Since we arrived in Taormina last night in the dark, it was a huge surprise to wake up and see the ridiculously beautiful views from up here. We are a long way up!
An important family meeting was commissioned over breakfast to decide which order we would do things in today. Taormina is a town essentially divided into 2 distinct levels - the upper level, where we are staying - with breathtaking views of the lower level, and the lower level itself, with its gorgeous, clear-water beaches and the aptly named island, Isola Bella. With a rather inconvenient amount of gravity separating the two, access is available either via a cable car, or an alarmingly steep descent on foot, down a staircase.
After some Googling and lengthy discussions over bacon, eggs and croissants (& probably one of the worst coffees of my life) we opted to stay up the hill this morning and make our way to the beach in the afternoon. It was warm and sunny but we hoped the weather would hold for our arvo swim.
Setting off on foot, we stumbled upon a quirky public park, named in honour of the woman who built it back in the 19th century, Lady Florence Trevelyan. This green-thumbed noblewoman hailing from Scotland, came to Sicily in 1884, to get away from the scandal of her relationship with the then heir to the English throne, Edward VII. She found herself a Sicilian husband, Mayor Prof. Salvatore Cacciola, and together they built this stunning garden, chock-a-block full of flowers and trees (and their very unusual home). The park, now open to the public, has get-outta-town, sweeping views down over the Ionian Sea and Ross even spotted some gum trees!
A bit further up the road, perched dramatically on the side of the mountain, we found ourselves on the famous shopping strip, Corso Umberto, Taormina’s answer to Rodeo Drive. This charming, cobblestoned pedestrian thoroughfare stretches between two historic gates and is lined on both sides with designer shops housed inside pastel-coloured, rustic buildings with wrought-iron balconies and colourful, hand-painted pots overflowing with flowers. The black and white chessboard tiles of the bustling piazza were a stark contrast to the crumbling old church with peeling paint that curiously, had a skull and crossbones above the door. ‘Aaarghhh we going to go inside and check it out?’ I wondered.
Taormina has hung a little Italian love song across its streets; the words of the locally famous Albachiara, by Italian rock legend Vasco Ross, strung in neon lights above the Corso.
Ross, obedient to the Italian adage: a gelato a day keeps the doctor away, sampled some of Taormina’s finest iced confectionery as we browsed in the swanky shops and ambled along the street. Every now and then we’d deviate up the steep steps of a laneway to discover more of Sicily’s gorgeous, colourful hand-painted ceramics. So cool. Toby and Sam also indulged in some pistachio/vanilla cannolis, another Italian treat with Sicilian origins.
Suffering from ancient-ruins withdrawals by now, it was time to make our way toward the 2500 year-old Ancient Greek Theatre via the Via Teatro Greco. This was a theatre built with its back to the killer view. Molly pointed out how fortunate it was that it was now in ruins and the view was exposed. Mount Etna looms majestically in the background - apparently. Today it was shrouded in cloud and we had to play a game of Spot The Volcano. A bush fire bellowing smoke had us all fooled momentarily that old Etna was erupting. Only Ross remained calm, allaying not only our fears but the fears of our fellow sightseers, that there was no need to run for cover.
Toby, led the charge for a refreshing swim, urging us all down the steep steps (basically a cliff-face) towards the sparkling sea. It was SO far down! Our steep descent was punctuated regularly by stops to snap way too many photos of the impossibly beautiful Isola Bella below. The tiny island sitting in the dazzling turquoise bay, looked like a postcard. Molly was FaceTiming Maisy as we walked. We are missing her!
Once we got to street level, we realised the actual beach was down another set of steep steps. Geez Louise, how are the knees? These steps were lined with little stalls selling summer dresses and fridge magnets. We stepped onto the grey pebbled beach down a long corridor behind several fenced-off beach clubs with exclusive access to the shore. It’s crazy to us that they sell off big chunks of the beach like that.
A small group of enterprising older women with matching sun hats were offering massages on the beach. I decided I could use a neck and shoulder rub so gave them some business. It was amazing and well worth a few euros.
The water was divine and we all had a refreshing dip to cool off after our downhill climb. At low tide there is access to walk across to the island. Sam and Molly swam across to investigate. Sam reported back that in order to be admitted to the walkway up to the castle, you had to pay a fee and you ‘couldn’t wear your swimmers’. I heard that last line and assumed it was a nudist colony.
The tide was rapidly coming in so we decided to skip the castle and keep our cossies on. Rather than scale the cliff-face again, we lined up to take the much quicker little cable car up the mountain. Our knees and ankles thanked us.
After a little confusion regarding where we should have our pre-dinner aperitifs (and in fact what exactly was meant by that phrase) we discovered Sam had his heart set on an authentic, cone-shaped Sicilian arancini ball. The little terrace restaurant we had chosen was lovely but sadly, had no arancinis on the menu. Tobes settled the matter declaring we’d go for a post-dinner arancini instead, which we did. The cone-shape is specific to this area; a nod to Mt Etna.
Ominous clouds had been gathering on the horizon all day but only as we began our walk home did the heavens open. Molly and Sam had just bought some gelato so we huddled under an awning (italian architecture wasn’t ever big on eaves) while they finished and then splashed back to our hotel through puddles.
