The last 3 days of my trip were traveling from Salina to Pensacola. I left Salina at sunrise on the 29th by ferry to Milazzo Port on Sicily mainland.
It was a 15 euro cab ride to the Milazzo train station. I had to wait a while for the train to Taormina which required changing in Messina. The Taormina Giardini train stop is located at the bottom of the mountain and is not even remotely a walk I would take with or without luggage to get to the Old Town of Taormina. The 20 euro cab ride was money well spent. I stayed at Hotel Continental which is in a great location, just above the main tourist road of Corsa Umberto. My room 161 was very small but fine for 1 person. It did have a balcony w a view. I appreciated that they let me check in early and check out late which gave me 24 hours in Taormina to explore the town. I had a delicious (half) pizza at a place just below the hotel (Pizza Zuccolo) before exploring.
Taormina is a beautiful town situated on Mount Tauro overlooking the Ionian sea at an elevation of 250 meters. It has been a tourist destination since the eighteenth century. The town has many beautiful buildings and boasts a Roman-Greek theatre built in 3rd century BC and is still used for performances. I am so glad I stayed in Taormina rather than Catania. From my window on the bus to Catania, the town looks pretty gritty.
I walked the main drag of Taormina along with all the other tourists, where I peeked into various churches and shops, had a gelato and finished up at the anicent Greek theatre, the Teatro Antica. It was beautiful as described. I didn’t take a tour or even an audio guide. Just enjoyed wandering in a light rain and taking pictures. By 4pm I was done and dragged myself back to my room where I passed out for a long sleep.
The hotel has a lovely rooftop bar with spectacular views over city all the way to the sea. However, the ambience was not what I needed as it was more of a bar and not a place to dine. After checking out a few expensive and busy restaurants (where each course was at least 20 euros) on Umberto I settled on snacks from a grocery and an amazing cannoli from La Pignolata Guinness Cannoli Taormina. It is rated as “the best cannoli ever” on Tripadvisor and the rating is well deserved. This isn’t my picture – as I only had one and didn’t stop to take a photo.
I did a little shopping and looking for souvenirs from Sicily. I should have bought in Salina at shops near our rental. There they sold great ceramics of octopus, sea urchins as well as the pine cone and heads. The ceramics in Taormina looked of lower quality and they didn’t have the nice bowls and plates (caper design). The theme in T was lemons and oranges. Though T does have great ceramic decor outside the shops and restaurants, great big heads as planters. I finally settled on a lemon dish, wine cork and a wine pouring spout.
There are stories and legends around these ceramics. The two most common themes are the pinecone decor and the head planters. The painted pinecones design is used for outside decor as well as inside trinkets. They are supposedly made in Caltagirone, Siciliy. The pinecone symbolizes fertility and hospitality. As a botanical, the pine cone is a reproductive organ. Female pine cones hold seeds. Male pine cones hold pollen. From ancient Greek times, the pine cone recalls the Greek god of male fertility, Dionysus. The modern meaning is a welcoming, hospitable home.
The moorish head planters are found in pairs all over Sicily. They are alluring, colorful, and a bit mysterious – a strikingly handsome dark-skinned man and a captivating fair-complected woman, both equally embellished with vividly hued and ornate decor, clothing, and headwear. There are different versions of the legend behind these planters.
In the 1100s when Sicily was under Moorish rule, a beautiful young woman fell in love with a handsom Arab man. They had an affair but then the naive maiden learned that her lover was returning to his wife and family. She killed him in the night and then took his head and put it in a planter and grew basil.
Another version of the legend says the maiden was of nobility. When her family discovered the clandestine affair and realized their honor was at stake, they beheaded both her and her lover. Their heads were placed on a balcony and turned into vases, a reminder for all to see.
Now these planters are everywhere in Sicily. I found this pair in the courtyard of a restaurant on my early morning walk through Taormina.
Hotel breakfast was very nice and served on the sky terrace level. I spent a few hours walking the streets again. Most shops were not open and the streets were quiet. The street cleaners were busy, the vendors were making deliveries to the restaurants and shops. Taormina is very clean. The staff at many of the shops and restaurants were cleaning windows, polishing metal and mopping inside and out.
24 hours in Taormina gave me a taste of the place. I didn’t get to Mount Etna or to the beaches but it was a nice stop on my 3 day journey home.
The next leg of the trip home involved a 2 hr bus ride to Catania airport. After spending 7 hours in this crappy airport, KLM cancelled my flight to Amsterdam. I had to quickly book an expensive late night ticket on Transavia.
It was 3.30am by the time I climbed into a delicious bed at CitizenM at the Amsterdam airport. It’s a very modern hip hotel chain with efficient small rooms. 5 hours later, I was refreshed and headed back to the airport. Schipol airport is a very efficient airport compared to the ones in Italy. I got through luggage dropoff and security in about an hour and then had places to sit and lots of choices for breakfast.
The last leg of the trip home was a totally uneventful United Airlines transatlantic flight. I was home in Pensacola by 8:30pm! All in all a lovely trip, 18 days in total.
