10/6

Our Sunday night dinner in Taormina was fabulous!  Dale had saved an article by Bay Area wine merchant Kermit Lynch raving about a dinner that Kermit and Alice Waters had in Nero D'Avola here and its chef.  We ordered and then asked to see the chef.  When he appeared, Dale gave him the article and he became very excited and started talking about the evening with them.  When he heard that Dale made wine, he insisted on getting his email address (Dale had no winery card with him).  I quickly inserted that Dale was only a home wine-maker and the chef replied "good, that makes the wine better because it is handled more carefully".   "The smaller the winery, the better the wine", replied Dale in something short of modesty. 

Oh, yes, dinner -- it was fabulous.  Because of all the rain in the area the mushrooms are prolific and we took advantage of this by having a mushroom appetizer and mushroom pasta.  The recommended wine from the regional Riofavara Winery was fantastic -- fruity and spicy.  We were stuffed, but a complimentary dessert of Tiramisu arrived.  

After dinner, the rain continued and flushed out the crowds so strolling Taormina eased.  It was a beautiful evening and we loved Taormina!  If you have never heard of this city, please, please google it until you get a picture of it on a plateau above  the Ionian sea.

This morning I went to Mass at the Chiesa Madre Madonna delle Grazie in Linguaglossa ("a big tongue of lava"), the small village where we were staying.  It is amazing that such a beautiful church is in such a small village.  Even more amazing was the minimal attendance. (The US Mass attendance is to be commended...).  

It was raining today so we buzzed passed Catania and arrived in Ortygia, a small island off Siracusa.  The sun came out and we got a nice place to stay--the Domus Mariae -- run by nuns.  Dale refers to it as "the nunnery".  We walked to the majestic Duomo and the Piazza di Duomo joining the beautiful, warm Sunday evening stroll along the waterfront.

We have gotten half way around the island of Sicily.  We are starting to tire of the driving and packing and unpacking and are anxious to find a place for two nights but also anxious to see more sites.