Next day after the breakfast we left Giardini Naxos and climbed up to the nearby Taormina town... That's probably one of the most beautiful places in Sicily... we walked in the streets, entered into the churches and visited the ancient theater... on the photos you can see mount Etna at the far depth...

Then we drove to Messina to get the ferry for the mainland... after we get of the ferry at Villa San Giovani we visited Scilla village which is a place mentioned in Homer's Odysseia... then we passed through the roads under construction and after a while we turned right towards the heel of Italy... it was a hell of road bu eventually we reached Matera to see the Sassi dwellings... these are the Sassi Caveso and Sassi Barisano... this is Italy's poorest part... the houses were carved into stone like caves around a ravine... people were living here till late 1950's in very bad conditions and diseases... at that time they were forced to leave the caves and move into the new houses built by the governeent... today Matera is a beautiful city and the old cave houses are being renewed into attraction places for tourists...

After Matera we took the road south to Taranto to spend the night.. as it was late we jumped into the first hotel we found and it was one the worst hotel we stayed in Italy and we don't even remember its name... but we spent one of our most beautiful nights at Taranto... there are very beautiful piazzas were people were out to walk in that evening... I can also say that the best and cheapest "focaccia"s in Italy can be found at Taranto...