Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

TAORMINA , high on Monte Tauro and dominating two grand sweeping bays below, is Sicily’s best-known resort. The outstanding remains of its classical theatre, with Mount Etna as an unparalleled backdrop, arrested passing travellers when Taormina was no more than a medieval hill-village. Goethe and D.H. Lawrence are the two big obloquy touted by the tourist office; Lawrence was so enraptured that he lived here (1920-23) in a house at the top of the valley cleft behind the theatre. Although international tourism has taken its toll over recent years, Taormina still retains much of its small-town charm. The one main traffic-free street is an unbroken line of fifteenth- to nineteenth-century palazzi and small, intimate piazzas, and there is an agreeably crumbly castle and rows of flower-filled balconies. The downside is that between June and August it’s virtually impossible to find anywhere to stay, and the narrow alleys are shoulder-to-shoulder with tourists. April, May or September are slightly better, but to refrain the crowds completely come between October and March, when it’s often still warm enough to swim.

The Town

The Teatro Greco (daily 9am-1hr before sunset; L8000/¬4.13) - signposted from just about everywhere - is where you should make for first, if only to acquaint yourself with Taormina’s remarkable siting, with panoramic views encompassing southern Calabria, the Sicilian coastline and snow-capped Etna. That it was founded by Greeks in the third century BC is the extent of the theatre’s Hellenistic connections, for the visible remains are almost entirely Roman. It was rebuilt at the end of the first century AD, when Taormina thrived under imperial Roman rule, and the reconstruction changed the theatre’s character entirely. The impressive Roman scene building, for example, is Sicily’s only surviving example but can only have obscured the views of Etna - presumably a major reason for the theatre’s original siting. Likewise, the stage and lower seats were cut back to wage more room and a deep trench dug in the orchestra to accommodate the animals and fighters used in Roman gladiatorial contests. Between July and August the theatre hosts an international arts festival including film, theatre and music (tickets and information from the tourist office).

There are a few other Roman vestiges around town, including a much smaller Odeon (originally used for musical recitations) next to the tourist office. Really, though, Taormina’s attractions are all to do with strolling the flower-decked streets and alleys, and window shopping in the converted ground floors of the mansions along the Corso. Centre of town is Piazza IX Aprile, with its restored twelfth-century Torre dell’Orologio and terrace overlooking Etna and the bay - though don’t sit down at the inviting outdoor cafés unless you have a substantial bankroll. Give yourself time to hike up to the Castello by way of a stepped path leading up from the main road behind the tourist office, from where you can continue on to Castelmola , 5km above and seemingly growing out of its severe crag. It’s about an hour’s climb to the village (though there are buses), while another couple of hours beyond are the heights of Monte Venere (885m) - take the path behind Castelmola’s cemetery - for the last word in local vistas.

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