Here we go!
After a full day on Friday of packing and sorting the house ready for some possible plastering while we’re away, we set off for London on the train.
We treated ourselves and decided to go 1st Class, and were extra spoiled by the fact that we were the only passengers in our carriage, save for the odd person staying on for a couple of stops.
We went with East Midlands trains, and they were kind enough to gift us with a lovely bottle of red wine, which we kindly polished off after our super special bottle of bubbly – the same bubbly that we drank on our wedding day. This was all helped along with some lovely nibbles from M&S.
After a smooth journey down, we took the 22 stops to Hatton Cross near Heathrow airport. This was a pleasant enough journey, if a little warm, and it took a while before we could both get a place on the train with our bags.
Once at Hatton Cross, we made the short journey to our hotel and hit the sack pretty much straight away.
4AM!
Yes, that’s when we arose, as we had a plane to catch that left at 6:40am. With no time for breakfast, we caught the shuttle bus to the airport and were through security, even with a bag search because of our mass of charging cables, within 30 minutes. We found a lovely cafe called Cafe Apostrophe, which amused Lois and me greatly. There we had a nice coffee and croissant whilst waiting for our gate to open.
After the first leg from Heathrow to Milan (Linate) (where we enjoyed the Lego model of Milan Cathedral, which we had been up on our tour of Europe a few years ago), we had a de ja vu time of going back through security and waiting for our second leg to Catania.
After a short delay and lots of Italian gesticulation, we were on our way and completed another smooth flight, landing in a sunny 30 degree Catania.
The next job was to pick up the hire car, which again went at an Italian pace, taking almost 45 minutes to complete the handover. However, we were greatly relieved that we got our vehicle of choice, a Fiat 500 Convertible!
After a brief acclimatisation with the whole left hand drive thing, I got the driving underway. It was mostly motorway until we got close to Taormina, which was the moment our sat nav decided to run out of battery (the cigarette charger port in the rental car didn’t seem to get on with our TomTom charger). After a brief panic, the situation was resolved with a laptop being powered on to provide the power to the sat nav. Therein followed some crazy hairpins and tight roads, along with a brief encounter with a bus veering onto our side of the road, but we made it to our hotel.
We were greeted with a lovely reception and after parking our car and being introduced to the hotel (including a poor bloke being asked to to carry our VERY heavy suitcases up the stairs to the second floor!), we were taken to our room, where we found a simply gorgeous bottle of chilled white wine waiting for us. We enjoyed the wine whilst relaxing and taking in the breath-taking views out of our balcony.
Later on, we headed out for our evening meal booking at Al Duomo, which had been recommended by a work friend. We meandered through the packed streets, passing all manner of shops of interesting items. Once at the restaurant and seated on the terrace overlooking the Duomo square, we enjoyed a great meal over the next hour and a half, along with a bottle of Sicilian sparkling wine to celebrate our 6 months of marriage AND the first proper day of our honeymoon. We also enjoyed watching a wedding party in the square with a beautiful Beauford motor car. The chauffeur was guarding it carefully against the group of young boys playing kick about with a football just a little too close!
The longest bread sticks we’d ever seen!
Now back at the hotel after walking back down through the, still packed, streets, we are ready for a good night’s sleep and awaiting for the next days have to come.
Recommendations:
The Hilton Garden near Heathrow Terminal 4 – much cheaper than the one at the terminal and a high standard.
Pensione Svizzera in Taormina.
Flying with Alitalia from Heathrow (the flights were so much cheaper than from Manchester).
Corso Umberto – busy and touristy, but bustling and so Italian. Beautiful, hostorical buildings and stunning little alleyways.