The Ionian sea as seen from Taormina

Taormina--the shining city on the hill

Taormina is a gorgeous place with sweeping vistas of the Ionian sea and Mount Etna as well as a storied past. We spent only an afternoon here and so the photos below can only hint at all there is to see here.

One approaches from the road and sees this beautiful city high (about 650 feet) on the hill. Upon entering the city through its gate, one finds himself in a densely packed medieval town (but now one devoted primarily to tourists). The view is often like that below with the town buildings cramped below majestic views of the mountain above:

Plumbing

Soon we went down a back alley to find a set of apartments built upon an old Roman edifice, probably part of an aqueduct or a water resovoir.

Il Teatro

Soon we were at the the ancient greek theater which as typical of the Greeks, would be built in a semi-circle into a hill:

The picture belows shows the stage and the orchestra section where the dancers and actors would stay wearing their large masks (with built-in megaphones) so that their "gestures" could be seen in the last rows. As was often the case, the Romans would take over the same theater and convert it for gladiatorial contests by removing the bottom rows of seats and installing bars to separate the animals from the crowd:

As with most Greek theaters, this one is built so that the spectators can feel the afternoon breeze (which would also carry the actors' voices on it, and see a panaromic view of the sky and sea such as we see below:

When entering the Greek theater, here's a view of the castle (Castello) on Mount Tauro on the top right and the church of Our Lady of the Rock (Santuario della Madonna della Rocca) on the left.

Here's a typical view from Taormina of the sea:

City scenes

The town also includes the typical squares and churches (such the late 17^th century Church of San Giuseppe below) which, unfortunately, we had too little time to explore:

Soon the afternoon was over and we were on our way to Messina, reaching it around nightfall. Please join us by clicking here:

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