Taormina Geography

Taormina occupies a natural terrace on the seaward flank of Monte Tauro, roughly 200 metres above the Ionian Sea on the east coast of Sicily. The site is the whole explanation of the town: a shelf of limestone wide enough to build on, steep enough on three sides to defend, with a view down the coast in both directions and inland to the volcano.

The coast below

The hillside drops sharply to a shore of small coves and headlands rather than a continuous beach. Isola Bella sits in one of them, a rocky islet joined to the shore by a narrow bar of shingle that the sea covers and uncovers depending on conditions, so it is sometimes an island and sometimes a peninsula. The cove is a protected nature reserve. North of it Mazzarò and Spisone have the town's usable beaches, and further along the coast the ground flattens into Giardini Naxos, where the original Greek colony stood.

Etna

The volcano is about thirty kilometres south-west and dominates the view from the town. It is the highest active volcano in Europe and among the most consistently active anywhere, and its summit carries snow for much of the year, which is why the classic view from the theatre shows a white peak above a blue sea. Eruptions are usually effusive rather than explosive; the practical effect on Taormina is occasional ash fall on cars and terraces and, rarely, a closed airport at Catania.

Above the town

Castelmola sits several hundred metres higher on the same ridge, with the remains of a castle between the two. The slopes in between are terraced and planted with olive, citrus and prickly pear.