We reluctantly depart the Relais Santa Anastasia, truly the most lovely place we’ve been on this trip.
Douglas tells us how along this rough coast came Patton over the difficult terrain. Twice they had to go onto landing craft and go around some rugged mountains. This part was profiled in the Patton movie. Quite a few American films have been made here, The Godfather films, Patton, and Italian films Il Postino, Cinema Paradiso, and The Leopard.
We hear the story of Odysseus and the Aeolian winds, he consults the oracle at Gibraltar, which tells him to go back south, pass some islands with women singing, the Sirens, off the coast, he is tied to the mast while he has plugged his men’s ears. Then come the straits of Messina, where Italy is only 2 miles away. Here were Scylla and Charibdus, who would eat 6 men from each passing ship. Charibdus was a daughter of Pioeidon, and Scylla was a woman turned into a monster for some transgression. In the distance we see the harbor and the straits.
There was a large earthquake in Messina 1908, more than 200,000 people were killed, and the whole town has been rebuilt, mostly modern although the cathedral was rebuilt with old blocks of stone. Messina is by the sea, Sicily’s third largest city. We enjoy seeing various vistas of the sea. Douglas talks about the River Acis, named for the shepherd who loved the nymph Galatea. The Cyclops Polyphemus spent his time writing love poems to Galatea, who ignored him (this is a milder version of the Cyclops who dealt with Odysseus). After Acis was killed by Polyphemus, he was turned into the river, which was fed by Mt. Etna. Nowadays the river does not run full time.
We see Taormina in the distance, atop a hill is the old section, down below is the newer resort-like section but the beach here is very pebbly and swim sandals are needed. We are going to stay in the old town, many of the hotels are built vertically into the rock. It is indeed very vertical.
We check into our hotel, which has a beautiful view of the Taormina coast and the sea. We go up to the Greek Theater, we see the peninsula where Osysseus stayed for a while, he was told not to eat or touch anything here because it was sacred, after being becalmed for a month the sailors were starving, while Osysseus slept his men butchered a cow, he woke up to the cooking smell, ran to the ship, held onto the mast while Charibdus tried to kill him, but he managed to get away, going next to Malta.
In 735 BCE the first Greek colony was settled here. It was never large but there were subcolonies. They were bullied by people like Dionysius, twice. Eventually it became a modest Roman town, although the Romans changed the theater, because they had both bricks and concrete. The Greeks always built their theatres as high as possible a view of nature in the background, the Romans built a huge background area which blocked most of the view. The Romans used concrete that took two tyars to set, so it has lasted forever. This was an Eastern style theatre with columns. The town later became a stop from Messina to Catania , just a place with a lovely ruined theatre. Frederick used it for a big diplomatic meeting. It is quite spectacular.
In the 1800s this became part of the Grand Tour, with romantic Greek Theatre and a great view and Mt. Etna in the background. We see the misting of Mt. Etna in the background as it always doing. Many English poets and writers came here to write about it. Then the painters came here which began to make it famous. Gelling did a painting of Mt. Etna in the winter with snow on Mt. Etna and the blooming almond trees and the Greek ruins. He made it famous and soon lots of painters camec ere. Soon after hotels came, by the end of the 19th century Europeanaristocrats came, including the English royal family. After Oscar Wilde was convicted of sodomy, he left for here, as did many gay Englishmen, and it became a gathering place. It remained popular between the wars and grand hotels arrived. After WWII the next generation came and it became famous for being famous. Finally the Americans came, and the Europeans went to Cannes.
Up on a hill above is a small town called Remola, where the Greeks retreated during attack, and there is also an Arab fort. The town of Taormina is spread out before us, there are almost 80 hotels amid innumerable tourist shops. The Germans had their headquarters here in one of the grandest hotels during the war. Many films were made here, Mighty Aphrodite, the three Godfather movies were shot at the train station here. On the way out we go by the Grand Hotel Timeo, a historic and exclusive hotel, where Truman Capote wrote most of InCold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Tennessee Williams wrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and more.
Finished with our tour, we wander a bit. At one shop we buy a pretty olive tree tea towel that Barney likes, and we meet a woman from the Boston area whose uncle was an archaeologist who ran the Corinth dig for many years. We find a nice little place for lunch, Barney has a pizza with black olives and anchovies, and I had the antipasto plate, with salami, mortadella, two local cheeses, sun dried tomatoes, marinated mushrooms, and very thinly sliced eggplant. Barney has a local Mt. Etna beer, from Birrificio dell’ Etna, called Polyphemus, a dark beer made with must of the nerello mascalese grape, which is delicious. It is nice to llinger over lunch and relax in the shade.
We walk over to the large city garden and find a shady spot, and see a few of our travel group were there as well. it is still quite warm so the shade feels good. Finally we head back to the hotel and do a last bit of laundry and take a rest. At 7:30 we Gate for our farewell dinner in town, and we walk a ways from archway to archway along the Main Street, bustling with tourists.the restaurant is a bit loud d it is hard to hear 5he other end of the table, but the white wine is good and the swordfish rolls involving are very nice.
Headed back, some of us decide to hang out in the bar area for a while. Barney went back and got the small bottle of limoncello and we all chatted a bit, sipping our plastic cups. It was a very nice ending to the evening, and indeed to our trip, as tomorrow morning everyone peels off for different places at different times. What a wonderful trip this has been - greta leadership, fascinating people, so much to learn and experience, lovely food and wine, picturesque places to stay, amazing ruin, mosaics, and building to see. Truly the trip of a lifetime.
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