Last year on this day I was in Taormina, on the eastern side of Sicily, part of a group trip through the Italian Heritage Center in Portland, Maine.
Taormina is a dramatically and astoundingly beautiful port city. We stayed at the Hotel Villa Esperia; a lovely traditional pink and cream stucco building with a beautiful view of the bay. The staff was very pleasant. The lobby struck me as being a bit Art Deco in style, as if it had been designed in the 1920s. They have a large and beautiful rooftop pool with an ocean view. Our room had a small balcony that faced an interior courtyard. The glassed section facing the courtyard was protected by decorative wrought iron - I think you could open the glass and keep the grillwork in place; it seems to be a very traditional way of allowing airflow while remaining secure. Some parts of the hotel appeared to be in the process of renovation. They have a lovely a restaurant also, but we decided to explore the city and eat there. After arriving at our hotel, we went via shuttle bus to the center of the city where we had a tour by a city resident. After that we were on our own for lunch. We found a restaurant and had lunch in a room that was an open air mezzanine. I had Insalata Angelo - tuna salad - it was delicious. We all had some local wine with our lunch too, adding to the festivity.
In the early afternoon our group met up by the Meddina Gate where we shuttled back to Hotel Villa Esperia; thirty-one of us got back in our bus to have a tour of Savoca, a nearby mountain town where The Godfather was filmed. Corleone, the fictional home of Don Vito Corleone, is located on the western side of Sicily. We were told that Savoca was chosen because it had the ambiance the film company was looking for but it was easier to film in. Our driver Salvo (bless him, he calmly kept us safe on the crazy roads of Italy) did yeoman work negotiating the switchback roads to Savoca. When we got off the bus, the wall that we parked next to was full of large, brick-framed, color bas-relief panels depicting local history. Although we saw a lot of outstanding stonework in Italy during our trip, these panels were unique.
Our guide to Savoca was the same man who gave us the tour of Taormina in the morning. He said he'd been a young man when The Godfather was filmed. Every day he would bicycle from Taormina to Savoca (he must have been a superbly fit young man considering those switchback roads!), arriving a half hour before filming began at 10AM. He became friends with Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, and Francis Ford Coppola; he said they were all Sicilian [in origin]. I didn't know that.
We went to the bar where the scene of Michael meeting his first wife Appollonia was filmed. It's a regular bar (alcohol), but you can buy gelato there too, and that's what we bought. The gelato was very good. The people who work there are very courteous; one of the waitresses smilingly addressed me as "Madama" - it was sweetly formal.
After our tour of Savoca, we briefly returned to the Hotel Villa Esperia to freshen up, and then went back out to Taormina's center for an evening of strolling and shopping. We took the cable car from the hotel to the town; it was quick and fun. Taormina has a two mile long (or more - we didn't walk the whole distance) pedestrian-only shopping street in the heart of the city. In the evening, it seemed like everyone in the town was out walking this main drag: some dressed casually; some dressed for going out; couples old and young holding hands; families with very young children; four brides and their grooms, some with their wedding parties, promenading down this beautiful street of old buildings with fine shops on the first level. It appears to be a local tradition - after you get married, you walk this pedestrian street in your wedding finery - what an awesome way to announce your marriage to everyone.
We stopped and ate at a streetside café. We stayed until around 8PM, although clearly for the locals the night was just beginning. We took the cable car back to the station, and walked the short distance to Hotel Villa Esperia where happily laid our heads until check out the next morning.
The day we spent in Taormina is one of my favorite memories of Italy; if you haven't gone yet, you should go. read more
