Explorer Taormine

Taormina Castle, also called the Castello di Monte Tauro, stands on the summit of Monte Tauro almost 400 metres above sea level, above the town. Its walls and keep go back to Byzantine and medieval fortifications on the site of the ancient lower acropolis. It belongs to the Naxos Taormina archaeological park, and the view reaches from the Strait of Messina to Etna.

Palazzo Corvaja is a crenellated stone palace on Piazza Vittorio Emanuele in Taormina, built from the late 13th century around an older Norman tower and named after the Corvaja family, who owned it from 1538 to 1945. The Sicilian Parliament met in its hall in the early 15th century; its courtyard stair has reliefs of Adam and Eve, and it houses the tourist office.

The Ancient Theatre of Taormina is a Greek theatre of the third century BC, rebuilt under Roman rule in the second century AD on a slope above the sea. Its cavea, about 107 metres across, seated around 10,000 people, and the brick stage building frames the coast and Mount Etna. The Taormina Film Festival and summer concerts are held here.

Naxos, on the Capo Schisò headland at Giardini Naxos, was regarded in antiquity as the oldest Greek colony in Sicily, founded around 734 BC by settlers from Chalcis and Naxos. The park shows lava-stone walls and gates, streets, sanctuaries and ship sheds, and a museum in a Bourbon-era fort displays finds from the excavations.