Taormina: Too Beautiful to Believe

Monday, May 26, 2025

Taormina, Sicily

We entered lovely Taormina last evening. Andrea gave us a quick orientation to the town and then we had a free evening to stroll around or just gawk at the mountain.

The stairways do help make Taormina beautiful, but the real beauty is in the views, like this one from our room's balcony right after we checked in. Mamma Etna in her full glory!

Mamma is cooking. See the steam?

The town was full of lovely shops offering higher-end clothing, souvenirs, and of course - food! Here's a giant cannolo in a colorful display for us tourists.

The Godfather is popular here.

A very narrow stretto.

Someone had a private little teatro di pupi next to their front door.

Monday morning

Before breakfast, we all spent some time admiring Mamma Etna from the rooftop.

The rooftop views were actually beautiful in all directions.

While waiting to meet our guide for the morning in the piazza, we took some group shots.

Ladies of the tour in front: Keri, Trish, Terri, Bert, Shirley, Carole, Stephanie

Back: Ann, me!, Mary, Tammy, Kathi, Cindy, Alice, Jennifer

The boyz: Andrea, Paul, Rob, Dave, Andy, Pat, Gregg, Bob, Levon, and Michael.

Trish and Tom weren't there yet.

Mary's princess pose.

I can't resist a good bike pic.

Female minotaurs (who knew?) are Taormina's symbol, and surround the snaky head of Medusa, another symbol of Sicily.

Peeking through a door into Santa Caterina's.

Our local guide Franco showed us some of Taormina's byways. We all really liked Franco's for his kind manner and his "cute" Italian accent when speaking English.

We stood in the shade of a carob tree from Africa. They were planted at markets because all of their seeds are the same size, so they could use any 5 carob seeds on a scale to equal one gram.

Time to check out the teatro antico (ancient theater). More ruins!

You'd think it would be a Greek theater, but you'd be wrong.

It's actually a Roman theater, built in the Greek style.

But - always - the mountain is the most impressive part of the scenery.

Franco was telling us about an American painter who came to Taormina and painted what he saw. When he displayed his paintings in Europe, people didn't believe they depicted a real landscape. Too much fantasy, they said. Looking it up later, I think he was talking about Thomas Cole.

Our whole tour group by the Roman theater, with a clear view of Mamma Etna.

These bougainvillea are everywhere in Sicily. I assumed they were native to the region but it turns out they're another import from South America.

This artist's balcony departed from the typical flowers. There are several stories surrounding the ceramic heads, a few that Franco shared with us.

These bricks and arches were once part of the main Roman aqueduct for Taormina. Then people built their houses on top.

After we emerged back onto the main street now bustling with cruise shippers, Andrea brought us to GelatoMania.

I got raspberry and clementine, and Mary's flavors were something caramel-ly, and a strawberry shortcake.

Sicilians know how to do sweets, that's for sure!

Once our morning tour ended, we all split up to amuse ourselves for the afternoon. Mary and I decided to take the gondola down the mountain to Isola Bella to stick our toes into the Mediterranean Sea.

Here come the cable cars.

Checking out the view from the gondola. Mary was being brave, but I still took the front.

Mary had a good ride, too.

At this little market, we picked up a caprese sandwich to split and a couple of lemon sodas for the beach.

Time for a little hike. Lots and lots of steps.

Lots and lots of goods for sale. I kinda wanted a lemon beach towel, but...no space!

Isola Bella.

Lunch on the rocks.

Lava rocks and the sea.

Climbing back up was harder. It was hot!

We all gathered back at the hotel for an aperitivo on our hotel roof, followed by a raucous dinner at a pizza restaurant just a little way down the hill.