Taormina, Sicily: an ancient coastal town on a historic island..oh yeah, + fabulous views of Mt Etna

We arrived in Taormina late in the afternoon of February 16th, and paid a cab driver way too much to take us from the train station on the waterfront up to our Airbnb on top of the hill. Our new home for the next four days was in a well-maintained, older building above the small town.

Our unit was small but the best part was the shared rooftop deck. But we were getting hungry, so instead of watching sunset from the roof, we hit a quaint little pizza joint

around the corner. The pizza was absolutely to die for, and the wine was cheap and oh so good. The waiter set us up with a nice bottle from the Mr. Etna region. After dinner, we decided to take a stroll through the town. What a magical place! This hilltop has been inhabited for several thousands of years, and some of the current streets and structures were at least 1,000 years old. The cobblestone streets were lined with shops, restaurants, bars, coffee places, etc. We were getting tired from our long travel day, and so got back early.

The next day,February 17th, we got up to find a wonderful coffee shop, and after getting some caffeine running through our bodies, we headed out to walk around Taormina. We basically retraced some of our steps from the night before, but now those same stores, shops, etc.were open. I should point out that this town is a late Spring to Christmas time tourist destination, so many of the places were not open for the season yet, including all of the bars. Yap, that’s right, all of the bars were closed. Crazy!!! We would have to make due with wine. 😱

During our walk around the town, we went into a few old, very small churches. The architecture and decorations were incredible. The other showstopper of this town is the awe-inspiring views from the wall down to the beautiful, turquoise water. We walked several hundred (maybe a thousand) steps down from the town to the waterfront, strolled down the beach where there were a few sunbathers, then walked out a sandy spit to Isola Bella (a very famous, tiny little island) a few hundred feet off the mainland. We had built up quite an appetite, so we stopped into a restaurant where we feasted on some amazing pasta.

After resting at home a bit, we made some Aperol Spritzes and headed to our rooftop deck. The views were breathtaking…. we could see up and down the coast (probably 10 miles of coastline) and the colossal Mt. Etna. It was an evening ritual that would be repeated for the next 3 nights! We finished our day eating at a cool restaurant that took us a while to find, but was well worth the hunting. Great food, great service, great wine, and with a very laid back, yet high end ambiance. The waiter had spent some time in the US, so communicating was a bit easier. Everyone that we had come into contact with in Taormina was incredibly nice.

The next day we did a bit more walking around….we just couldn’t get enough of this wondrous little town of tiny stairwells & alleys. We hit another espresso & pastry shop (every one we went to in this town was fantastic), followed by a little grocery store that had absolutely epic cheeses!!! We feasted on cheese, wine, and Aperol spritzes the rest of our stay!!

That day we found out that the box Jos had sent to her family from Barcelona had been returned to the post office. Jos had tried to smuggle a small bottle of Portugeuse cherry liquer to her brother!  😀😂😱Lucky she didn’t get arrested. Jos was able to send a note (in google-translated Spanish) for a generous friend of a friend to help retrieving the souvenir box before they destroyed it. The friend agreed and that started the long saga of the returned box.

That afternoon, we again had Aperol spritzes and cheese on the roof, but this time Mt. Etna gave us a show! It was billowing out smoke that blew out over the mountain, to the sea. What a spectacular end of the day, with a beautiful sunset and Mt Etna smoking away. Jos was uneasy being that close to an active volcano but I assured her the lava couldn’t reach us if it really erupted. Love the roof top deck!! 🗻🌋 For our last full day, we had booked a wine tour in the Mt. Etna region. When the driver pulled up, we found out that we were the only two people on the tour in this off-season! Our very nice Airbnb host had called in to make sure they would take us, even though there was not a larger group. We departed in the van for what would be a truly marvelous day. Before we got to the wineries, we had coffee and a tour of the old, storybook'ish town of Castiglione. It had been inhabited for centuries, with an ancient castle, incredibly old church, and little streets that winded all over the town. On our walk, we spotted a potentially cheap home perched on the hill, directly below the castle. We never were able to figure out how to get a hold of someone to find out more, but maybe it was one of those (what turned out to be elusive) 1 Euro homes that we had read so much about.  More on this topic later. Back to the wine tour. Our first stop was Patria winery, where we were met and toured around by a cool, younger woman who knew more about wines than most. Our memories are a bit hazy now but she may have been the actual winemaker or head person. We toured through every area of the winery, were educated on the wines of the regions, then sat down to some delicious bites and incredible wines. We of course had to purchase several bottles! Then off to our next stop at Don Saro’s for lunch and more wonderful wines. There was way too much food, but we couldn’t stop eating. Easier to eat that much when you have great wines to wash it all down. I think we made one more quick stop at another winery, but forgot the name. Then back to our Airbnb for our last night under the stars on our splendid rooftop terrace! What an amazing place and one that I would love to return to someday. Maybe when more of the restaurants - and cocktails bars -are open. The next morning, we returned to one of our favorite cafes in town, where we saw a new thing….to-go trays of espresso shots in the littlest cups. Very nice….the Italians know and prioritize their espresso!! Our Airbnb host had arranged a drive to take us back to the train station on the coast and, just like that, we were off to Catania. There we would pick up our rental car for the 3 hour drive to Agrigento, an ancient hilltop city on Sicily’s south coast. It’s know for ruins of the ancient city of Akragas, in the Valley of the Temples, a vast archaeological site with incredibly well-preserved Greek temples.

Take a look at the pictures from the bottom up...still haven’t been able to fix this glitch with Wix.