Taormina - Sicily, Italy (Days 1 & 2)

What we did:
- We arrived in Taormina mid day after traveling via train, ferry, and bus from Salerno. We were pretty tired after days of partying, eating, hiking, and sightseeing with the Pohlman parents! We spent the rest of the day lounging on beach chairs at Mendolia Beach Club on Isola Bella beach. Our hotel, Mendolia hotel, gave us free access to the beach club our entire stay which we put to good use! We then scouted out a small cafe for as healthy a meal we could find in Italy, salads and pizza, at AguadeMar Ristobar. We hit an early bedtime, only to be thankfully woken up by a phone call from Joe (shout-out Joe Korn) that Trent was going to miss his 12:30am fantasy draft. (Note: Trent was voted having drafted one of the best teams for fantasy; cue Steph’s eye roll). Trent finished up at 3:30am
- Woke up on our second day after sleeping in very late for another day of beach lounging! Grabbed a wildly mixed meal from (see below) Ai paladini lounge bar and hit the beach. Spent the day reading on the beach and telling old soliciting Asian women that we did not want messages. (Note that this statement is not racist, just factual). Took the gondola up to the city center of Taormina to find a very vibrant city full of lots of tourists, music, and tons of restaurants! Had dinner out in the city alley at Gambero Rossi. Capped the night with our first Sicilian cannoli at Labratoria Pasticceria Roberto. Trent had his 2nd fantasy draft from 1:30-3:30am.. (cue another Steph eye roll)
- On our last day in Sicily the weather told us that we were supposed to experience constant drenching rain and flooding. We determined this to be a good day to do some further exploration of the city instead of the beach day. It only ended up drizzling a bit which totally worked for us! Essentially we had ourselves a food and drink tour of Taormina. We started by getting coffees and fruit at Caffe Forastiero. We then walked down the Main Street of Corso Umberto and checked out the big squares, the shops, the duomo, and an old excavated church. Had one of the most delicious lunches at Trattoria Tiramisu that may be the genesis of Trent liking pasta! We did some more walking around and tried to go to the Teatro Antico de Taormina. Hours of waiting due to the cruise ships that came in, so we decided to forgo the theatre and hit a wine bar instead to get out of the rain. Waiter at Al Grappolo d’Uva was great and had us try a great Portuguese red wine and a dry Nero D’avola from Sicily that we both really enjoyed. Capped off the night with trying one of the best granita spots at Bam Bar, and arancini from a popular spot called Rosticceria Da Cristina. Stopped at a bakery for a takeaway cannoli at Pasticceria Taormina D’Amore and hit the the hay for an early wake up to get to Cinque Terre.

What we ate:
- Mendolia beach club: bad beach burgers out of necessity and starvation from our travels from Salerno.
- AgauaMar Ristobar: 2 Greek salads and split a small Tri-color pizza (tomatoes, arugula, prosciutto)
- Ai paladini lounge bar: a ham omelet, a Taormina salad, a Ragu arancini, two cappuccinos, and a lemon granita to share
- Gambero Rossi: Prosciutto wrapped melon which might be our favorite Italian appetizer. Steph got some sort of eggplant red sauce pasta which was tasty and Trent got the catch of the day which they nicely filleted for him when they saw our faces from the full fish that was initially delivered.
- Labratoria Pasticceria Roberto: 2 large Sicilian cannolis!
- Cafe Forastiero: Trent got a cappuccino (he’s really starting to dig cappuccinos) and a fruit bowl. Steph tried the cafe’s popular Forastiero iced coffee with granita caffe (basically a coffee with coffee granita).
- Trattoria Tiramisu: Cappuccino, mussels in pepper sauce, Tuna in pesto, and the most amazing spicy vodka pasta with ham (La Pennette Di Mimmo). We will be dreaming about this pasta until further notice.
- Al Grappolo d’Uva: wine, wine, wine…
- Bam Bar - Trent got Lemon and Strawberry granita and Steph got Lemon and a raspberry. Split a brioche bun to balance the sweet/sour of the granita.
- Rosticceria Da Cristina: we split 2 arancinis - Buro and 3 cheese with red sauce
- Pasticceria Taormina D’Amore: a Sicilian cannoli for takeaway

Fun facts:
- White Lotus season 2 took place and was filmed in Taormina. However all of the shooting locations of the hotel were spread out amongst multiple different beaches and hotels to look like one hotel.
- Trent got scolded for ordering a cappuccino before our meal. The waiter told us not to tell anyone that he allowed Trent to order a cappuccino with our starter which was a dish of mussels.
- Granita is a popular flavored ice dish offered everywhere in Sicily. It’s different than Italian ice because it’s less consistent, more icy, and less smooth than Italian ice. Lemon is the most popular and our favorite flavor!
- The Swiss are far better engineers of gondolas than the Sicilians. Why would you only put 4 cars on the gondola only capable of transporting a maximum of 20 people every other 15 mins? We are confounded.
- Sicily is the home of cannolis and arancini. We had a lot of these while we were here.
- Etna wine is bad. Sorry Mt. Etna.Read more