Oh, Taormina

An ancient town, mediaeval Norman stronghold, and very much Italian place--stroll through town with me!

As you apparently liked the sights, I think a few more postcards from Taormina are in order.

If you haven’t made up your mind if a visit would make sense (ahem), here are a bunch of reasons, courtesy of Wikipedia (my emphases):

The present town of Taormina occupies the ancient site, on a hill that forms the last projecting point of the mountain ridge that extends along the coast from Cape Pelorus to this point. The site of the old town is about 250 metres (820 ft) above the sea, while a very steep and almost isolated rock, crowned by a Norman castle, rises about 150 metres (490 ft) higher. This is the likely site of the ancient Arx or citadel, an inaccessible position mentioned by ancient writers. Portions of the ancient walls may be traced at intervals all round the brow of the hill, the whole of the summit of which was occupied by the ancient city. Numerous fragments of ancient buildings are scattered over its whole surface, including extensive reservoirs of water, sepulchres, tessellated pavements, etc., and the remains of a spacious edifice, commonly called a Naumachia, but the real purpose of which it is difficult to determine.

Please find the first part here:

Fight the Winter Blues, Trek to Sicily

Greetings from Taormina

Note the horse or donkey-drawn carriage in the bottom-right corner—isn’t it spectacular? In fact, it’s so spectacular that the same image re-appears on another multi-image postcard, reproduced below (both were mailed in the mid-1970s):

But it’s such a wonderful image that merits even “more” attention, don’t you think?

Sadly, it was never mailed, but it does feature Mt. Etna in the background, and, judging from its material and the quality of the the picture, I think it hails from the 1960s.

More Sights and Wonders

The above postcard was mailed in 1955, and it too shows Mt. Etna; below, a postcard mailed in 1966 with Mt. Etna spewing forth ash and dust:

And do note that most Mediterranean tree in the foreground, a feature of the area we’ve already encountered on several postcards from Dubrovnik:

Dubrovnik Across the 20th Century

And, finally, the main square with the the 12th-14th century Palazzo Corvaja, the cathedral (Duomo di Taormina) dating from the thirteenth century, a 1635 Baroque fountain, the Palazzo Duchi di Santo Stefano in Gothic style of the fourteenth century, all according to the above-cited Wikipedia piece—and visible on the below postcard mailed in 1966:

Of Ancient Ruins and the Passage of Time

Please allow me to close out our trip to Sicily with two more very typical—“canonical”—images of Taormina:

And, finally, another view from what seems to be Taormina’s prime look-out: