| Taormina |
 |
Focusing on Taormina, Jewel of Sicily,
presented by Alessandro Sorbello
http://www.AlessandroSorbello.com the
Sensational Sicily
http://www.SensationalSicily.com Series of
Films showcase one of the most beautiful
regions on earth, rich in history, Sicily
formed part of the cradle of civilization.
A project born from a collaboration between
the Region of Sicily
http://www.regione.sicilia.it/, The Italian
Chamber of Commerce, New Realm Media
http://www.newrealm.com.au and Alessandro
Sorbello Productions.
Taormina (Greek: Ταυρομένιον -
Tauromenion; Latin Tauromenium) is a comune
and small town on the east coast of the
island of Sicily, Italy, in the Province of
Messina, about midway between Messina
(ancient Messana) and Catania (ancient
Catana). Taormina has been a very popular
tourist destination since the 19th century.
It has popular beaches (accessible via an
aerial tramway) on the Ionian sea, which is
remarkably warm and the has a high salt
content. Taormina can be reached via
highways (autostrada) from Messina from the
north and Catania from the south.
Comuni of the Province of Messina in Sicily.
Acquedolci | Alcara li Fusi | Alì | Alì
Terme | Antillo | Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto |
Basicò | Brolo | Capizzi | Capo d'Orlando |
Capri Leone | Caronia | Casalvecchio Siculo |
Castel di Lucio | Castell'Umberto |
Castelmola | Castroreale | Cesarò | Condrò
| Falcone | Ficarra | Fiumedinisi | Floresta
| Fondachelli-Fantina | Forza d'Agrò |
Francavilla di Sicilia | Frazzanò | Furci
Siculo | Furnari | Gaggi | Galati Mamertino |
Gallodoro | Giardini-Naxos | Gioiosa Marea |
Graniti | Gualtieri Sicaminò | Itala | Leni
| Letojanni | Librizzi | Limina | Lipari |
Longi | Malfa | Malvagna | Mandanici |
Mazzarrà Sant'Andrea | Merì | Messina |
Milazzo | Militello Rosmarino | Mirto |
Mistretta | Mojo Alcantara | Monforte San
Giorgio | Mongiuffi Melia | Montagnareale |
Montalbano Elicona | Motta Camastra | Motta
d'Affermo | Naso | Nizza di Sicilia | Novara
di Sicilia | Oliveri | Pace del Mela |
Pagliara | Patti | Pettineo | Piraino |
Raccuja | Reitano | Roccafiorita |
Roccalumera | Roccavaldina | Roccella
Valdemone | Rodì Milici | Rometta | San
Filippo del Mela | San Fratello | San Marco
d'Alunzio | San Pier Niceto | San Piero Patti
| San Salvatore di Fitalia | Santa Domenica
Vittoria | Sant'Agata di Militello |
Sant'Alessio Siculo | Santa Lucia del Mela |
Santa Marina Salina | Sant'Angelo di Brolo |
Santa Teresa di Riva | San Teodoro | Santo
Stefano di Camastra | Saponara | Savoca |
Scaletta Zanclea | Sinagra | Spadafora |
Taormina | Terme Vigliatore | Torregrotta |
Torrenova | Tortorici | Tripi | Tusa | Ucria
| Valdina | Venetico | Villafranca Tirrena
History - Taormina 's coastal location,
facing Greece, between the powerful cities of
Syracuse and Catana to the south, and Messana
(and behind it, mainland Italy) to the north,
determined much of its history. It is only
about 5 km from the site of the ancient
Naxos, and there is no doubt that Tauromenium
did not exist as a city till after the
destruction of Naxos by Dionysius I of
Syracuse, 403 BCE; but the circumstances
connected with its foundation are somewhat
confused and uncertain.
It appears, however, from Diodorus that after
the destruction of Naxos, the remaining
inhabitants of that city were driven into
exile, and its territory was assigned by
Dionysius to the neighbouring Siculi. These,
however, did not re-occupy the site of the
ancient city, but established themselves on a
hill to the north of it, which was called the
hill of Taurus (ὁ λόφος ὁ
καλούμενος Ταῦρος). Here
they at first constructed only a temporary
camp (in 396 BCE), but afterwards erected
walls and converted it into a regular
fortress or town, to which they gave the name
of Tauromenium. (Diod. xiv. 58, 59.)
The place was still in the hands of the
Siculi in 394 BCE, and they held it against
the efforts of Dionysius, who besieged the
city in vain for a great part of the winter,
and though he on one occasion forced his way
within the walls by a nocturnal surprise, was
again driven out and repulsed with heavy
loss. (Id. 87, 88.) But by the peace
concluded in 392 BCE, it was expressly
stipulated that Tauromenium should be subject
to Dionysius, who expelled the greater part
of the Siculi that had settled there, and
supplied their place with his own
mercenaries. (Id. 96.)
From this time we hear no more of Tauromenium
till 358 BCE, when we are told that
Andromachus, the father of the historian
Timaeus, brought together all the remains of
the exiled Naxians, who were still scattered
about in different parts of Sicily, and
established them all at Tauromenium. (Id.
xvi. 7.) This is related by Diodorus as if it
were a new foundation, and even as if the
name had then first been applied to the city,
which is in direct contradiction with his
former statements. What had become of the
former inhabitants we know not, but there is
little doubt that the account of this
resettlement of the city is substantially
correct, and that Tauromenium now for the
first time became a Greek city, which was
considered as taking the place of Naxos,
though it did not occupy the same site.
(Wesseling, ad Diod. xiv. 59.) Hence Pliny's
expression, that Tauromenium had formerly
been called Naxos (Plin. iii. 8. s. 14) is
nearly, though not strictly, correct.
The new settlement seems to have risen
rapidly to prosperity, and was apparently
already a considerable town at the time of
the expedition of Timoleon in 345 BCE. It was
the first place in Sicily where that leader
landed, having eluded the vigilance of the
Carthaginians, who were guarding the Straits
of Messina, and crossed direct from Rhegium
(modern Reggio di Calabria) to Tauromenium.
(Diod. xvi. 68; Plut. Timol. 10.) The city
was at that time still under the government
of Andromachus, whose mild and equitable
administration is said to have presented a
strong contrast with that of the despots and
tyrants of the other Sicilian cities.
http://www.accommodationtaormina.com
He welcomed Timoleon with open arms, and
afforded him a secure resting place until he
was enabled to carry out his plans in other
parts of Sicily. (Diod. l. c.; Plut. l. c.)
It is certain that Andromachus was not
deprived of the chief power, when all the
other tyrants were expelled by Timoleon, but
was permitted to retain it undisturbed till
his death. (Marcellin. Vit. Thucyd. § 27.)
We hear, however, very little of Tauromenium
for some time after this. It is probable that
it passed under the authority of Agathocles,
who drove the historian Timaeus into exile;
and some time after this it was subject to a
domestic despot of the name of Tyndarion, who
was contemporary with Hicetas of Syracuse and
Phintias of Agrigentum. (Diod. xxii. Exc. H.
p. 495.) Tyndarion was one of those who
concurred in inviting Pyrrhus into Sicily
(278 BCE), and when that monarch landed with
his army at Tauromenium, joined him with all
his forces, and supported him in his march
upon Syracuse. (Diod. l. c. pp. 495, 496.)
A few years later we find that Tauromenium
had fallen into the power of Hieron of
Syracuse, and was employed by him as a
stronghold in the war against the Mamertines.
(Id. p. 497.) It was also one of the cities
which was left under his dominion by the by
the treaty concluded with him by the Romans
in 263 BCE. (Diod. xxiii. p. 502.) This is
doubtless the reason that its name is not
again mentioned during the First Punic War.
There is no doubt that Tauromenium continued
to form a part of the kingdom of Syracuse
till the death of Hieron, and that it only
passed under the government of Rome when the
whole island of Sicily was reduced to a Roman
province; but we have scarcely any account of
the part it took during the Second Punic War,
though it would appear, from a hint in Appian
(Sic. 5), that it submitted to Marcellus on
favorable terms; and it is probable that it
was on that occasion it obtained the
peculiarly favored position it enjoyed under
the Roman dominion. For we learn from Cicero
that Tauromenium was one of the three cities
in Sicily which enjoyed the privileges of a
civitas foederata or allied city, thus
retaining a nominal independence, and was not
even subject, like Messana, to the obligation
of furnishing ships of war when called upon.
(Cic. Verr. ii. 6. 6, iii. 6, v. 19.)
But the city suffered severe calamities
during the Servile War in Sicily, 134-132
BCE, having fallen into the hands of the
insurgent slaves, who, on account of the
great strength of its position, made it one
of their chief posts, and were able for a
long time to defy the arms of the consul
Rupilius. They held out until they were
reduced to the most fearful extremities by
famine, when the citadel was at length
betrayed into the hands of the consul by one
of their leaders named Sarapion, and the
whole of the survivors put to the sword.
(Diod. xxxiv. Exc. Phot. p. 528; Oros. v. 9.)
Tauromenium again bore a conspicuous part
during the wars of Sextus Pompeius in Sicily,
and, from its strength as a fortress, was one
of the principal points of the position which
he took up in 36 BCE, for defence against
Octavian.
It became the scene also of a sea-fight
between a part of the fleet of Octavian,
commanded by the triumvir in person, and that
of Pompeius, which terminated in the defeat
and almost total destruction of the former.
(Appian, B.C. v. 103, 105, 106-11, 116; Dion
Cass. xlix. 5.) In the settlement of Sicily
after the defeat of Pompey, Tauromenium was
one of the places selected by Augustus to
receive a Roman colony, probably as a measure
of precaution, on account of the strength of
its situation, as we are told that he
expelled the former inhabitants to make room
for his new colonists. (Diod, xvi. 7.)
Strabo speaks of it as one of the cities on
the east coast of Sicily that was still
subsisting in his time, though inferior in
population both to Messana and Catana.
(Strab. vi. pp. 267, 268.) Both Pliny and
Ptolemy assign it the rank of a colonia
(Plin. iii. 8. s. 14; Ptol. iii. 4. § 9),
and it seems to have been one of the few
cities of Sicily that continued under the
Roman Empire to be a place of some
consideration. Its territory was noted for
the excellence of its wine (Plin. xiv. 6. s.
8), and produced also a kind of marble which
seems to have been highly valued. (Athen. v.
p. 207.) Juvenal also speaks of the sea off
its rocky coast as producing the choicest
mullets. (Juv. v. 93.)
The Itineraries place Tauromenium 32 miles
from Messana, and the same distance from
Catana. (Itin. Ant. p. 90; Tab. Peut.) It
continued after the fall of the Roman Empire
to be one of the more considerable towns of
Sicily, and from the strength of its position
was one of the last places that was retained
by the Greek emperors; but it was taken by
the Saracens in 906 after a siege of two
years, and totally destroyed.
In the late 19th century Taormina gained
some prominence as the place where Wilhelm
von Gloeden worked most of his life as a
photographer of predominantly male nudes.
Also credited for making Taormina popular
was Otto Geleng, best known in his hometown
of Berlin for his fine paintings, which he
composed and painted in Italy but exhibited
in Germany.
What distinguishes Geleng, however, is his
choice to depict the more southern regions
where he captured the spectacular views and
light of Sicily. He often painted the area's
Greek colonial ruins, including Taormina
.Taormina 's first important tourist was
Johann Wolfgang Goethe who dedicated exalting
pages to the city in his book entitled
"Journey to Italy," but perhaps it was
Geleng's views that made its beauty talked
about throughout Europe and turned the site
into a famous tourist center. The artist
arrived in Sicily at the age of 20 in search
of new subjects for his paintings.
On his way through Taormina he was so
enamoured by the landscape that he decided to
stop for part of the winter. Geleng began to
paint everything that Taormina offered:
ruins, sea, mountains, none of which were
familiar to the rest of Europe. When his
paintings were later exhibited in Berlin and
Paris, many critics accused Geleng of having
an 'unbridled imagination'. At that, Geleng
challenged them all to go to Taormina with
him, promising that he would pay everyone's
expenses if he were not telling the truth.
During the early 20th century the town became
a colony of expatriate artists, writers, and
intellectuals. D. H. Lawrence stayed here at
the Fontana Vecchia from 1920 to 1922, and
wrote a number of his poems, novels, short
stories, and essays, and a travel book, Sea
and Sardinia. Charles Webster Leadbeater, the
theosophical author, found out that Taormina
had the right magnetics fields for Jiddu
Krishnamurti to develop his talents, so the
young Krishnamurti dwelt here from time to
time. Halldór Laxness, the Icelandic author,
worked here on the first modern Icelandic
novel, Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír.
Ruins and archaeology
The teatro greco, the "Greek theatre", the
present town of Taormina occupies the
ancient site, on a lofty hill which forms the
last projecting point of the mountain ridge
that extends along the coast from Cape
Pelorus to this point. The site of the old
town is about 300 m above the sea, while a
very steep and almost isolated rock, crowned
by a Saracen castle, rises about 150 m
higher: this is undoubtedly the site of the
ancient Arx or citadel, the inaccessible
position of which is repeatedly alluded to by
ancient writers. Portions of the ancient
walls may be traced at intervals all round
the brow of the hill, the whole of the summit
of which was evidently occupied by the
ancient city. Numerous fragments of ancient
buildings are scattered over its whole
surface, including extensive reservoirs of
water, sepulchres, tesselated pavements,
etc., and the remains of a spacious edifice,
commonly called a Naumachia, but the real
destination of which it is difficult to
determine.
But by far the most remarkable monument
remaining at Taormina is the ancient theatre
(the teatro greco, the "Greek theatre"),
which is one of the most celebrated ruins in
Sicily, on account both of its remarkable
preservation and of the surpassing beauty of
its situation. It is built for the most part
of brick, and is therefore probably of Roman
date, though the plan and arrangement are in
accordance with those of Greek, rather than
Roman, theatres; whence it is supposed that
the present structure was rebuilt upon the
foundations of an older theatre of the Greek
period.
With a diameter of 109 metres (after an
expansion in the 2nd century), this theatre
is the second largest of its kind in Sicily
(after that of Syracuse); it is frequently
used for operatic and theatrical performances
and for concerts. The greater part of the
original seats have disappeared, but the wall
which surrounded the whole cavea is
preserved, and the proscenium with the back
wall of the scena and its appendages, of
which only traces remain in most ancient
theatres, are here preserved in singular
integrity, and contribute much to the
picturesque effect, as well as to the
interest, of the ruin. From the fragments of
architectural decorations still extant we
learn that it was of the Corinthian order,
and richly ornamented. Some portions of a
temple are also visible, converted into the
church of San Pancrazio, but the edifice is
of small size.
Culture and tourism
The David di Donatello Taormina Film
Festival has been held for over fifty years,
with international film stars viewing films
on a screen erected in the Greek theatre.
Just south of Taormina is the Isola Bella, a
nature reserve. Tours of the Capo Sant'
Andrea grottos are also available. Taormina
is built on an extremely hilly coast, and is
approximately a forty-five minute drive away
from Europe's largest active volcano, Mount
Etna.
In 1927 the young Icelandic writer Halldór
Laxness (born 1902) published his first major
novel, Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (The Great
Weaver of Kashmir), a panorama of social,
literary, religious and sexual issues of his
times. Laxness, who won the Nobel prize for
literature in 1955, wrote most of his novel
in Taormina which he then praised highly in
his book of autobiographical essays,
Skáldatími (The Time of the Poet) from
1963.
Economy
Much of Trapani's economy still depends on
the sea. Fishing and canning are an important
local industries, with fishermen using the
mattanza technique to catch tuna. Coral is
also an important export, along with salt,
marble and marsala wine. The nearby coast is
lined with numerous salt-pans.
The city is also an important ferry port,
with links to the Egadi Islands, Pantelleria,
Sardinia and Tunisia.
Getting in Taormina
By train
Regular trains to and from Messina and
Catania http://www.hotelsincatania.com.
However the station (called Taormina
-Giardini) is on the seafront 2km below the
centre. There are some buses down, but it's
often more convenient to take a long-distance
bus from the centre straight to or from your
destination.
By bus
Regular buses to and from Messina and Catania
.
By plane
Look for flights to Catania . There you can
rent a car to get to Taormina .
Get around Taormina
By foot
The main street of Taormina is
pedestrianised, making it easy to wander
around by foot.
By car
If coming in by car, you may enter the town
center only to go to a hotel or a rented
house: local police may require to see proof
of booking. In alternative, it's better to
park the car at one of the 2 large public
parkings ('Parcheggio Lumbi' or "Parcheggio
Porta Catania ") that you encounter on the
outskirts of the city coming in. From there,
either walk to the city center (just 2 min
from 'Parcheggio Porta Catania '/around 10
min but uphill from 'Parcheggio Lumbi') or
catch the shuttle buses running continously
to the center.
However, there are regular shuttle buses down
to Giardini-Naxos, the train station,
Letojanni and up to Castelmola.
There is also a frequent Cable Car down to
the beach at Mazarro.
Main Sights
Cathedral of San Lorenzo built in 1421 then
restored and changed in 1748 by architect
G.B. Amico with the addition of the side
chapels, the choir, the dome, the bell tower
and the façade. Inside neoclassical plasters
by Girolamo Rizzo and Onofrio Noto and
vaulted fresco paintings by Vincenzo Manno, a
painting of the Crucifixion attributed to
Flemish Van Dyke.
Torre di Ligny in stone and tufa built in
1671 by Viceroy Claudio La Moraldo, prince of
Ligny, which hosts the Prehistory Museum.
Castello di Terra, according to the tradition
over 2,300 years old, was an important
defence post of the city, from its position
opposite the other Castello di Mare (called
Colombaia) located on an island and built
according to the legend by greek hero
Amilcares. In 1360 Queen Costanza, the wife
of Federico d'Aragona, stayed here. The
Castello di Mare has an octagonal plan and
dates back to the XVI century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taormina
http://wikitravel.org/en/Taormina
Tags : greek theatre messina sicilia sicily teatro greco castelmola giardini naxos |
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Affichage : 51483
Durée : 57 s |
| Sheila Taormina |
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A 39 ans, l'artiste américaine poursuit son
hétéroclite carrière olympique. Championne
de natation en 1996, sélectionnée en
triathlon aux Jeux olympiques de 2000 et de
2004, elle concourt à Pékin en pentathlon
moderne.
Tags : pentathlon moderne |
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Affichage : 287
Durée : 96 s |
| Adventures in Sicily: Castelmola, Taormina, Isola Bella |
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During my language study trip in Taormina,
Sicily, I enjoyed several local excursions.
Together with my language study colleagues
from the Babilonia Language School I hiked to
the top of Castelmola. I also explored Isola
Bella, a beautiful stretch of Mediterranean
coastline at the foot of Taormina.
For articles about unconventional travel and
cross-cultural connections feel free to visit
my website - www.travelandtransitions.com.
Tags : Italy Sicily Taormina Isola Bella Greek Theatre |
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Affichage : 3830
Durée : 293 s |
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