Things to do
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Isola Bella
A small island joined to the shore by a shingle spit that is usually walkable, now a nature reserve with the botanical garden of its former private owner. The cable car from the town drops close to the beach below it.
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Teatro Antico
A Greek theatre of the third century BC, rebuilt by the Romans, cut into the hillside so that the stage opens onto Etna and the sea behind it. It still stages concerts and a summer film festival. It is booked out on festival nights and quiet first thing.
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Villa Comunale
Public gardens laid out by an Englishwoman exiled from court in the 1890s, with follies she built from brick and lava stone. It is the quietest place in Taormina with a full view of Etna. Entry is free and the gardens run along the cliff edge.
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Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo
The town's first hotel, opened in 1873 directly beside the Greek theatre, with a terrace that looks along the coast to the volcano. It stands at the top of the town beside the public gardens, and the terrace bar is open to non-residents in the evening.
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Castelmola
A village on the crag above Taormina, another three hundred metres up, reached by bus or a steep stepped path. The view takes in the whole coast and it is a good deal quieter than the town below. The almond wine sold in the bars there is the local speciality.
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Duomo di Taormina
A thirteenth-century church with a battlemented roofline that makes it look like a small fortress, on the square where the town gathers. The baroque fountain outside carries the two-legged centaur that is Taormina's emblem. The square in front of it is where the evening passeggiata ends.
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San Domenico Palace, Four Seasons
A fourteenth-century Dominican monastery on the cliff edge, the cloister and cells kept intact around a garden with Etna behind it. It reopened as a Four Seasons in 2021. Its garden terraces look straight down the coast and the theatre is a few minutes away on foot.
