Day 2, Taormina tour

Breakfast at Hotel Ariston's restaurant.
Vincent was holding a glass of orange juice (from blood orange?)
Outside the window is the Ionian Sea. 

The iron gate is the hotel's front entrance. We left on a walking tour with a local guide.
The snow-capped mountain is Mt. Etna.

We first stopped at Villa Comunale (meaning public garden).
Every team member wore a whisper receiver (with an ear piece on an ear) so that our
guide can whisper to her microphone and everyone can hear her even while not looking at her.

All kinds of cactus in the garden .

From Villa Comunale one can see snow-capped Mt. Etna in the background.
 

The railroad track leads to the train station at Giardini-Naxos (Garden of Naxos),
a beach town 5 km south of Taormina.
Giardini-Naxos is the location of the first Greek settlement in Sicily, founded in 735 BC.
The dark green area on the peninsula toward the left is the site of Naxos archeological ruins.

Some of the pottery at craft shops.
The 3 legged symbol with a medusa head in the center is a Sicilian specialty.

Via Teatro, this street leads to the Greek theater and is perpendicular to Corso Umberto I.
Many crafts and souvenir shops lining this street.

The Greek theater, with views to the sea and Mt. Etna.

Another view of the Greek theater. It is still used for performance during festivals.

A carat tree. Each seed in the pod weighs the same, thus carat seeds were used by
Arabs in ancient time to weigh gold. Today carat is still used as a measurement unit for gold.

We walked along the main pedestrian street, Corso Umberto I.
This is one of the many bakery/gelateria along the street.

At the April 9th square on Corso Umberto I.

You are looking at the celebrity-frequented Cafe Wunderbar, anchoring a corner of the April 9th square.

A view toward the sea from the April 9th square.
The earth-toned building on the right was San Domenico convent.
It was used by German military command as a headquarter during WWII.
Today the building is part of a posh San Domenico Palace Hotel.

Two street singers singing lovely Italian songs at this lovely square.

We continued walking west and arrived at the Duomo. Our guided tour ended at this square.

Inside the Duomo there was a confirmation ceremony.

Vincent wanted to try arancini for lunch. Our local guide pointed this eatery to us.
We bought pizza and arancini. The vegetable pizza with anchovy was very good.

After lunch we went looking for ice cream, ATM, and eye-catching goodies.

 

All kinds of almond cookies.

 

A smiling shop girl in a bakery.

Lemons outside a small store.

Lemons of different shapes and sizes.

This stone gate is called Messina Gate, located at the eastern end of Corso Umberto I.
 

In the evening we had our welcome dinner at Hotel Ariston's restaurant.

After dinner, a quartet came to sing Italian songs for us.
The man playing guitar has a tenor voice.
Music makes merry, we all had fun. Vincent even sang a few phrases with the quartet.