Train Journey from Palermo to Taormina

The train rides are always interesting, all walks of life well represented. We sat across for a man and his wife, probably in their 60s. He, at first sight, looked like the poster man for the Mafia. Amazing what a smile and an awkwardly pronounced "Buon giorno!" (good day!) can do. He did not speak a word of English but for the rest of the journey was pointing things out for us to look at out the window. He was really fired up when we were passing through the town of Cefalù (see photo). Although we passed it at 100 miles per hour, we put it on the "must see next time" list. This was impossible to explain to him, so we stuck with the smiles. At their stop, we helped them with their bags from the overhead bin, and added two more friends 7,000 miles from home. We yelled, "Arrivederci! Grazie!" (good bye, thank you!) and by their smiles back to us knew they appreciated our efforts in speaking Italiano.

Five hours after leaving Palermo, we arrived at night in a dark covered Taormina, with no idea of the actual beauty we would discover in the morning.