Trip to Taormina, Sicily, Italy (Click on any image to load a larger copy)
Introduction
While staying in Catania (See Trip to Catania and Mount Etna, Sicily, Italy), I may a
day trip to Taormina - a small, picturesque town on the coast of Sicily. The town is also known as a touristic
resort for the rich and not so rich of the world. To get to Taormina from Catania, i tool a bus which cost 6.70
EUR / 8.20 USD for a round trip ticket. The bus ride was about 90 minutes long each way.
After leaving the bus station in Taormina, I headed towards town passing many stores and restaurant. I notices that the prices here were about twice as mush as Catania. I know the town is a touristic resort, but charging twice as much for a bottle of water or pizza seems a bit underhanded. Despite the high costs, I stopped in one store to buy some ceramics including a ceramic Trinacria - the symbol of Sicily.
The first attraction I saw was the town's Greek Theater. Built in the 3rd century BC and later modified by the Romans, the theater is Taormina's main attraction. It is quite beautiful and is still used today for some performances. The only thing bad about the theater was when I was visiting it, I was among the many bus loads of tourists and people on excursions from their cruise ship. There is nothing like being in a crowd of tourists all trying to get a picture of the same theater that has been photographed millions of times before.
Next I head down Taormina, looking for a place to have lunch that was not too overpriced. I eventually found a pizza place and ordered a Calzone. Unfortunately, I was given a pizza with anchovies instead of what I order. Could not communicate with the waiter to say that this was not what I ordered and I tried to eat as much of the pizza that did not have anchovies on it. Later the waiter had passable English when I was paying for my lunch. He gave me a shot of a liqueur as an appeasement.
I walked to the town's main square after lunch and found many old cars parked there. It seems that there was an antique car rally held in Taormina that day. I took some pictures of the cars and soon they stated their engines and headed out of town. I soon did the same and took the bus back to Catania.
After leaving the bus station in Taormina, I headed towards town passing many stores and restaurant. I notices that the prices here were about twice as mush as Catania. I know the town is a touristic resort, but charging twice as much for a bottle of water or pizza seems a bit underhanded. Despite the high costs, I stopped in one store to buy some ceramics including a ceramic Trinacria - the symbol of Sicily.
The first attraction I saw was the town's Greek Theater. Built in the 3rd century BC and later modified by the Romans, the theater is Taormina's main attraction. It is quite beautiful and is still used today for some performances. The only thing bad about the theater was when I was visiting it, I was among the many bus loads of tourists and people on excursions from their cruise ship. There is nothing like being in a crowd of tourists all trying to get a picture of the same theater that has been photographed millions of times before.
Next I head down Taormina, looking for a place to have lunch that was not too overpriced. I eventually found a pizza place and ordered a Calzone. Unfortunately, I was given a pizza with anchovies instead of what I order. Could not communicate with the waiter to say that this was not what I ordered and I tried to eat as much of the pizza that did not have anchovies on it. Later the waiter had passable English when I was paying for my lunch. He gave me a shot of a liqueur as an appeasement.
I walked to the town's main square after lunch and found many old cars parked there. It seems that there was an antique car rally held in Taormina that day. I took some pictures of the cars and soon they stated their engines and headed out of town. I soon did the same and took the bus back to Catania.
Photo Info
I used a Olympus C-750UZ 4.0 Megapixel Digital Camera. The images were cleaned up a bit with Adobe PhotoShop
Elements (To correct the color balance). Additional Camera Information
Taormina
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| Porta Messina - Messina Gate, one of the City Gates of Taormina | The Sicilian coast north of Taormina | The Greek Theater with Taormina in the background |
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| The Stage of the Greek Theater | More of the Greek Theater | More of Taormina up on top of the hill |
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| A ceramic Trinacria, the symbol of Sicily | A traditional Sicilian Cart | The Cathedral of Taormina |
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| Part of the Vintage Car Rally - A Lamborghini Muira | A Jaguar XK-140 in British Racing Green | A Riley with a Jaguar XKE Series 1.5 in the background |
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| A BMW M1 | An Alfa Romeo |