Taormina – What a Gem! (home of the Worlds most expensive sandwich)

Taormina is somewhere I haven’t visited before so I was thrilled to find that it was one of the ports of call on my recent Silversea trip. We docked, at anchor, just off Giardini Naxos, got the tender across and then got private taxi’s up the hill to Taormina. Oh my word, what a delightful place it is. If you ever get the chance to visit you must! Such a beautiful place, quintessentially Sicilian.

We were so lucky with the weather too, blue skies and beautiful sunshine were the order of the day so the summer shorts had an unexpected outing having been put away for the Autumn.

Taormina is essentially one main street and it is full of beautiful little shops, cafe’s and alleyways some of which overlook the bay and the ships down below. We wended our way along it just enjoying the warm sun on our backs and looking at the offerings in the shops. I was very taken with a beautiful linen table cloth in one of them, that is until the lady told me it would cost 200 euro’s, I beat a hasty retreat at this point much to her disgust!

Towards the old Roman amphitheatre at the end of the main street you will find the Belmond Hotel. Think Agatha Christie type of hotel, very old but very beautiful, lots of ‘beautiful’ people wandering around inside and sitting on the terrace sipping cocktails and nibbling on delicacies.

We joined them and also sipped on cocktails, well let’s be honest there are worse things to do on a Saturday lunchtime aren’t there. Our Silversea hosts then very kindly offered to treat us to lunch so I chose a Club sandwich, not wanting to appear greedy and order something really expensive like the lobster. Now this sandwich was very nice, very nice indeed and it came with a side of triple cooked fries which were also very nice and quaint little jars of Mayo and ketchup. The cost of this sandwich? 30 euros! As I say, it was lovely but goodness, how can you charge so much for a sandwich? I can honestly say that it is the most expensive sandwich I have ever eaten, I shall savour the memory as I doubt there ever be a repeat of this experience.

Next time I will tell you more about life on board the lovely Silver Shadow but for now, happy cruising folks!