Taormina is a place that you should visit because it’s one of the most attractive places in Sicily. Even for 2021, many Sicily villas allow for free cancellation due to Covid-19.
What you Can See in Taormina
A light patina has been applied over this glamour. On the side streets, old houses nestle together in narrow alleys where old scooters and Fiat Cinquecentos rattle. But life takes place on Corso Umberto, the main street of Taormina. Like the church of Santa Caterina, whose door is always wide open, most of the houses on Corso Umberto are Baroque. The façades are decorated with elegant balconies, columns, and pediments, but show signs of gentle neglect, the paint often has a grey veil over it, and electric cables dangle lazily over the plaster. On the ground floors, on the other hand, it seems as if the employees of the fashion shops are walking with a microfibre cloth over the logos of Chanel, Hermès, and other luxury brands once a day.
Piazza IX Aprile is the balcony of the city, with views of the sea and Etna. On it are some tables of the “Wonderful”. The café is a relic of times gone by when coffee houses and daily newspapers were the main social media. The Taormina Film Festival, which has attracted stars such as Marlene Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn, and Robert Redford, has been in existence since 1955. The plush interior of the “Wunderbar” with its flowery curtains and red upholstered armchairs has already made the world stars Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Tennessee Williams feel at home.
In the extreme west of the island, the town of Trapani is situated on a long, crescent-shaped promontory far into the sea. From here you can take a boat to the Egadi islands or stay in the town with its chessboard layout. The city centre is nice, but there are no great sights to see.
Just outside Trapani, there are huge salt flats, which are now grouped together in the Riserva Naturale Integrale Saline di Trapani e Paceco Nature Park. The extraction of salt by natural evaporation has been practiced there for 3,000 years. In the 20th century, salt extraction came to a complete standstill but is now carried out again, although not to the same extent as before. The salt works are well worth a visit. There are old mills to visit, as well as the museum on the city limits.
A striking rock with a colourful sanctuary and the famous black Madonna, which can be visited there. A little further on foot the remains of a Greek theatre. Below them are the lagoons of Tindari, one of the most popular seaside resorts in Sicily with huge sand tongues.
Six kilometres from Piazza Armerina, south of Enna, lies Villa Romana Casale. This late Roman luxury villa was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997 because of its good preservation as an example of the architecture and lifestyle of the rich at that time, and especially because of the excellently preserved, huge mosaics.
