The Boys in Sicily Part I

After the success of Operation Siderno, we three boys left Calabria and headed to Sicily for some sun and relaxation.  But isn't Sicily an island?  Yes, to get across, the Straits of Messina, seen above, you first arrive in Villa San Giovanni...

And hop on a ferry for a 30 minute crossing to Messina.  Round trip price with an automobile, 75 Euro.

About a 40 minute drive west of Messina, on the northeastern coast of Sicily, Gunny found us a week long rental from the wonders of AirBnB.  Just east of the town of Brolo, high up in the hills of a beautiful cliffside development, we had a three bedroom condo to ourselves.  Here it is at sunset!

Everywhere we looked, the flowers were in bloom and the colors were as vivid as you could imagine!!

This pretty much sums of many of our days.  Sitting out in the sun, reading a book, chatting, getting on the internet.  Heading down the hill for coffee and food.  It was vacation at its most glorious!

One evening, we left our hilltop perch, and drove to Taormina.  Instead of taking the Superstrada, we took the back roads through the hills of Sicily.  We saw this abandoned villa.  Brian being Brian stopped the car and we explored.

By the time we were done, the three of us were dreaming of finding the owner, making a pitch to buy the place, fix it up and make it our own.  Dreams....

The drive took us right by the famed Mt. Etna.  Europe's highest active volcano!

After spending some time in the tourist town of Taormina (no pictures here) we headed up to Castelmola which was literally at the top of one of those rock outcrops.  We went there to go to Bar Turrisi.

The view from the bar into the town square.  You ask why the effort to go all the way up to this specific bar??

It's a phallus themed bar.  EVERYWHERE you look from the tables to the bathroom fixtures, is a male appendage.  It was hilarious!

And the view is pretty good too.  Here we are looking south, the eastern shore of northeastern Sicily down towards the city of Catania.