Taking Taormina

The city of Taormina is an undeniably beautiful one. In experiencing the city and comparing it to Florence, it is easy to see that Taormina is equally as focused on its history and creation. Taormina, however, has a hugely different founding history than does Florence. Taormina is a much more Greek influenced city and was resilient to the renaissance. It is also borderline obsessed, as it should be, with Mt. Etna as it is so close to the city. Water life is obviously also a huge part of the city, as it sits on the coast. As a tourist for a week, we saw the bright beauty of Taormina -- the views, the gardens, the oceans, the food. As with Florence, however, I am sure there is a negative dark side to it. As we wandered, it was easy to see and appreciate the beauty, but it was also easy to see and notice how many dark corners and sometimes shady people there were throughout the city. 

The city itself had an entirely different feel than Florence does. Florence is obviously full of rich history and beauty, but Taormina's is of a different kind. The buildings aren't nearly as tall, allowing for much more natural light in all the walkways. The food is very comparable by some aspects, but entirely different by others. It seemed that they were much more focused (if that's possible) on social experiences than Florentines are. Our home stay dinner, for example, was an extremely slow paced, conversational based experience. It is easy for me to say, however, that in all of the places I've visited in Europe, Toarmina tops the list of favorites.