Paradise Beach Club

If you find yourself lucky enough to be in Taormina, I recommend spending a day at Paradise Beach Club.  Last summer was our third time to Taormina, and we wanted to try something new.  Our lovely hotel advertised "A Day at the Beach" including round-trip shuttle service.  Paradise Beach Club is located in the town of Letojanni.  For a flat per-person rate, you can enjoy unlimited access to the private seawater pool and beach, changing rooms and showers, and free wi-fi.  They also have a restaurant serving above-average pastas at lunchtime.  Be sure and try one of the bartenders' amazing, non-alcoholic fruit drinks.  The fresh fruit and innovative combinations will most definitely impress your taste buds.

Caffe Spinnato in Palermo

Caffe Spinnato is one of those cafes with a deep history, like Cafe Flore or Les Deux Magots in Paris.  A major difference with Caffe Spinnato, however, is that a glance at the prices on the menu does not induce a heart-attack.  They still attract locals with their amazing food, ice cream, and pastries.  The interior of the cafe has an old world feel to it- it used to be the establishment for Palermo's elite and in some ways still is.  On any given day, you will find businessmen in suits, multi-generational families, and young lovers tucked away in corners ignoring their caffè.  

We enjoyed a delicious spaghetti alla Trapanese

After enjoying a leisurely lunch, we walked over to the pastry case and saw the most attractive and scrumptious-looking cake.  They cut us a slice and brought it back to our table.

Caffe Spinnato is located on Via Principe del Belmonte in Palermo

Taormina in Pictures

With the most recent eruption of Mt. Etna, I thought I would show some pictures of my favorite place in the world, the beautiful and relaxing cliff-side town of Taormina.  Both times I've stayed there, I had a view of Mt. Etna from the hotel and I can't imagine what that view must look like during an eruption.

The cable car, or funivia, from Mazzaro back up to Taormina

 Isola Bella from the beach

 

Isola Bella, the island formerly owned by Lady Florence Trevelyan and now a nature reserve owned by the Region of Sicily

 Greek Theatre

 Our "capitan" Ciccio, who took us around Giardini Naxos and Taormina for a tour of the grottoes, and gave us almond wine and melon for lunch.  

I actually took this picture in 2006 during my first visit to Taormina

One of the most beautiful piazzas I've seen, Piazza IX Aprile

Beautiful Mt. Etna from hotel balcony this past summer, 2011

Beach Day in Mondello

In the summertime, Palermitans escape the city heat and grit and head to the beach in Mondello.  You can access it easily by taking a direct bus (#806) from Piazza Sturzo in Palermo.  It's about a 30-minute ride, and you can get a nice glimpse of where Palermo's elite live by looking out the window at the beautiful houses on the way.  When you return to Palermo in the evening, be prepared to wiggle your way onto standing-room only buses.  Ours featured a lively group of pre-teens singing American pop songs at the top of their lungs.    

A visit to Mondello is a great lesson in the beach culture of Palermitans.  Because of its proximity to Palermo (it's basically a suburb), people visit the beach for the whole day, rather than an extended vacation.  This requires a lot of planning and preparation so that no detail is forgotten, and the visit is as pleasurable as possible.  Families bring huge coolers of food, comfy beach chairs, entertainment for children and adults alike. Women take advantage of the moving "bazaars" on the beach, trying on different dresses and jewelry, consulting with their boyfriends and husbands, and bargaining with the sellers until they score the latest addition to their wardrobe.

Along the roadside, there are many food shacks selling quick and easy beach food: pizzette, panelle, arancini, panini, granite, and the like.  Also, if nightlife is your scene, the club and bar hotspots move from Palermo to Mondello during the summer months.

Back in Palermo, space is limited, so hanging laundry outside the window is always an option

Sicilian liqueur in the window display

Monreale

 It was quite an adventure getting to Monreale this past July.  We followed the directions our hotel gave us by walking to Piazza Independenza and taking the 389 AMAT bus from there.  While we were on the bus, our driver told us that his bus line was no longer going to Monreale and where we should get off and transfer.  Seemed easy enough, right?  At the next bus stop, we waited, and waited, and waited, for a bus that never came.  We weren't the only ones.  We tried to tell a local woman of about 60 years old (wearing high heels and enough lipstick for the entire Rockettes) that the bus we had just come off of was no longer servicing Monreale.  She began to shout at us in jumbled English and Italian that we didn't know what we were talking about.  The other people at the bus stop looked uncomfortably at her public outburst and we decided not to argue.  The woman decided to hitchhike and proceeded to ask every car with a male passenger if they were going to Monreale and they all responded by ignoring her.  Finally we found a good man that told us that we should take the AST bus which was just down the road.  By that time, it had been a good two hours since we took off from central Palermo.  Despite an intensely difficult time getting there, Monreale was beautiful.  We didn't spend as much time as I would have liked due to the bus adventure, so I would like to return some day.  I only used my phone inside so the pictures do not do it justice.    

Oldest Tree in Palermo

 Tucked away in the Piazza Marina is Palermo's oldest tree, a Banyan fig tree more than 150 years old.  It is quite a sight with aerial roots coming from all sides, making it difficult to distinguish the main trunk.  In the summer it provides a nice shady respite from the scorching sun. 

Brioche and Opera in Palermo

 This place in Palermo near the waterfront was the first time I saw a waffle/gelato combo on the menu.  It was pretty scrumptious.

The more traditional brioche con gelato 

I highly recommend a tour of the opera house, the Teatro Massimo.  Although I was unable to visit La Scala during my visit to Milan a few years back, this more than made up for it.  It is the third largest opera house in Europe (after the Garnier in Paris and the Vienna staatsoper) and the interior is not only beautiful but perfection in terms of acoustical design.  In the summer months, the Palermo opera moves outdoors to the Teatro della Verdura.  And if you're not a music lover like myself, you should visit the Teatro Massimo for its place in cinema history- the final scenes of the Godfather III were filmed here.

Paradise in Cefalù

My first (unknowing) exposure to the Sicilian seaside town of Cefalù came in the form of film from one of my all-time favorites, Cinema Paradiso.  A short train ride from Palermo, Cefalù is a popular destination for travelers from around the world, including other Italians.  Although the town can nearly triple in population at summertime, it has a sleepy, quaint quality to it.  The phrase, dolce fare niente has a significant meaning in this blissful paradise where everything moves a little slower.  

The medieval wash house, "U'Ciuni."  The river from the nearby mountains flows through here and into the sea.  According to Greek legend, the water here is actually the tears of a river nymph, crying in remorse after she killed her unfaithful husband.  Until recently, the women of Cefalù used this wash house to do their laundry by hand.  Now, it has been overtaken by tourists looking to cool off in the summer, with its refreshing water temperatures and shade.

Fun wedding photographers who let us turn the camera on them (In front of the Duomo)

Some of the most beautiful sunsets in Sicily are to be had in Cefalù

San Pancrazio Festival in Taormina

There's nothing like being in Italy to witness a saint festival.  It's particularly hard to miss in the summer as it seems as though there's one being held every other day.  I was in Taormina this summer during the San Pancrazio Festival.  The whole town came out to celebrate.

Townspeople in anticipation

Carrying the statue of San Pancrazio

Here is a video I took of the procession