Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
IONIAN COAST
Magnificent, overdeveloped, crowded - and exquisitely beautiful - the Ionian coast is Si-
cily's most popular tourist destination and home to 20% of the island's population.
Moneyed entrepreneurs have built their villas and hotels up and down the coastline, eager
to bag a spot on Sicily's version of the Amalfi Coast. Above it all towers the muscular peak
of Mt Etna (3329m), puffs of smoke billowing from its snow-covered cone.
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Taormina
POP 11,100 / ELEV 204M
Spectacularly situated on a terrace of Monte Tauro, with views westwards to Mt Etna,
Taormina is a beautiful small town, reminiscent of Capri or an Amalfi coastal resort. Over
the centuries, Taormina has seduced an exhaustive line of writers and artists, aristocrats and
royalty, and these days it's host to a summer arts festival that packs the town with interna-
tional visitors.
Perched on its eyrie, Taormina is sophisticated, chic and comfortably cushioned by some
serious wealth - very far removed from the banal economic realities of other Sicilian
towns. But the charm is not manufactured. The capital of Byzantine Sicily in the 9th cen-
tury, Taormina is an almost perfectly preserved medieval town, and if you can tear yourself
away from the shopping and sunbathing, it has a wealth of small but perfect tourist sites.
Taormina is also a popular resort with gay men.
Be warned that in July and August the town and its surrounding beaches swarm with
tourists.
