After taking 2 days to decide whether or not to book our day tour to Taormina, we finally boarded our van which would transport us to various locations. Franco, our driver, didn’t speak much English, which we knew beforehand. We were a little concerned about that because we needed to know how much time we had to ramble around some of the stops and where to meet him for pick-up. Franco stopped to pick up 2 other passengers. The first was a French lady, Gisella, who spoke no English at all, and the second was a woman from Colombia, Julia, but she spoke 4 or 5 languages, including Italian and a little English. She was our interpreter, and she was a hoot. She talked nearly the whole tour and was very entertaining.
We drove for about an hour northward fairly close to the coast. Our first stop was in the seaside village of Giardini Naxos. It’s a beautiful bay, Gaia di Villagonia, with a very long beach. This was basically a photo stop, and photos we took. While the beach and the main street along the beach were lovely, the amazing views up the mountain were awe-inspiring. It was hard to believe that we would be driving up those mountains to Taormina. The really awesome reality was that we would be driving even higher up to Castelmola, a small village hugging the very top peak. Both villages are big tourist destinations and both are steeped in history; both have been in existence since about 600 BC with Greek and Roman influences. It was really cool seeing our destinations from Giardini Naxos.
We then drove along the coast for a bit. These smaller Italian roads are quite scary. The road doesn’t seem wide enough for two cars to pass, let alone huge tourist buses, but Franco navigated expertly along the coast roads. Our next stop was to see a charming small island called Isola Bella. Isola Bella is known as the Pearl of the Ionian Sea. In 1890 Florence Treyvalen, a member of British aristocracy, bought the island, built the house on top and spent her remaining years importing exotic plants to her little island. Eventually, Sicily turned the island into a nature preserve.
Then it was up the mountain. And if I thought the coast road was a little scary the mountain road was a lot scarier. The road is one switchback after another, narrow and often hanging over a deep crevasse. But the higher we climbed, the more beautiful the views. Unfortunately, it was a very humid day causing it to be a little murky so the views were not totally clear and sharp, but nonetheless, everywhere we looked was breathtaking.
Castelmola is a small village of about 1,000 people, but there were probably 2,000 tourists there. Julia got directions from Franco on where a couple of places were, like the all-important bathroom, and off the 4 of us went. The streets are narrow and the locals do drive up and down the streets. Tour buses and other vans drop people off at the city gate so you know that the cars inside the city gates are locals. The locals are clearly dependent on tourism as there were many, many shops selling souvenirs. We walked around several little streets taking in the views. It is amazing that villages are built at the very tip top of mountains. There has been a fortified town here since the Bronze Age, with Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Normans inhabiting, among others.
After wandering around Castelmola, it was time for our lunch stop. I knew there was something about lunch on this tour, but I didn’t pay much attention to the details. From Castelmola Franco drove off the main road and even further out into the mountains to a little restaurant perched on the hillside. The name of the restaurant was Chicchirichi Trattoria, and is billed as Cucina Tipica Siciliana, meaning it specializes in “real” Sicilian cuisine. I had written in the post about our day in Catania that it was hard to believe people ate such big meals mid-day on hot and humid days. Well, we were now sitting down to a 5-course Sicilian meal, at a significant added expense, but I must say it was phenomenal. We were seated out on a covered patio, hanging off the side of the mountain, looking down the valley to the sea. It was a wonderful setting. The meal started with a tasty aperitif. Our starter was marinated swordfish and tuna. I haven’t eaten much raw fish but this was scrumptious. We had another dish that was a shrimp salad. Then came octopus, shrimp and bonefish dumplings. I have not eaten octopus, and I must say I loved it. Next were pasta dishes, gnocchi with shrimp sauce and hand-rolled pasta made on the premises in marinara sauce. By now, we were stuffed because of course there was fantastic bread with each course. But we weren’t done yet. Next was the fish course, orata, swordfish and more shrimp. The orata was excellent, and I’m not a big fish eater. We then cleansed our palate with lemon granita and then ended with a fantastic cannoli and a shot of Vino alla Mandorla, a homemade vino aromatizzato. Wow! What a fantastic meal.
Then it was in the van again and down the mountain halfway to Taormina. Although Taormina is a shopper’s paradise, it is also the home of the largest Greek/Roman theater excavated in Sicily and Italy. The first theater was probably constructed in the 3rd century BC. Its setting is breathtaking with a wonderful view of the sea, and if it had been a clear day, we also would have seen Mt. Etna. Except for a brief view of Etna coming out of the airport, Etna has been covered in clouds and we haven’t seen the volcano at all. So, we had to settle for just seeing the sea view. The amphitheater is enormous. The stage area has some remaining pillars, but is doesn’t really give you the sense of what it originally was. We saw an animated video of how the stage would have looked. It would have been at least 3 levels of columned floors tall. Again, the setting is simply breathtaking.
After visiting the theater, we wandered around Taormina a bit. It was very hot and humid and so we were uncomfortable and tired. We did walk down the main street, Umberto Street, and passed through 2 lovely piazzas, both with wonderful views. On our way back to our pickup location, we found a shady bench and rested until it was time for pickup.
That ended our day touring and Franco returned us to our hotel. We were tired, but very happy that we had done the tour. Seeing Castelmola and Taormina was very interesting and worth doing.