Sicily

We flew to Taormina in Sicily to celebrate our wedding anniversary in May. We stayed at the lovely La Plage Resort which is located directly below the town of Taormina. The small bay in front of the resort has wonderful views and is connected via a shingle bar to the small Island and nature reserve of Isola Bella. The quickest route to Taormina town was via the Fenicular which whisks you up the hillside, there are also regular buses and taxis which negotiate the short but winding roads. Taormina is extremely picturesque and most of the centre of town is pedestrianised. One of the main attractions is the Roman Ampitheatre which is well worth the short uphill walk to reach it. Concerts are still regularly held here and it has breath taking views and on a clear dayyou have the backdrop of Mount Etna which remains an active volcano to this day and plumes of smoke can be seen rising from it’s peak. We did a private tour entitled "In the footsteps of the Godfather" which allowed us to visit some of the locations from the film including bar Vitelli and the church where Al Pacino’s character gets married in both the villages of Savoco and Forza D’Agro. Both villages are wonderful to wander around and are quintessentially Sicilian. We ended our tour in the village of Castelmola which is located on the top of the hillside above Toarmina itself. Castelmola has a beautiful square with more wonderful views of the surrounding area. Taormina has many restaurants and you can get spoilt for choice but our guide gave us two tips for restaurants we ate at which was La Dracena and Duca di Cesaro both with central locations but just away from the main thoroughfare where we were treated to great hospitality and the food and pasta in particular were to die for!