My last day in Taormina had begun: I woke up at dawn to pack my suitcase since later today I would be moving from Taormina to the city of Milazzo. I enjoyed my final breakfast on the beautiful terrace of the Hotel Villa Nettuno, the place that had been my home for the past seven nights. Images from yesterday’s hike up Mount Etna came to mind. The view over the Ionian Sea continued to fascinate me and I hope that one day I can return to beautiful Taormina.

My last day of school had begun and our strict but resourceful language teacher, Carlo, continued to teach us the intricacies of Italian pronouns and adverbial phrases of time and place. Her colleague Simona took over at 11:40 for our communication exercise and we started listening to a recording of a real life Italian call-in show where a person called a radio station to speak to two psychiatrists to talk about fears and phobias.

Each equipped with headphones, we listened to the recording twice and told what we had understood. We then embarked on an impromptu discussion about our own fears and phobias. In addition, Simona had prepared cards with questions. Each of us could choose from the stack of cards and we could choose who we were going to ask the question we had chosen. This provided another great opportunity to speak and apply our Italian language skills. A lively philosophical discussion followed, and everyone had a chance to express their thoughts and feelings.

After taking photos with my classmates and our teachers, I stopped by the office to say goodbye to Alessandro and his team. The entire team at Babylon language school had been extremely helpful during the last week of my stay, I had actually improved my Italian skills (and was now officially at the intermediate level) and had thoroughly enjoyed all of our various excursions. : from our walk to Castelmola on Friday a week ago, to our archaeological and cultural excursion to Syracuse, to our walking tour of Taormina, my glimpses into Babylonian ceramic decorating and cooking classes, our hiking excursion to Mount Etna and various dinners and social events, the past seven days had been filled with exciting activities and opportunities to learn and make new friends.

I sincerely thanked Alessandro and his team and hope to return in the future. Together with two of my new friends, Jill from the UK and Connie from Switzerland, we took a little walk and decided to have lunch at a local restaurant called Panoramic Bella Blu, which is located on Via Pirandello, right next to the cable car. station that connects the top of the hill of Taormina with the beach of Mazzaro. We enjoyed a nice late lunch with a stunning view of the Mediterranean, and about an hour later I had to say goodbye. I had double checked at the bus station when my bus would be coming to take me to the train station in Taormina – Giardini Naxos so I could make the trip to my next destination: Milazzo.

Before leaving, I went back to the Hotel Villa Nettuno to quickly download my photos and take a few more photos of the beautiful garden that is part of the Sciglio family property. At the top of the garden is the so-called “Tempietto” (“little temple”), a temple-shaped gazebo with benches and a panoramic view of the Ionian Sea and part of Taormina. I snapped a few quick photos with Vincenzo Sciglio, the family patriarch, and two of my fellow German Babilonia students and at 5:30 pm said a sad goodbye. Vincenzo promised that the next time I come here he will take me to the family’s country retreat where they make homemade wine. He said that he produces the grape juice for the wine by trampling the grapes with his bare feet. Well next time I come to Taormina I definitely want to see that.

Although my departure was a bit sad, my next adventure was already waiting: tomorrow I would embark on a week-long sailing trip around the beautiful Aeolian Islands with a different language school called Laboratorio Linguistico, based in Milazzo.

After a 10-minute bus ride, I arrived at the Taormina – Giardini Naxos train station and had to wait for about 45 minutes before my train showed up. The commuter train that arrived was a beautiful sleek modern train and I took a seat in the corner. A few boisterous teenagers were playing loud music, singing and making fun of each other. Obviously, teens will still be teens, no matter where you go…

A local gentleman sat across from me and introduced himself: Giorgio works as a security guard at the Greek Theater in Taormina and enjoys his job. He told me about his family: his wife stays at home with her three children while he is the sole breadwinner. His job gives him enough income to take care of his family and he says he keeps his expenses down. The family only has one car and still drives all year round on their 30-year-old Vespa. Giorgio also commented that a few years ago Trenitalia, the Italian government-owned rail system, invested in new commuter trains. Giorgio smiled when he said that the rest of the rolling stock is more or less “museum quality”.

He also mentioned that the weird spring weather we’ve had (a fair amount of rain, fog, overcast skies), is pretty unusual. Normally at this time of year the weather is clear and sunny. He summed up his feelings by saying that for the past three years the weather has been strange. A side effect of global warming perhaps?

After Giorgio left about half an hour into the train journey, I had a chance to reflect on the 8 days I had already spent in Italy and the new adventures that were yet to come. I was starting to feel a bit apprehensive about the sailing trip that was supposed to start tomorrow. He would ask me about seasickness, the small confined space on a sailboat and pray to God for good companions. On a small sailboat, even a really strange character can make the trip unpleasant for the rest of the group.

Another part of me was looking forward to the experience, and my anticipation was growing. After changing trains in Messina, I arrived shortly after 9 pm at my destination today: Milazzo, home of the Laboratorio Linguistico School of Languages, and the embarkation point for my sailing trip tomorrow.

Francesca, the wife of the co-owner of the school, kindly came to pick me up from the train station and took me to my home for the night: a fully equipped 5-room apartment right above the school offices. Francesca took me to my room that I was going to share one night with my new travel companion: Claudia, a Lufthansa flight attendant from Germany, was also going on the sailing trip with me tomorrow.

While Claudia was sleeping I went out to dinner very late. It was already around 10:30 pm when I found a local restaurant two blocks away. I had a delicious Insalata Cappriciosa and at a price of 3 euros the salad was less than half the going rate of restaurants in Taormina that charge about 7 or 8 euros for a salad. I quickly realized that tourists in Taormina are paying a premium rate for everything and Milazzo was definitely a more affordable piece of land. Back at the apartment, I downloaded my photos and briefly met two other Laboratorio Linguistico teachers: Jean-Claude from Ireland, who teaches English at the school, and Francesco (Franco) Pozza, an Italian teacher and co-owner of the school. . I found out that we would meet outside the school tomorrow morning at 9:30 am to meet Francesco Di Santi, the other co-owner of Laboratorio Linguistico, and our patron for the week.

I lay exhausted in bed, wondering what the next week would hold for me. I was excited, looking forward to my first sailing trip.