Lori and Troy do Europe 2025

Today is 72 and sunny. We started out with a nice free (included) breakfast at our hotel. Then we ordered up an Uber to take us to the Enterprise car rental place. The guy sent me a text that said that he has to stop and get gas, which is fine. He must have forgot that you can track the driver on the Uber app. I watched as he pulled up to the train station. He must have had a customer in the car and didn’t want to loose the next fare. That is also fine as long as we have a ride. The guy pulled up and the license plate was different than what it said on the app. I said, “the license plate is wrong”. He said “it is ok, don’t worry” (in his accent). Fortunately, he knew my name from the app which put me at ease. His name was Daniele and he was awesome! He told us about places to visit while in Sicily and was very fun to converse with. It was a great start to our visit in Sicily but we were a little leery of the kindness. It just seemed suspicious for some reason?

Daniele dropped us off at the Enterprise rental car location and helped us with our luggage. We entered and were greeted by Giuseppe. Again, a great guy but suspicious. Maybe it was the overly niceness that seemed suspicious. Our reservation was messed up and he initially offered us a bigger car. Again, suspicious! He also gave us recommendations on where to visit and plotted it in a map for us. We are still not sure why we were suspicious. He took us to our Fiat Panda (super compact), which is perfect for driving in Europe, and helps us load it up with luggage. He was also a great guy, and a great experience with Enterprise rental car. He told us that we needed to go to this church in Messina to see a presentation at noon. We had him route us out of kindness but changed our route once we turned the corner because we already had a plan for today. The church will have to wait for our next visit.

We started driving from Messina to Taormina. It was a beautiful drive along the coast with views of the shoreline, tunnels and mountains. We arrived at Taormina and found parking right next to town. We walked into town and found a beautiful Italian village that was clean and picturesque! It was something that we did not expect. Lori labeled it “super cute” and immediately wished we were staying here. We walked around the many streets and alleyways and found an excessive amount of tourists. We really like more of a small town feel. This village was no secret as it was like walking around Disney World. We soon realized that staying here overnight would not be as enjoyable as a 3-4 hour visit. There are many things to see and do including another Roman Amphitheater where Gladiators fought. I love these sites and the history associated with it. The construction is also amazing! I wish that I could see all 250+ forums in the world. I think that puts us at 5 or 6.

We decided to get something to eat in town. Since it is a tourist site things are a little more expensive. We decided to get some Arancini. These are a good if the region and Lori wanted to try them. These are deep fried rice balls that are seasoned in different ways. We wanted to try a bunch several of them so we ordered 5. Deep fried is something that we did not need. A salad might be better at this point! Buddha is overflowing with luck (fat)! Afterwards there was plenty of walking to do.

Mt. Etna was in view from the beginning. This is an active Volcano and is the largest in Europe. I LOVE volcanoes so this was a highlight for me. I kept looking back hoping to see an eruption taking place. Every time I looked back the mountain top looked different. It was active but not a full on eruption. Hopefully that will happen while we are here in Sicily.

Castello di Mola was another place that we wanted to visit and was about a 15 min drive above Taormina. We decided that another castle visit could wait and that rest was more important. We headed to the Marriott where we had reservations for the next 3 nights. This was going to be our most expensive stay but we figured that the trip was winding down and why not? It was about a 20 min drive up the coast.

We arrived at the Marriott which was right in the Adriatic. I dropped off Lori and waited for directions for parking. I called my buddy Chico to catch up. The bell hop showed up and wanted to help with luggage. I don’t like it when they help me. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to inconvenience them. I just needed directions to parking. He was helpful but not clear. I dropped off the luggage and he helped anyway. Then Lori called and interrupted my call with Chico. She had directions for parking. It seemed simple until I ended up on a dead end street! I then had to back up about 2 blocks to an intersection and find my way back. Called her back and tried to get better directions. I could hear the person at the desk in the background say something about a lot of cats. I drove towards the hotel and saw a bunch of cats lounging in a parking lot. I still did not see a Marriott parking lot. I called a third time and she gave me further directions. I drove down the street towards the hotel and saw an excessive amount of kitties loitering around in a vacant lot. There was parking hidden next to that but no signage for the hotel. I pulled in and tried to communicate with the attendant. Eventually I figured out that I was finally at the right lot.

I walked to the hotel about 1 block and found Lori. She was checked in and anxious to check out our room. She was able to work an upgrade by writing in the reservation that we were celebrating our birthdays. She was hoping for an upgrade because we are gold members and they seem to forget our upgrade sometimes. Her birthday is Sept 1 and mine is Dec 31. It is the midpoint of our birthdays. It all worked out because we found a birthday cake and a bottle of champagne in our 3rd floor ocean front room. There was a problem though. The bed had 2 bowled out spots that looked like 2 people hadn’t slept there for the last 25 years, not stop! The spots were so sunk in that if my blood pressure dropped during the night at least my feet would already be above my head! There was no way this would work with Lori’s back. She called down and tried to communicate the problem. We immediately started looking for another hotel but really wanted the traditional Marriott experience. They finally sent Rosemary up to check on us. She was a genuinely kind and helpful lady. She told us that this floor had the older beds but she could move us up to the 5th floor where the beds were only 1 year old. The room was exactly 2 floors up with an even better view. Rosemary was from Connecticut originally but moved here several years ago with her parents. She is now the assistant manager of housekeeping.

We settled into our new room and decided to check out the pool bar. We had a couple drinks and waited for the restaurant to open at 6:30pm. We walked in and they asked us if we had a reservation. We did not as we just arrived. The funny thing is that every time we enter a restaurant for seating, they ask us that. Even though the restaurant is empty. They usually seat us and the restaurant remains empty throughout the whole meal. I wonder if it has anything to do with the wait staff being on salary and not tips? Or maybe we just timed our visit perfectly and before the rush of reservations? Lori ordered Tuna steak and I ordered Lamb. We were pretty hungry and looking forward to a good meal. The dishes arrived and it looked like we may have ordered off the kiddy menu. Our meals were $25 each so it should be the adult portion. Mine was 2 pieces of Lamb that were about 1” square each. Just big enough for me to get 4 bites. Lori had about 6 slices of Tuna steak that may have actually been from the bait shop. Both were delicious but left us hungry. We ordered 2 Canoli’s for desert which seemed to satisfy. The meal along with 2 glasses of wine cost more than $100 euros. Ouch!

We went to our room to watch a little TV and heard a barrage of fireworks outside. We watched and wondered if it was for a birthday?