Taormina and the Greek Theater

We are now out in the Middle of the Atlantic Ocean. In the Mediterranean or even the Caribbean, you could either see land or another ship somewhere. Now we see nothing but water.

The weather is somewhat better so many people are feeling better.

I want to share information on the port in Sicily, which was at Messina. This is located on the Messina Straight, which is just off the toe of Italy.  We visited the village of Taormina, which also has the second largest Theater built by the Greeks in Sicily.

On the way to Taormina, we went along the coast and saw beautiful scenes which matched the weather.

As on all excursions from the ship, the tour guide will hold up some object. In many cases, this is a number that has been assigned to the tour. Here, Drama Queen (granddaughter) holds the sign temporarily as the tour guide is counting to make sure we are all together before proceeding into the village.

The village was unique in that it had three separate town squares connected by a central street, with small streets leading up or down the hill as needed. It was a beautiful village and for the most part vehicles were kept off the central street which was turned over to pedestrians. Here are pictures of the different squares.

It was a nice walk through town as we passed each square and looked into the connecting streets.

Many of the houses and businesses used mosaics for the house number or name of the business.

If you look close at the birds, you will find that they are not real. I had to give them a double take before I realized it.

Of course, merchants were selling their goods.

One of the things I noticed was Father Time by the side of the street trying to earn a living. What is even more interesting, are the two older gentlemen from Taormina just sitting watching the world go by.

The views from the village were breathtaking, either looking up or down.

We even spotted a large sailing ship coming into port.

Beside the village of Taormina, there is an ancient theater here that is still in use. Originally built by the Greeks, it held 11,000 people. As it was remodeled by the Romans, Mussolini, and then current Italians, the theater holds only 5,000 people today. During the summer they have concerts at night with stars like Elton John in concert.

Our first look at the theater was backstage, which doesn’t look like much.

As we went up the ancient stairs, we finally begin to get a feeling for the theater.

We walk to the top and it is amazing.

And then we begin to look past the theater to the mountain that is in front of us. It is Mt Etna and the volcano which is still active.Did the Greeks know how to pick a spot for a theater?

If you look close, you can see the steam that is coming out of the volcano. What an amazing site.