A wrinkle in time

Astoundingly, we have managed thus far to escape any bugs, colds, or flues despite our exposure to public transport, grubby Italian bathrooms void of soap, and the occasional meal in establishments of questionable hygiene. The five trains, one ferry, 12 hours of travel, and chilly conditions however, proved to be the perfect storm needed to defeat my immune system. One of those five trains doled out the virus that would later bring my head to the brink of explosion… but you will hear plenty about that in later posts.
Our long journey finally found us in the seaside resort of Taormina.
After being cooped up on the train all day we were keen to get out into the air and get the blood circulating (plus we needed a drink). So we changed into some fresh but very wrinkly clothes and set out in search of “fresh air”.
Side note: We have discovered that the Italian authorities seem to be a little overprotective of the tourists… all hotel rooms (and public bathrooms) are equipped with panic strings that you pull in the event of an ablutionary emergency; but more annoyingly, it is “illegal” and “unsafe” to provide hotel guests with an in-room iron. As you will see in the video we did come up with a solution to disguise the wrinkles but beware this is a reality television show moment- you get to see how stupid we act sometimes. We did think twice about posting it but we figured a little self-humiliation was worth any amusement you may get out of it, so go ahead and have good laugh at our expense!



The next day we travelled up the cable car to explore the old city of Taormina. The major tourist attraction is the ancient Roman amphitheatre with it’s gorgeous view of the sea. The rest of the day was spent poking around the city. We finished off with a great dinner and made it an early night in preparation for another complex travel itinerary to Stromboli, the island of the volcano.