Update 18

Hi Everyone,
Sadly I said goodbye to Nick & Cindy this morning. They will stop in Dublin for the day before returning to the states tomorrow. My son-in-law Ryan and his friend Tony arrive later this afternoon. We will stay one more day here so they can visit Taormina and Mt. Etna before sailing down to Siracusa and then our final stop in Malta.
When we left the Aeolian Islands I thought the remainder of the trip might be a let down compared to all the beautiful spots we have visited this summer. I was wrong. We arrived in Giardini last Tuesday and picked a mooring ball in the anchorage. A fellow came over in an inflatable and explained that this was a private mooring field and there was a charge to use the mooring ball. We decided to stay one night on the mooring as the water is very deep here and setting an anchor would be difficult. George was the man in the inflatable and he owned all the moorings, when I told him we were on our way to Catania so we could visit Mt. Etna and Cindy & Nick could get a taxi to the airport he said why not stay here? There is a bus that runs to the airport every 40 min. we could rent a car to see Mt. Etana, visit Taormina and it is cheaper, cooler and we can swim off the boat. Well we love it here. We are just below Taormina and Mt. Etna is clearly visible in the distance.Taormina is spectacular, the opera we attended was a never to be forgotten experience as was our visit to Mt. Etna. The opera Aida was 31/2 hours long, with a cast of hundreds, a full orchestra and performed in a Greco – Roman theatre dating back to 2 BC. As you can see in the pictures in the slideshow it is magnificent and there was a full moon! (Web site about Taormina: http://www.pbase.com/bauer/taormina)
Attached pictures are of: the Scicilan version of the Blue Grotto, we took the dinghy over to it yesterday and Cindy and Nick getting a ride to shore this morning.
Paul
Slideshow at: http://www.larsonweb.net/straits-taormina/