Magic Taormina

If you are thinking to travel to Sicily, Taormina is one of the villages you have to visit. In addition, if you are going to travel in August, try to be there the 10th, the day of Saint Lawrence. Moreover, try to get a ticket for any concert in the Greek Theatre (no matter who sings)—you will attend to an unrepeatable spectacle.

On the 10th of August, a lot of little villages in the Etna´s hillside celebrate their patron saint. If you are lucky and the Etna is erupting and the singer is to your liking, you will be ecstatic.

Suddenly in the night you will see how all the Etna hillside is full of fireworks. I was very lucky, because when I was there, the singer was Fiorella Manoia (a wonderful Italian singer), and, of course, the Etna was erupting. I don´t remember how the moon was, but the experience was unforgettable, so I strongly recommend this. Of course I was in very good company.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

Moderate hotel, with nice and very clean rooms, is on the main street. Avoid first floor, because the street is very crowded in summer and the soundproofing is not very good. The hotel in the town has an agreement with a hotel on the beach, so you can enjoy its facilities too.

Taormina is on a hill and all the town is pedestrian, so it is impossible to park near the down town. There are some parking areas in the outskirts, I recommend you to leave the suitcases in the hotel and then parking the car. Another thing, the way to go from the parking to any hotel in the down town is like a torture, few sloping stairs.... you will arrive to the hotel very tired.

When I asked about a nudist beach in Taormina or near, I was very surprised when a waiter in a gay friendly bar informed that there was a little nudist beach called Roca Bianca and this beach was located near the Hotel Lido Caparena, the hotel on the beach that had an agreement with my hotel Isabelle on the hill.

I said I was surprised, because Sicilian people are very conservative, and I didn´t see any nudist beach in the rest of Sicily. I thought that as Taormina is famous for being cosmopolitan (some writers, painters and artists, chose in the past Taormina as retiring village)and gay friendly, this must be the reason of this permissiviness. Roca Bianca is a nice white stony beach, it wasn´t women at all and only a few boys, including myself,were practising nudism.