Taormina

After spending a second night in base-camp Catania, we spent a transition day in Taormina. Catania is approximately midway between Siracusa and Messina which are located on two of the Sicilian points. We were ultimately headed toward base-camp Agrigento, midway between Siracusa and Palermo, which occupies the third point. If you gance at a map you will see that Taormina is actually going in the wrong direction which made for a very long day in the bus.

Our visit to Taormina more than made up for it. Taormina is a multi-layered city. It was settled by the Greeks, then taken by a long list of invaders and occupiers. Two of the most important for this post were the Romans and the Saracens. The moorish influence can be seen on the steeple of the church below. Captured in the background, high up on the summit of the hill, is the remains of a Saracen castle.

The picture below gives you a better perspective of the ruins. To the left of the main peak, on a shoulder of the mountain, is a church. The pathway to the castle takes you past the stations of the cross on your way to the church and then switches back to bring you the rest of the way up. Amy and I climbed there when we last visited in 1996, but there wasn't enough time to make a go of it this time.

The spectacular natural setting was undoubtedly one of the draws for the original Greek settlers. Mount Etna dominates the view to the west. During our current visit the summit of the volcano was shrouded in clouds.

The view of Etna provides a striking backdrop for the Greek theater carved into the mountainside above and to the east of the town. If it seems like we were seeing a lot of Greek theaters, keep watching, because we aren't done yet.

Evidence of the Roman remodeling of the theater is clearly visible in the pereformance area. They sought to make a site for spectacles by surrounding the stage with walls and filling in the background area with a brick and concrete, columned structure which, thankfully, is partially gone now so that the wonderful view of Etna can be enjoyed by visitors.

What had been a sunny day turned cloudy and then the showers came as we were making our way out of the town. This resulted in a beautiful rainbow display. The natives seemed completely unimpressed when we pointed it out to them, so perhaps it is a frequent occurence.

As we were driving away in the bus we were treated to the even more unusual display of a double rainbow. It is most easily seen in the picture below to the left of the primary arc. The bottom ends of the rainbows are basically symmetric with respect to the center of the picture. If you have never seen a double rainbow before, one of the ways you can identify the second rainbow is that the colors run backwards, from red to violet as you go from inside to outside the arc.