View from the Theatre at Taormina, 2005

Taormina is a town on the island of Sicily in Italy, and in ancient times was a Greek colony (Tauromenium), dating from about 400 BC, which submitted to Roman authority in 212 BC during the Second Punic War.

Taormina is in the Province of Messina, together with the beautiful Aeolian Islands and the ancient city of Milazzo. It can be reached via highways (autostradas) from Messina to the North and Catania to the South. Taormina has been a very popular destination with tourists since the 19th century. It has beautiful beaches (accessible via a Funicular) by the Ionian sea, which is remarkably warm and has a high salt content.

Taormina is built on an extremely hilly coast, and is approximately a forty-five minute drive away from Europe's largest active volcano, Mount Etna.

The remains of the teatro greco, the "Greek theatre", are not actually Greek, as the theatre was rebuilt by the Romans in the 2nd century BC on the site of the original theatre. With a diameter of 109 metres (after an expansion in the 2nd century), this theatre is the second largest of its kind in Sicily; it is frequently used for operatic and theatrical performances and for concerts.

In the late 19th century Taormina gained some prominence as the place where Wilhelm von Gloeden worked most of his life as a photographer of predominantly male nudes.

During the early 20th century the town became a colony for expatriate artists, writers, and intellectuals. D H Lawrence stayed here at the Fontana Vecchia from 1920 to 1922, and wrote a number of his poems, novels, short stories, and essays, and a travel book, Sea and Sardinia. The Taormina Film Festival has been held for over fifty years, with international film stars viewing films on a screen erected in the Greek theatre.

Text from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taormina