More Exploration

Wednesday March 16 was another very cloudy day with periods of light drizzle.  About 12C.  No sun today.  We decided to check out the weekly Wednesday market located up the hill toward Castelmola (the hilltop village above Taormina on Mount Tauro).

View up the hill to Castelmola

We passed a small truck with only artichokes.  We later bought two- only 1 euro for both.  We had been told that the trucks with only one agricultural product often had the best quality and lowest prices.

Artichoke truck near outdoor market

Flower seller 

Few of apartments on the hill

The weekly market was small-mostly clothes and household goods.  Of course, it started to drizzle.

Weekly market

We had been contemplating walking up to Castelmola, but it was another 2.5 km uphill and it had started to rain.  We walked along Via Circonvallazione, which is parallel to Corso Umberto I, but up a steep hill.  We saw the back of the building we had always admired from just outside our apartment.  It turned out to be Badia Vecchia (Old Abbey) that houses the archaeological museum, which was closed.  The Badia Vecchia is a 14th century Gothic building.  It looks a lot like the Palazzo Duchi di Santa Stefano, which has the sculpture garden we visited on Sunday.

View of building from our street (picture taken later near our apartment)

Upper view of other side of building

Around the side of Badia Vecchia

Beautiful tree 

We passed another plaque on the Taormina Culture route.  It was a house and studio that an Italian painter, Corrado Cagli had lived in.  Cagli was born in 1910, and was part of the Roman School, a group of artists in the 1930s.  He was Jewish and left Italy in 1938, first going to Paris and then New York where he lived from 1939-48. He fought in the US Army.  He returned to Italy in 1948 and spend time in Taormina.  He died in Rome in 1976.

The Taormina Cult map- red square indicates location

Plaque about Corrado Cagli (this one was a bit defaced)

There were some lovely places along the way with plants and flowers among the old stones.

Vegetation is very lush this time of year

View of the sea

View of the Greek Theatre

We headed back down to a street near Porta Messina, where Pasticceria D'Amore, a Cannoleria and Gelateria is located.  It is considered one of the top patisseries in Taormina.  It is a small place and one can see into the kitchen, where the bakers were roasting and then blending pistachios.  Very neat.  We got a few treats to take home.  Almonds and pistachios are found in almost every sweet.

The kitchen At Pasticceria D'Amore

Treats

Roasted pistachios on the left- being blended on the right

We wandered up the Corso Umberto I.  There are a number of ceramic shops- many with the ceramic heads we have seen on people's balconies.  Most of the ceramics are made in Caltagirone, the first centre of majolica production established by North Africans in Sicily.  While the choice is overwhelming, there are some lovely pieces.

Inside a ceramic shop-- the heads are amazing

We headed back to the apartment.  Up an alley was an I love Taormina sign.

I love Taormina

Two more whimsical ceramic heads near our apartment

We had a short rest at the apartment and then went out for our early evening walk.  We went to our favourite cheese shop and then stopped at "Etnapeople" a travel company who lead small group excursions to Mount Etna.  There was another couple from England who were also looking into the excursions.  At this time of year, the weather is key as to whether one can go.  Right now there is snow on the volcano.  The tour company provides jackets, boots and snow shoes.  The woman at the tour company will let us know if we are able to go either on Sunday or Monday.

We passed a very colourful door with adjoining wall decorations.

Sicily symbol on the right; cat sweeping lower right

We headed back to the apartment for a delicious meal of leftovers from our cooking class yesterday.