A Day In Taormina

The beautiful sunny view of Mount Etna marked the beginning of our stay in Taormina. We had a half day tour of the

city. The guide was very good as he walked the group through the very large public gardens which were established over 100 years ago. They contain plants and trees from all over the world. the gardens are large enough to spend a long time just wandering. In the park there is a memorial to World War 1 as well as a torpedo from the Italian navy from WW2. The torpedo was very interesting. A frogman actually drove the torpedo to the intended ship, detached the war head and then sped away in the underwater speed boat. The navy did sink 2 British ships this way. The gardens also provided an excellent view of an old monastery which was used as a headquarters by the Germans in WW2. The area was bombed by the Allies but all damage has now been repaired.

Our guide then took us through the old streets of the lower part of the city on our way up to the “Greek” amphitheatre. It really is misnamed because the Greeks were the original builders of the theatre, but it was the Romans who rebuilt the structure as we see it today. The more we travel, the more we wonder at how the Romans knew how to built these structures. The city has “modernized” the amphitheatre somewhat by building a large wooden platform and installing metal supported seats. They continue to use the area for performances. Gone are the days when the wild animals were part of the show. There were many entrances (exits) where the gladiators would appear. We did not enter the backstage or underground passageways where the devices for raising and lowering the props were kept. This is one of the main attractions of Taormina and we crossed paths with at least 4 tours from a Holland America ship which is in Messina. The third part of the tour was a walk down the main street of the town. Of course it was crowded with all the tours in

town. The street ends in a plaza with a wonderful view of the ocean and of course Mount Etna. About 20 of our group decided to stop at the “best” pizza place in town. It was up away from the main street in a very small plaza. We were early enough to be seated at one large table. There were about 25 different types of pizza that could be ordered in the Naples style. We had a very good time just chatting having pizza and drinking a beer!

Finally, Sunset over Mt Etna. Just beautiful.