VISITING FORZA D’AGRO AND THE OPERA
Today I was expecting a day off, but I was invited by Titus and Maureen to ride along with them in their rental car to visit a couple of villages and then to attend the opera. We were joined by Andrew, an art historian and museum curator. But first Titus tried to get opera tickets on line but failed. So he decided to drive to the box office and buy the tickets directly. So off we went but it wasn‘t so easy. Google betrayed us, the roads were narrow and windy and one way with few road signs and our manual rental car was barely able to make it up the steep parts. Titus, the driver, was perplexed and those of us guiding him were confused. As a result we never stopped to see Toarmina and never found the opera house (the opera wasn‘t in an opera house). We finally after much confusion escaped Toarmina and found our way up another very steep winding rode to the village of Forza D‘Agro with sweeping views of the coast and a marvelous church.
And then in the evening, after a nap, we went to the Opera, which was a for tourists only presentation by an electric pianist and a pretentious male singer and buxom soprano. Aside from a slightly screechy effect the evening was a great, but expensive, success with some vaudeville thrown in. We ate in Taormina and dropped in bed at midnight.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 