Sicilian cooking in Taormina sits between two pantries, and once you notice that, the menus stop looking random. On one side is the Ionian, so there is seafood. On the other are the slopes of an active volcano, so there…
Archives for August 2026
Where to Stay in Taormina
There is only one decision that matters in Taormina, and it is not which hotel. It is up or down. The old town sits two hundred metres above the sea, the beaches are at the bottom, and a cable car…
A Taormina Itinerary: 2 to 4 Days
Taormina is small, and the mistake people make is treating it as a half day. The town gives up its sights quickly and its character slowly. The theatre takes an hour. The evening takes three days to understand. This itinerary…
The Best Things to Do in Taormina
Taormina is small enough that you can see the headline sights in a day and good enough that you should not. The list below is in the order I would actually do them, which is not the order of importance….
The Greek Theatre in Taormina
The famous thing about the ancient theatre in Taormina is not the theatre. It is the hole in it. The stage wall has fallen, and through the gap where it used to stand solid you get the Ionian sea on…
The Complete Guide to Taormina
Taormina is a small town on a shelf of rock two hundred metres above the Ionian sea, with an active volcano along the coast and a Greek theatre on its edge that frames both. Almost everything that confuses people here…
Matera, and the Town That Was Emptied
I am sleeping in a room that somebody was made to leave. Not this room exactly. I have no idea who was in this one, and nobody offered to tell me, and I did not ask because I could not…
Getting to Matera and Around Basilicata
Matera is the one Italian town where the transport advice genuinely matters, because the obvious assumption is wrong. There is no Trenitalia service to Matera. The national rail network does not reach it. People book a through ticket, arrive at…
The Rupestrian Churches of Matera
There are more than a hundred and fifty churches cut into the rock in and around Matera, and the word for them is rupestrian, meaning simply of the rock. They are not churches built of stone. They are churches removed…
The Belvedere and the Murgia Park
The best thing to do in Matera is to leave it and look back. The town cannot be seen from inside itself. Standing in the Sassi you are too close and too low, and the famous stacked shape simply does…
The Best Time to Visit Matera
Matera is a town of bare pale stone, built in tiers, with almost no shade and a great many steps. Every seasonal decision here follows from that one sentence. It is why spring and early autumn are so obviously the…
The Best Photo Spots in Matera
Matera has one problem as a subject, and knowing it in advance is most of the job: the town cannot be photographed from inside itself. Stand anywhere in the Sassi and you are too close and too low. What you…
