Visiting the Cotswolds as a day trip from London

Last weekend Bradley and I celebrated our 8th anniversary, and we decided to spend the day outside of London. 

We decided to revisit the Cotswolds, a beautiful part of England full of picturesque little villages and green fields as far as you can see.

We last visited for a weekend trip in July 2011, and we have been wanting to go back ever since to visit The Slaughters, two tiny towns near Bourton on the Water, that we missed last time.

So we woke up super early on Saturday morning, and caught the 8.21 a.m. train from London Paddington to Moreton in Marsh.

It's Gromit!

Happy Anniversary

On Saturday Bradley and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary! The time has gone so quickly we can't believe it. We've been on so many adventures together, especially in the last three years and are looking forward to many more to come!

The Color Run comes to London!

London is currently in the middle of a heatwave. Ever since we got back from Sicily almost two weeks ago, it has been at least 29 degrees everyday, and we have had no rain for about three weeks.

After an endless winter, Londoners have emerged from their houses squinting in the bright sunshine, women are putting on their bikinis, men are taking off their shirts and everyone is flocking to the parks and the seaside.

We have had dinner in the park every night this week since our house is like an oven. London houses may have excellent central heating for Winter, but there is no defence against the hot sun, especially when you're on the 4th floor of an apartment building.

So it's in the middle of this heatwave that the Color Run came around. We booked months ago when we were still wearing our winter coats, so it was with slight trepidation that we put on our running clothes and headed into the afternoon sun to do a 5km fun run/walk.

The Teatro Greco (Greek Theatre) in Taormina

On our last day in Sicily we woke up late and had a leisurely breakfast before packing our bags and checking out of our hotel.

Our flight wasn't until the late afternoon, so we left our bags at the hotel and went for a last wander around Taormina.

Our plan for the morning was to visit the Teatro Greco, or the Greek Theatre, an ancient theatre perched above Taormina and one of the most beautiful ruins in Sicily. It was originally built by the Ancient Greeks, and then reconstructed by the Romans to be used for gladiatorial events.

It is one of the most visited ruins in Sicily, with the other being the Temple of Concord in Agrigento. Whether the Teatro Greco is so popular because of it's preservation, or because of its stunning views over Taormina and the surrounding areas, is hard to tell.

Taormina Without the Crowds and Mazzaro Beach

We left Salina early in the morning to make our way back to mainland Sicily and get the train down to Taormina, a popular town on the North East coast of Sicily. 

Taormina is the most visited spot in Sicily, known for its lovely beaches and beautiful Old Town.

From Salina we had to get a ferry to Lipari and change onto a ferry to Messina where we could get a direct train to Taormina. When we tried to buy tickets we were told the ferry would not be going to Messina, so we would have to go via Milazzo and then train to Messina.

Although frustrated at having to go this much longer way, we bought our tickets and hopped on the ferry only to arrive in Lipari and see the ferry to Messina sitting right there! Having already purchased our Milazzo tickets we had no choice but to watch it sail away and hop onto the Milazzo ferry. Sicilian transport is extremely frustrating, nothing ever goes at the time you think and sometimes things don't go at all!

So a long and tiring four hours later, we arrived in Taormina and got a taxi from the train station to our hotel.

Luckily it only got better after that, we were staying in a lovely hotel just outside the old town, away from the crowds, and had an amazing view out over the Taormina coast.

We stayed in Room 13!

The Beautiful Island of Salina and Pollara

On our second full day on Salina, we headed West of Malfa to the tiny village of Pollara, a town made famous by the movie Il Postino, a beautiful Italian love story set on Salina with an amazing backdrop of Pollara Beach.

Unfortunately Pollara Beach has almost eroded into almost nothing due to the sheer number of people visiting on foot and on boats. All that's left is about a four metre patch of sand, blocked off to visitors, surrounded by towering cliffs. So rather than visit the beach itself, you can visit a tiny cove with houses built into the rock and swim directly from the rock into the crater of an extinct volcano.

The Aeolian Islands of Lipari and Salina

We woke up the next morning and headed to the train station straight after breakfast. We were catching the train to the port town of Milazzo, before getting on a hydrofoil to the Aeolian Islands, a small group of seven volcanic islands. The islands are all extinct volcanoes, aside from Stromboli which is constantly smoking and erupts frequently.

We were headed to Salina, the greenest island, and second largest after Lipari, (the busiest and most touristy island and the largest town). We were staying for four nights, and we decided to stop off in Lipari for the day to explore, and then head for Salina on the last ferry in the evening.

We arrived in Milazzo in the late morning and booked tickets for the next hydrofoil. The hydrofoils are fast ferries, and it takes about an hour and a half to reach Lipari and then a further 20 minutes to Salina.

The Seaside Town of Cefalu

Last week we flew to Sicily for eight nights of good food and relaxation. We have visited Italy a lot over the last two years, we've been to Rome, Venice, Tuscany, Florence, the Cinque Terre and the Amalfi Coast so the next obvious choice was to visit what some people believe to be the heart of Italy.

We had an early morning flight, and arrived in Palermo just after 10.00 a.m. We hopped on a train to take us to the Central City, and then planned to get the bus to Cefalu, a little seaside town about an hour East of Palermo. Upon arrival, we discovered there was no bus running that day. This was to be a recurring theme throughout our holiday, planned buses and trains mysteriously disappearing from timetables when we turned up!

The next train to Cefalu was in an hours time, so we sat down in the sun and people watched while we waited.

We arrived in Cefalu after lunch and headed to our B&B. We were staying a little bit out of town as usual, and were rewarded with an amazing view from our room when we arrived after walking up a steep hill in the hot sun.