During our stay in Calabria, me and Mary had several trips close to Reggio Calabria and we spent one day in Sicily. Sicily, special landscapes and very funny activities with very warm and welcoming people!
Going from Calabria to Messina (Sicily) is quite quick: 20 minutes by boat where we loaded the car as well to move quickly in the sicilian land.
Source: Author. View of Sicily when leaving Calabria Coast
Boat service is called Caronte, like the mythological character that ferried souls.
One hour by car more and we reached Taormina which is a touristic place, with great history and traditions. Here we were already in Taormina, and this is the view from a Belvedere terrace.
Here is a corner with traditional decorations, representing cactus and traditional colours.
Of course, we could not miss Cannolo, which is a traditional dessert from Sicily made with a fried shortcrust pastry with sweet fresh cheese and chocolate inside.
This one has been amazing
Of course you can see that the size is respectable :D
Here is the decalogue of Cannolo.
The funniest rule is the first one that states: “Do not allow your girlfriend tasting Cannolo. You may be without it” :D
Here below is the rest of the exposition of desserts were we bought Cannolo. On top-left (number 1), that is called “Babà”, which is a soft cake impregnated with liquor, usually lemon liquor or Rhum.
On the bottom right (number 2) there is candied fruit with dark chocolate. All the rest that you can see are different types of candied fruit.
This following was the signboard of this special Cannolo’s place.
We could easily guess their specialty :D
Honestly, we could not miss it :D
Here is another hugely famous traditional dish from Sicily that is called “Arancina”. Maybe the picture does not give much references about the size but take in consideration that with a couple of them you are having more or less a full lunch and the size of a single one is slightly less than the palm hand.
After an adequate lunch we went visiting a historical villa with its park. It’s very close to the main streets of Taormina and I felt almost hypnotized as watching to it.
This building is almost entirely original and goes back to the beginning of XX century, meaning that it has more than 100 years. Standing in front of the sea (with all the complications coming from the salty breeze) the wood is still standing. It’s not accessible as there may be some dangers occurring anytime but, the building still stays and it’s breathtaking the view of this palace in front of the sea, at a height of about 100 metres on it.
Here is the view from this Villa’s park.
Here is another heartwarming corner, the kind of scenes I love and Mary knows how to take picture of them :D
Ending our tour in Taormina we also encountered a Bard, a guy playing a short flute in a very dynamic and energic way on a traditional music basis. Like the piper with the mouses, we stayed there enchanted listening to him for a while. Some kind of magic happened.
Taormina is a great and historical city and for me, it has been the first city I visited in Sicily as I had never been there before.
Quite touristic and not sure I am going to go back to Taormina as it is hugely touristic, but I am surely going to visit more Sicily, going more towards the other side and the Eolian isles as well!