Day 6, Jewel shop, home-hosted lunch, and Taormina in the night

The GI. Val jewelry factor in Giarre is family-owned and housed in a very elegant villa.
This is the manager welcoming us in the foyer.

We were ushered into a room with magnificent spread of snacks and
fruit liqueur (Lemoncello, peach-cello, apple-cello...)

Then we were ushered into a show room (no pressure to buy).
Although this was touted as a "factory" visit, we did not get to see artists at work.

Some of the jewelries in the show room.

The dull black beads were made from lava rock. The shining blacks are onyx;
and the reds are coral.

A peek at the Gole dell'Alcantara (Alcantara Gorge).

The pretty and green countryside scenery on the way to our host's village.

In the center is our lunch hostess. She works in a bakery, does not speak English,
but her daughter Susanna does, and Susanna was on hand to help.

The family's living room.

The family's kitchen.

Our group of 12 and the host's visiting cousins from Holland shared a long table.

appetizer - cheese, olives, fried egg-zucchini batter, and I don't remember what
the yellow-colored piece was.

The first course, pasta.

The 2nd course, meatball grilled in between lemon leaves.

home-grown fruits.

dessert.

Even coffee was served after lunch, which is not a local custom.

Susanna showed Mei-Ching a fruit tree which bears the fruit we just ate.

On the way back to Taormina, our bus made a stop at the beach of Giardini-Naxos.
Our bus driver Salvo (left), and program director Maurizio who is also a Red Sox fan.

This was the last evening we were in Taormina.
Vincent decided to try another arancini if the shop near Duomo was still open. (It was.)

Behind us is the shop near Taormina's Duomo that sells pretty good pizza and arancini.

Taormina's Cafe Wunderbar on April 9th square looks pretty in the night.

Night view of Taormina, with Mt. Etna in the background and Giardini-Naxos peninsula jutted out into the sea on the left.