on the RH side of the road felt so normal.
MD store to buy food - strawbs, cheese, milk, drinks, bread, etc. for a picnic somewhere.
Drove to Taormina. It's on a hill with very steep, hairpin approaches. We drove through its tiny roads but didn't find a place to park. It was raining here and there, so we started down the hill looking for a place to park. We found a resident’s parking spot open and stopped for a few pics, but then decided we shouldn’t be parked there too long. We continued down the hill, then it started to really rain.
On the way out it started to pour. Then a bit later it was hailing rather hard. A serious microburst that lasted maybe 10 or 15 minutes and dumped maybe an inch or two of water and ice. The roads were flooded and water was streaming off the elevated highway bridges. We drove very carefully for a while until we came out from the storm --- the storm was blowing out to sea. We stopped for a few pictures and a snack, then pushed on to Messina, just about 15 km further out.
In Messina, we drove past the Google Maps destination, then found a parking spot ~250 meters away, then walked back and tried to find the place. Street numbering was way off from Google’s geolocation. Eventually we found the guy standing in the street about 3 blocks from Google’s location. The house/apartment was in a development several small blocks away from the main road.
Finally found our apt. Shared with another family very curious about us (from afar) but didn't know English.
The apartment was super clean and nicely decorated with flame polished slate counters, very modern styling, really really nice. The beds were very comfortable and the shower was quad-mode.
Dinner at Rose's. Talked to a young man who had been to NY and
spoke a bit of English. He was very patient with us and we talked a
lot then ordered food. Chris had a meat ball (really a round chunk
of meatloaf), mashed potatoes, spinach, and peas. Kathi had grilled
swordfish, spinach, and stuffed mushroom caps. For desert we had
some sort of pistachio ice cream ball. Delicious.
To go higher requires a very expensive cable car ride and tour guide and several hours. €52 for each of us just for the cable car! Uhh, no thanks. €80 each to add a 4WD bus ride up an additional 500 meters to the 3000m elevation level. It's kind of cold and windy up here... We decide to just get some pics here and move along to spend more time on the coast. This was a good decision.
Taromina is a small town perched on the mountain side above the coast. Great views, narrow streets, crowded with tourists, no place to park, not an easy place to visit by car. We drove up, tried to park, parked for a bit on the way down, started raining, then drove is a torrential downpour and hail storm back down to the coast. Quite an experience, but definitely not the Taromina you see in the movies like The White Lotus.