Page 278 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

wasn’t always enamoured of the town; in a letter of December 1921 he described

Corso Umberto as “one long parade of junk shops … things dearer than ever, more
faked, food tiresome as it always was. If only Etna would send down 60,000,000
tons of boiling lava over the place and cauterise it away.”

Palazzo Corvaja

Corso Umberto I • Museo Siciliano di Arti e Tradizioni Popolari Tues–Sun 10am–1pm • €2.60 • 0942 6101

Palazzo Corvaja began life back in the tenth century as a defensive tower built by the
Arabs. The tower still forms the body of the palazzo, while in the courtyard, Arab-
style ogival windows harmonize perfectly with Gothic elements such as a staircase

crowned by a Romeo-and-Juliet-style balcony.

Within Palazzo Corvaja is the chamber where the so-called Sicilian “parliament”–
actually a group of Aragonese nobles – met in 1410 to choose the next king. It now
houses the tourist office and the engaging Museo Siciliano di Arti e Tradizioni
Popolari, a collection of quirky folklore items ranging from painted Sicilian carts to

cork-and-wax Nativity scenes. One of the highlights is the 25 panel paintings of the
1860s showing people being saved by miraculous intervention from such terrible fates
as falling onto a stove or being attacked by cats.

Santa Caterina

Corso Umberto 1 • Daily 9am–8pm

Opposite Palazzo Corvaja, the church of Santa Caterina was built almost on top of a
small, brick-built odeon, known as the Teatro Romano (originally used for musical
recitations): peer down at it through the railings around the back, and then enter the
church to take a closer look at bits of the theatre exposed in the floor of the nave.

Teatro Greco

Via del Teatro Greco • Daily 9am–1hr before sunset • €8
The crowds flowing from Piazza Vittorio Emanuele past an unbroken parade of tourist
shops will point you towards Taormina’s Teatro Greco, one of Sicily’s unmissable

sights – and best visited in the early morning or near closing time to avoid the throngs.
Nothing, however, can detract from the site’s natural beauty. Carved out of the
hillside, the theatre gives a complete panorama of the Sicilian coastline, the mountains
of southern Calabria across the water and of snowcapped Etna – a glorious natural
backdrop for the audiences of classical times. Despite its name, and though founded by
Greeks in the third century BC, the existing remains are almost entirely Roman, dating

from the end of the first century AD, a period when Taormina enjoyed great prosperity
under Imperial Roman rule. The reconstruction completely changed the character of