Summer arrives

As I write this in Polizzi this morning the mist swirling earlier in the narrow streets had lifted for a while and patches of blue sky had started to appear. And now as I finish the mist has rolled back in. It is wonderfully cool for the first week of  summer.

Earlier this week, Sunday and Monday, when I strolled  Taormina’s via Corso Umberto all the signs of a Sicilian summer in that fabled resort town were unmistakable: it was getting hotter, the oleanders were in full bloom, street sellers were hawking their wares, balloons floated and artists were ready to sketch portraits of anyone willing to sit for a while.

And hatted tourists were dressed in shorts and sandals with cameras ready to remember Taormina in the summer, maps were read and relaxed tourists were enjoying the freedom that a resort town affords; browsing souvenir and pottery shops, eating gelato in cones and granita in brioches and just wandering along.

Ice cream and breezes

A young woman, in an orange hat with green polka dots, passed me near Porta Messina as a couple enjoyed ice creams on the side of the porta which leads the way north to Messina.

And a row of first floor perfectly balanced balconies, seen down the street, were empty.

A cool breeze moved down the corso, near the glittering Byzantine Madonna just before the main piazza, Piazza IX Aprile; the breeze was welcomed and a woman opened her arms wide.

A book, earrings and a cool drink

I picked up a book on Sicilian beaches, noticed a bare chested man on a first floor balcony, his head draped in a flowing white cloth (an image reminiscent of Sicily’s glorious Arab past) and slowly wandered.

And, in a shop near the town’s Duomo I chose a pair of earrings decorated with vibrant images of oranges. They were made by an artist from Catania.

I sat at a second row table at Bar Mocambo on the main piazza to enjoy a cool drink: a chinotto and Moretti Sicilian beer, a beer with hints of zagara (orange blossom) was enjoyed by my travelling companion. 

I noticed the sign for a display in the town library building across the piazza. It was an exhibition all about the Sicilian cart, I went in. (I will write about this riot of colour and art in a later blog)

A balcony to the sea

Tourists enjoyed taking photos of the view to the sea, the towns along the Ionian coast and the slopes of Mount Etna from the huge balcony of Piazza Aprile and also looking at a display of  classic Vespas lined up.

And, the night time view just glittered.

A group of four foreigners were enjoying cappuccinos at Wunderbar, a bar on Piazza Aprile, it was near 2 in the  afternoon but, Taormina is after all a resort town and in the summer anything goes.

To see the more 'hidden’ Taormina return in the winter or slip down a back street to find the odd unoccupied lovely old house with doors locked and balconies still filled with old pots or enter the quiet of one of the churches and view some lovely art.

Salve

Suzanne