Taormina
The origins of this town can b dated to prehistory: in the late Bronze
Ace a group of Siculi settled on top of a hill looking out on the Jonian
coast of SicilyIn the little town of Tauromenion the inhabitants of
Naxos, destroyed by Dionysius I of Syracuse, took refuge. Dionysius
occupied it in 392 B.C. It shared the fortunes of Greek and roman Sicily.
There was a decline, but it picked up again with the Byzantines, and
in 902 it was one of the last places to surrender to the Arabs. The
islamic domination was always ill-accpted, and the people rebelled twice.
After the second revolt, in 969, the destruction of the place was decreed,
and only the fortification protecting Naxos, called Tambermin, was saved.
In the thirteenth century, after the foudation of some convents, Taormina
too was given a new lease of life, though it remained little more than
a village. Its real fortune began in the nineteenth century, when, after
a visit by Goethe who praised its beauty all over Europe, it became
almost a must in the "Grand Tour". The visitors in the last century
were the forerunners of the very numerous tourists who every year visit
Taormina, the capital of Sicilian tourism The main monument is the ancient
theatre, not only because of its intrinsic astistic value, but also
because of its picturesque position. The panorama to be enjoyed from
up there has even been defined the "panorama par excellence", something
you really must not miss once you are in Sicily. It is the second biggest
ancient theatre on the island (diameter 109 m.) after that of Syracuse
and was built in the Hellenistic epoch (third-second century B.C.).
Modified and enlarged about 300 years later, it was used by the Romans
for gladiatorial fights. The theatre, whose acoustics are outstanding,
is used for musical and theatrical shows in summer. The romans also
built the Odeon, a little edifice at the back of the present-day Santa
Caterina church, perhaps the bouleuterion (meeting place) and the Naumachia.
The later, together with the testre, is the second mine vestige of the
Roman town and also one of the biggest Roman monuments on the island.
It was a big terrace protecting a now no longer extant cistern. It seems
that naval battles were held there, and hence the name. Palazzo Corvaya,
built in the fifteenth century on a structure from the previous sanitary
was the seat of sicilian Parliament in 1410. On the front there is a
fascia in wich there are inscribedin Latin a series of moral sentences
.Further up, on the first floor, there are big double-millioned windows.
Theinner courtyard is very picturesque. The cathedral, dadicated to
St. Nicholas, was built in the thirteenth century. Later, in the fifteenth,
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it was altared. Its squared-off
and severe look reminds one of Norman cathedrals. The main portals,
surmounted by a smollrosette and flanked by two ogival mullioned windows,
was done in 1636 in the Renaissance style; two oder portals, from the
fifteenth and sixsteenth century, are respectively on the left and right
sides (firstone in particular is out standing). The interior has three
naves; there are interesting paintings by Antonio Giuffrè (1436) and
a polyptych by Antonello de Saliba (1504). The elegant palace of the
dukes of Santo Stefano, built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
buil, is a fine example of Sicilian architecture. The imposing perimeter
walls are lightened by double-mullioned windows, four down below and
four - more elegant - on the resindential floor.