Art and History in Taormina

It rained the morning of Sunday March 13, but then cleared for the rest of the day.  However, it was the coldest day of our trip-only 11C.  Everyone kept telling us that this was unusually cold weather for this time of year.  We are enjoying our walks down the main street, Corso Umberto I, as new stores are emerging each day for the upcoming season.  Some have just been closed for the winter and are reopening in time for Easter, others are brand new.  Many stores are being restocked.  We have also noticed an increase in people walking on the Corso.

We needed to drop our recycling waste at a bin the other side of our apartment and saw this small blue door with a sign on one side that said Casa Campobello.

Another small door in Sicily

A detail on the wall- always wise to look up in Sicily

We took this picture looking back at our apartment.  Lovely spring flowers.

Our street

We walked down to Porta Catania and decided to check out the building just beside the gate.

The side of an interesting building which we wanted to investigate

We walked around the back and into a magical sculpture garden.  It turns out the building is the Palazzo Duchi de Santo Stefano, the 14th century palace of the Dukes of Stefano, the De Spuches. It is a masterpiece of Sicilian Gothic architecture with elements of Arab and Norman styles.  The building was sold to the City of Taormina in 1964 by a descendant of the de Spuches.  In 1981, the Fondazione Mazzullo took it over.  It displays the work of Giuseppe Mazzullo, an important sculpture (1913-1988), who lived in Taormina.  His sculptures of lava stone and granite are very beautiful- lots of cubist influence.  We wandered around the garden.

The garden side of the Palazzo

 Works were all placed in the lush garden setting

 On the stairs

                                                                                      Cubist influence

Another view of building with woman in front

This sculpture had a tag- Laura 1977

The views of the sea from the garden were spectacular.

Lovely orange tree and cacti framed view of sea

We then spotted a sculpture with a plaque with a lot of detail.  It turned out to be a sculpture of Anna Achmatova (1889-1966), the Russian poet, done by A. Klykov and dedicated on July 11, 2015.   Achmatova had travelled to Italy in 1912 and then received the "Etna-Taormina" literary award in Taormina in 1964.  She loved Italian poetry and was known as the Grand Duchess of Russian Poetry in Italy.  It was a beautiful sculpture.  There is a large Russian community now in Taormina.  A sculpture of Boris Pasternak was unveiled in Massina at the same time.

Sculpture of Anna Achmatova

Detail

We were so glad that we had decided to walk around the Palazzo and discover the sculpture garden.  We then went through the Catania gate and started our walk down the Corso Umberto I.

                                                                                      Porta Catania

 Ceramic heads are everywhere

We paused at our favourite Piazza- the IX Aprile.  We discovered that one church today houses the Municipal library.

Sant'Agostino- now houses the Municipal Library

We tried to go into the Chiesa San Giuseppe, but is was closed for restoration.  I took a picture of the rococo inside through the glass.

                                                                         Outside of Chiesa San Giuseppe

Rococo inside of church

The Piazza also houses the 17th century Torre dell' Orlogio (clock tower).

                                                                         All around the clocktower

View from Piazza IX Aprile

More ceramic heads

There are many small alleyways and lanes running off the Corso.  One alley leads to the Naumachie, a massive Roman brick wall, dating back to the Imperial age, with 18 arched niches that once supported a huge cistern.  It was only discovered in 1943.  

Naumachie in Taormina

In our travels we have noticed a profusion of ceramic heads with plants in balconies all over the city.  A lot of stores are selling them in various sizes.  A small one would look great on our deck, but would be too difficult to transport.

We saw lots of ceramic heads with plants like hair

Beautiful tiles outside antique store

More Ceramic heads

We stopped for a coffee and a treat at BamBar.  As it was cold out, we went inside.  Very homey. The owner's son waited on us.  There were a lot of pictures of the owner with various celebrities over the years, including Robert Duvall and Michael Douglas.  It was too cold for a granita, but we said we would be back to sit outside when the sun comes back.

                                                                 Owner's son inside of BamBar

Walking back along the Corso Umberto I, we saw a sign pointing up a narrow ally, indicating mosaics from the 2nd century.   We saw a beautifully patterned mosaic floor.

Mosaic floor

View of the mosaics from top of stairs

Mosaics close up- preserved since the 2nd century!

                                                                           The sea- still my favourite view

                                                                 View with Etna in background

We walked back to the apartment and Alonso made a chicken dinner.  Our hosts left us a nice bottle of Sicilian wine, which we are working our way through.