Taormina way above the anchorage & Castelmola at the top

I had mixed emotions about coming to Taormina, thanks to the HBO hit “White Lotus 2”. The background of the series made me drool at the beauty of the location, but I dreaded the number of Americans that would overrun the place. Little did I have to worry…

The anchorage is huge. We wove our way through the mini-mega-yachts (my new term for boats 80-150 feet in length) and easily found a place to drop the anchor. Trip dove immediately and confirmed we were set in all sand. We sat and admired the town nestled in the cliffs above us. Then we got hungry and decided to go ashore for dinner.

Bringing the dinghy ashore is the hardest part of this anchorage (and everywhere in Italy, it seems). We found the back corner of a concrete wall loaded to the gills with tour and fishing boats where one of the locals said we could tie off. We were actually in Naxos at this point, the next town over. Everything here was at the water’s edge, so we decided to walk along town. We did a lot of people watching over a beer at a local cafe, and then dinner at another local restaurant that included a huge jug of wine and involtini (rolls) of local swordfish.

My goal was to see the Greek theatre and the guides recommended getting there early to avoid the crowds, so the next morning we got up early and took the bus through some hair-raising switchback turns up into Taormina. We opted to pay for a guided tour of the theatre which turned out great due to the guide we got. He had a healthy sense of humor and did a wonderful job explaining the history of the Greeks, Romans, and Moors in this area.

Naxos (where we had dinner the previous night), was the oldest Greek colony in Sicily, dating back to 734 BC, but was destroyed when they picked the losing side (the Athenians) in trying to take over Siracusa just 50 miles south. The locals fled to Mount Taurus and founded Taormina in 403 BC (the village of Castelmola was set even higher in one of the six hills that provided land-based protection from invaders).

The theatre was built sometime in the third century, BC. Even today, it is considered one of the most beautiful Greek theatres in the world, combining man’s work with nature (the views are breathtaking). The Romans later adapted the theatre to their own purposes, added three stories of marble columns. Centuries passed, everything fell to disrepair, marble was taken and moved elsewhere in Taormina, but the theatre remained. Today, preservationists have chosen not to try and rebuild, but to preserve it as is. The theatre is still used for performances, which I would have loved to have seen, but we didn’t have a chance.

Having gotten up early, we had skipped breakfast, and were lucky enough to find a fully stocked cafe at the theatre. Sitting with breathtaking views overlooking the water, we sat and enjoyed lemon granita (a Sicilian slush of sorts), coffee and arancini for breakfast.

Taormina is a cute town, but very touristy and catering to the wealthy. It always has been. Throughout history the town has drawn crowds with money that like to live the good life. It became part of the Grand Tour for wealthy Europeans in the 19th century, and later saw such famous Americans as Truman Capote, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Ava Gardner, Cary Grant, and of course Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The White Lotus is simply the latest version of wealth and fame making its way to the city. The hotel where the series was filmed, formerly a convent, is now owned by the Four Seasons and rooms currently start at $3,750 a night! (We tried visiting for a drink, but the entire place is closed off to the public except the courtyard where Jennifer Coolidge perched so awkwardly on that Vespa.)

From Taormina we took another bus further up to Castelmola, a small charming village perched even higher in the hills. We visited the castle on top of the hill, and wandered the streets.

We stopped at Cafe Turrisi for a drink, ogled all the naked statues and paintings, and learned that the founder of the restaurant and cafe was instrumental in making Castelmola and Taormina a safe and welcoming place for the gay community when homophobia was still rampant in the world.

We had lunch sampling local tuna and different grilled meets at a small restaurant overlooking Mount Etna. Then it was time to make our way back down.