Day 6 · Sicily: Ancient Fire & Baroque Stone
Taormina: The Grand Tourists' Favourite
Taormina was the most visited town in Sicily on the Grand Tour and the reason is immediately apparent: a Greek theatre cut into the cliffside above the Ionian Sea, with Etna visible above the stage and the coastline stretching in both directions. D.H. Lawrence wrote Sea and Sardinia here, Goethe described the view as the most beautiful on earth, and the paintings and photographs of this particular view form one of the most consistent obsessions in the history of travel imagery. Your private guide provides context beyond the aesthetics: the Greek political reason for building the theatre here in the 4th century BC, the Roman alterations for gladiatorial combat, the medieval conversion to defensive use. The afternoon is for the town itself — the Corso Umberto, the public garden planted by a Victorian Englishwoman in the 1880s, and the cable car down to the beach at Isola Bella for a late swim in the Ionian Sea.
- Greek Theatre of Taormina — Etna above the stage, sea below
- Private archaeological tour with context beyond the view
- Corso Umberto and Victorian public gardens
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