Sitting on the balcony of our hotel in Taormina, we looked out at the sun setting over Mt Etna.
We were staying at the Excelsior Palace Hotel, which opened in 1904 — the town’s first hotel. It has an interesting past having been the command centre for the Germans during World War 2 and having hosted the King of Italy, Vittorio Emanuelle III, reflecting its old-world grandeur.
A few steps from the hotel is Taormina’s main street, Corso Umberto, a pedestrian promenade with architecture from different eras, from Arabic and Norman to Gothic and Baroque, reflecting the island’s turbulent history of repeated invasion.
Today the street is dotted with a variety of shops — from souvenirs to designer labels — as well as cafes, restaurants and gelato shops, and is one of the best people-watching places in Sicily in my opinion. Take a seat on the minotaur fountain in front of Taormina Cathedral or in one of the streetside cafes and watch the world go by.
There is also the Teatro Antico di Taormina, constructed in the 3rd century BC, still operating as a music venue today, while a short bus ride up the winding hill is Castelmola, a tiny village topped with an ancient Roman arch. If you look closely, many of souvenirs in the shops feature a phallic symbol and the village is famous for a themed cafe decorated in such symbols.
With Taormina as our base for four days we travelled down to Syracuse and the island of Ortigia. Our first stop is to Syracuse’s Greek theatre, dating from the 5th century BC, which fell into disrepair during the Spanish occupation in the 1500s when it was quarried for fortifications.
The Neapolis Archaeological Park also showcases the ancient stone quarries, reaching up to 50m in height, including an artificial cave called the Ear of Dionysus. The cave has amazing acoustics, which one of our Albatross Tour members tried out, surprising us all, including his wife by breaking in to Ava Maria.
As many of those who quarried the stone for these grand structures were prisoners, a large area has been planted out in lemon and orange trees, turning it into garden paradise ‘‘Latomia del Paradiso’’.
The next day was a complete contrast as we headed for Mt Etna, a highly-monitored, active volcano standing 3403m tall. We bused part way up the mountain before hopping off and taking a cable car to 2500m where we then got on a 4x4 bus which wound its way up the totally barren, volcanic rock-covered mountain to 2920m. It was a perfectly clear day, if very windy, and we could see for miles.
Our guide, a volcanologist, led us up a track to view the craters. The volcano had only a few months ago shot ash and lava out and our guide pointed out recent rockfall from that event. He also showed us vent holes where we could feel the warm air escaping. It was a totally surreal experience.
Thinking it would be hard to top that, the next day we visited the Villa Romana Del Casale, another Unesco World Heritage Site, with 3000m of Roman mosaics dating to as early as the 4th century AD. It is thought to have been the country retreat of Marcus Aurelius Maximianus, Rome’s co-emperor during the reign of Diocletian (AD286–305). The villa had been destroyed and then abandoned after a landslip in the 12th century which protected the mosaics from further damage.
We also visit the Unesco-listed Valley of the Temples in Agrigento. Tagged as one of the most outstanding examples of ancient Greek architecture outside Greece, it is a 1300ha archaeological park including the remains of seven Doric-style temples built around the 5th century and in various states of preservation. Weirdly enough it also included a paddock which was home to some friendly goats which our guide stopped to toss treats to.
We took time out from visiting historic sites to journey to the Mandranova olive grove and mill where we had a lovely lunch under the trees (including authentic Italian chocolate ‘‘salami’’) as well as learning about olive oil production and tasting its three types of oils.
We squeezed in one more temple at Segesta, considered to be one of the major cities of the Elymians, one of three indigenous peoples of Sicily. Above the well-preserved Doric temple is the ruins of the city including a hillside amphitheatre. The temple itself was never finished and is one of the few you can walk into, around and even touch — an amazing feeling for an ex-classics scholar.
We had settled in to our new home for the next few nights — the impressive Baglio Oneto wine resort in Marsala. Originally built as a fortified home at 150m above sea level to lord over the farms around it, the building has high walls, a tower and defensive elements. These days those impressive views over the surrounding hillside remain, especially from its infinity pool, and the walled courtyard is perfect for outdoor dining, while additional buildings have been built for guests.
As it is in Marsala it of course specialises in the wine of the region. The Oneto family over many generations has produced wine here and today produces four white and three red wines as well as the region’s speciality marsala and extra-virgin olive oil from its own grove.
A tour showed us some of the historic equipment used to make wine back in the day and a tasting in the resort’s grand Mediterranean Hall (a popular wedding venue) allowed us to enjoy some of the fruits of the family’s labour over the decades.
The steady good weather (something of a treat for us New Zealanders) of the past few weeks departed and we were treated to a night of thunderstorms which caused the cancellation of our planned trip to the Zinagro Nature Reserve the next day. Our guide Mariella swung into action and had a plan B ready — a trip to the Marsala salt pans and the Genna saltworks where they still harvest salt without mechanical means.
The fascinating collection of antiquities — from pots, masks and statues to jewellery — was explained to us by an Italian guide who had a soft spot for a particular sculpture, the Youth of Motya, discovered broken in 1979 under a pile of debris. He is believed to be from the second quarter of the 5th century BC.
She also told us the sobering story of a room full of carved stone boxes. They held the ashes of first-born sons sacrificed to the gods. A nearby mask, the Grotesque Mask with its expression almost a grin, is thought to have been worn to hide the tears of the parents. At low tide in January an ancient street can be seen linking the island to the mainland, thought to have been built around the 6th century BC.
Our final stop was in Palermo, Sicily’s capital and a city of about one million people. It certainly did not disappoint, with a vibrant city centre, amazing architecture and buzzing cultural scene — we got to see an improvisational trio playing double bass, percussion and wind at one of the city’s small venues while others in our group took advantage of a classical performance at the city’s grand opera house.
The city’s beaches are popular, but we spent our time absorbing its centro storico historic centre visiting the Unesco-listed cathedral, Palatine Chapel, the royal chapel of the city’s Norman palace with every inch covered with rich mosaics, gilded capitals and decorative ceilings, the Teatro Massimo opera house and the popular food and souvenir markets.
A walk down the main street takes you to the Quattro Canti, an octagonal piazza with richly decorated facades dividing the old city into four quadrants, a popular meeting place for locals and tourists alike. The nearby churches were popular venues for weddings with lavish floral bouquets on stands appearing at their doors and luxury cars rolling up unloading glamorous guests and wedding parties.
Then it was time to say goodbye to the people we had travelled with for the past 17 days and prepare to head back to the mainland via sleeper train, which crossed the Strait of Messina on a ferry before rolling off on the mainland in the late evening as we slept soundly.
