I am going to sound like the “Department of Redundancy Department” when I say it was another gorgeous day, but it was!  It was a perfect day to visit Taormina, a busy tourist town but so charming and photogenic!

Dating back to before Ancient Greece established its first colony on Sicily in 734 BC, Taormina is old. Our walking tour began with seeing the ruins of this small amphitheater and temple dating to the 3^rd century BC.

(For all photos, click on the image for a full screen view.)

Next, we toured one of the most highly regarded ancient sites in Sicily, the Greco-Roman theater. Perched atop a hill with fabulous views of the Ionian Sea coastline and Mount Etna, I could see why it is such a popular place to visit.

I loved the steep hills of this lovely town of 10,000+ people, with its winding streets, stairs everywhere, and bright colors.  A lot of thought was put into making it attractive, charming, and welcoming, and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing as much of it as we could during our free time, including a walk around the public gardens.  The walk down to the gardens wasn’t too bad, but the walk back up the steep hill was a good workout!  It was so worth it, though!

The picture on the left was taken two days prior in Siracusa. Bruce’s favorite dog is a Boston Terrier, and we saw, two! The following day, we ran across the same owner with his two dogs in Taormina.

Coming up next: SICILY & AMALFI COAST #20: MAGNIFICENT MOUNT ETNA