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Taormina
(204 metres) the most celebrated tourist spot in all of Sicily and placed in front of the
gigantic mass of snow covered Etna and dominates a valley studded with innumerable
beautiful panoramas. Founded in 358 B.C. by colonist coming from Naxos it became the
centre of an industrious life for all of antiquity. Conquered by Muslims in 902 A.D. it
flourished again with the Normans and established close relations with Messina, in whose
shadows it existed. Cut off from the route after the construction of the coastal road by
the Bourbons, Taormina began to develop its tourist vacation in the wake of the
descriptions of travellers of the 18th century and arranged ample accomodation intended
for the hospitality for guests following the suppression of the religious guilds in 1866.
In 1868 the Prussian baron Ottone Geleng, after the letter of Italienische Reise by
Goethe, stayed a long
time and portrayed the most suggestive corners of the place in
paintings that he then exhibited in Paris. From that moment Taormina became a centre of an
èlite tourism for the French and Prussians. Following the cholera of 1875, the nobility
of Palermo took refuge in Taormina and built grand villas. In 1874 the first hotel was
built and successively the photos taken by Baron Von Gloeden diffused images of the city
as a site of a Greek Mythical civilization. Through the Corso Umberto that winds between
the Porta Messina and Porta Catania, Taormina is characterised by flights of steps and old
streets and is rich with monuments. To name only a few; the teatro greco, built in the
Hellenistic era and site of innumerable performances and from the Cavea it bestows an
inspiring view of Etna; the Naumachie constitutes one of the most important Roman ruins in
Sicily; Palazzo Corvaja built in the 11 th- 14th century and the Palazzo dei Duchi di S.
Stefano of the mid 13th century, hosts the Fondazione G. Mazzullo.
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the mountains of Taormina there are situated Graniti (350 metres) with its pine forest and
Castelmola (529 metres) dominated by the castle and a valley, on the coast lies Giardini
Naxos. Naxos was founded in 734 B.C. and today remains a vast archeological zone with a
museum. All of the area has had an extraordinary impetus to tourism as a bathing resort.
At a short distance there is la gola del fiume Alcantara, in the district of Motta
Camastra, distinguished by a horrid beauty. Formed by basaltic prisms from many bends and
curves, it's only a few metres wide. It can be visited climbing approximately 150 metres.
Its bed is 80 cm. deep in this zone.
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