Beautiful and stylish Taormina!
When we arrived in a beautiful hotel in Taormina, we were up nearly to the mountain top hotel overlooking the whole city. From the rooftop terrace the view was perfect for sipping wine and watching the sunset! It appeared as if Mt Etna was erupting but it was just the sunset thru the steam. Gorgeous. We had an amazing talk from Dr. Boris Behlke who has been studying Mt Etna for many years. He described Mt Etna as a lady who feels pressure building like she may have to sneeze! It may be nothing, it may be a little achoo, or she could erupt and blow the side of the mountain off! You just never know. Little did we know if but the pressure has been building for a while now. Luckily we weren’t there for any major eruption. Down the stairs from our hotel into Taormina, we saw a mosaic in a small courtyard a Hellenistic mosaic from the 2nd century BC! It was most likely a courtyard of a private house and a bit of the columnated portico were preserved as well. Sicily is like that, we were just rambling around and there’s history all around us!
The streets of Taormina are filled with very upscale destinations. As we are from Rochester we loved finding a familiar sight – Kodak sign! (Rochester, NY is the home of George Eastman who began the Eastman Kodak company!
We met our guide Franco, and heard the history of the amazing fountain before us. Franco was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of the town. Familiar to all the local folks, he led us from the City gate all the way to the courtyard of the San Domenico palace complete with a sundial clock above the gate! Back on "the main drag" there was a huge square where folks were enjoying their afternoon meals. Our next stop was the huge coliseum with dramatic views of Mt Etna thru the ancient colonnade. Loved the group shot that was taken here. We loved using the headsets! They had a great range and you could adjust the volume.
(PRO Tip bring your own headphones or headset for greater comfort and quality!)
Franco, a very well informed and genial host in Taormina
Food in Taormina
Pizza is in the making here! I even got to assist in making pizza dough. With both durum and semolina flour, olive oil, salt, a bit of water, I was instructed on the proper way to make pizza dough. Lucky we didn't have to eat my rather sticky concoction! They let the dough rest for several days in a refrigerator before baking into a light tasty crust in a very hot wood fired oven.
We also had aranchini from the street vendorts for snacks as well as visiting this amazing granita place that was so colorful we just had to try it! What's granita you may ask according to the web: Granita is a frozen fruit dessert made from fresh fruit and water, blended and frozen until icy, flaked with a fork and frozen again. The result is a delightfully crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth fruit ice, perfect eating all on its own.
Here's the Facebook site for more on this wonderful eatery : info https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064381461333
