 |
Discovering Taormina
|
" Guy de Maupassant in "La Vie errante", 1885,
wrote: " If somebody might pass one day only in Sicily
and asked: What should I visit? I would answer without
hesitate: Taormina. It is only a landscape but a
landscape in which you can find all that seems to be
created on earth to seduce the eyes, mind and fantasy.
Where are the peoples who could make, today, things like
these? Where are the men able in building, for the crowd
pleasure, works like these? Those men, the ones of a
time, had soul and eyes different from the ours; in
their veins, with blood, flowed something lost: love and
cult for Beauty. " |

Taormina (205 mts on the sea level) - View from the Harbour of Giardini Naxos

View of Taormina, the Bay of Giardini Naxos and Mount Etna from the Greek-Roman Theatre
" Taormina is like a treasure chest of history: walking along its
main street, Corso Umberto, and the maze of narrow staircased
streets and small beautiful squares, you find Theatres and Gymnasium
from the Greek Age; Odeon and Baths from the Roman Age; beautiful
buildings in which the Arab and the Norman cultures melt together in
a memorable sense of beauty; traces of the Byzantine domination and
beautiful villas which belonged to the European aristocracy in the
XVIII and XIX centuries.
All in the context of a small town on top
of the hill of Monte Tauro, overlooking the coastline of the Ionian
Sea. "

Parco Duca Di Cesaro' (The
Public Gardens) - The gardens were the creation of Lady Florence
Trevelyan in the late 19th century

La Grotta Azzurra (The Blue
Cave) - Just a few hundreds metres off Isola Bella (Taormina Beach)

Il Teatro Greco-Romano (The
Greek-Roman Theatre) - Built in 250 B.C., it has a capacity of 5600
spectators
" Taormina plays a fundamental role as one of the most important
archaeological locations in Italy. In fact, the Greeks, fathers of
Italian and European culture, settled their first colony in Italy
exactly here in the Bay of Naxos, in 735 BC. Taormina is home to one
of the most famous Greek Theatres in the world.
Here, in summertime
the main events of the International Film, Music, Dance and Theatre
Festival of Taormina Arte take place. "
.jpg)
Casa Panarello Vico Romano Sicilian Flavours Porta Messina (1410)

Via G. D'Orville
Via San Giovanni Bosco
Via Fratelli Ingegnere
" Along with the different dominations that conquered Sicily, many
important monuments and buildings were built in Taormina by the
Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Arabs, the Swebians, the
Normans, the Spanish, the French and the entire XIX European
aristocracy have all left their "footprints" in Taormina in the
form of beautiful buildings, monuments, churches, villas, parks and
castles. "

Santa Caterina Church (1663) and Palazzo Corvaja (980)

Porta
Catania (1420)
Saracen Tombs (1035)
Badia Vecchia (1383)

Isola Bella (Taormina Beach)
- Now days a nature reserve protected by the WWF
" Access to the beaches is
very easy. From the centre of Taormina, in 2 minutes, a cable-car
connects Taormina to the beaches. Isola Bella, the Bay of Mazzaro',
the Bay of Giardini Naxos, the Beach of Spisone, those are among the
most famous beaches in Italy. "

Spisone (Taormina Beach)
Mazzeo
(Taormina Beach)
Mermaids Bay (Taormina
Beach)

Mazzaro' (Taormina Beach) -
Only two minutes away from Taormina downtown by Cable car

Naumachie (95 B.C.) Saracen Castle (1150) The Roman Odeon (21 B.C.)

Taormina covered by flowers
at spring time

Via Naumachia Salita De Luna
Salita Guglielmo Melivia Vico Ascanio Marziani
Vicolo Stretto

The Cathedral Square - The Cathedral Church (1360) and the Town Hall
(1778)

Strolling around the town -
Corso Umberto (The Main Street)

Strolling
around the town - Corso Umberto (The Main Street)

Isola Bella and Capo
Taormina from Capo Sant'Andrea (Taormina Beach)
.jpg)
Piazza IX Aprile (The Main Square) with San Giuseppe Church and the Clock-Tower
|