Not quite the garden of Eden. But still, with Mount Etna watching over it, the orange gardens (or “giardini” in Italian) that surrounded a fishing village here up until the 1970s could resemble paradise in late spring, before the summer heat hits Sicily hard. Or in early autumn. No wonder the Greeks decided to establish their first Sicilian settlement, Naxos, in the 8th century BC. And some three thousand years later, 
The gardens are long gone, replaced by dozens of hotels and a bewildering maze—an apartment complex we accidentally entered once, and then escaped just by serendipity, lacking Ariadne’s thread to guide us safely through this Mino-tourists’ labyrinth. Or was it Nike, whose beheaded statue we visited just a few hours before venturing to that perilous realm? Perhaps it was her influence. After all, she stood guard in front of the archaeological park, right on the unspoken boundary between the old and the new in the harbor, between the village and the touristy zone.
Giardini Naxos, the village, is just a strip of land—in fact, only two narrow streets running parallel to the coast, lined with a few good restaurants (of course, it’s Italy!), one of our favorite gelato shops, a seaside promenade, and a couple of stores. And a handful of lovely beaches, way less crowded than those in the touristy zone (which are, by the way, sliced into squares that the hotels and resorts decided to conquer). Do stick with the village beaches if you ever get to Giardini Naxos!
Just as in Siracusa the day before, the churches of Sicily struck me once again. Parrocchia di Santa Maria Immacolata from the 1960s likely witnessed the destiny of the last orange orchards and demonstrates the same architectural approach as the basilica in Siracusa, except that the village couldn’t fund a church of that size.
We rented a cozy apartment with a terrace and a swing quite far from all the buzz, in a residential complex where elderly tenants gathered around the vending machines, sipping Sicilian beer, playing cards or dice, and quite likely cheerfully bad-mouthing all intruders, including us, killed my idea of joining their session one evening. On the bright side, we had a beach all to ourselves—for a late-night picnic with pizza delivered there, and for an early morning salute to the rising sun.
That’s a great perk of Giardini Naxos—all its beaches face east, allowing early risers to take a dip while the sky is at its most glorious. We did so on our last day, greeting the sun and bidding farewell to the sea—the warm, welcoming Mediterranean Sea. At least for that vacation.
Mount Etna illuminated by the sunrise
Stay tuned for the rest of the Sicilian series!