Pasta, gelato, red wine, sunshine, and other delights in a town on the Sicilian coastline

Since catching the travel bug, it has been one of my greatest desires to visit Italy. And I couldn’t have asked for a more idyllic experience than to spend Easter in Sicily with my boyfriend and his wonderful family!

It was my first time in Italy (I don’t count a brief transit between Milano airport and train station as experiencing the culture). I had heard countless fabulous anecdotes about delicious Italian food and wine, picturesque architecture, charming chaos, and pleasant weather– and all of it was certainly true!

We stayed a few nights in Taormina, Sicily at a gorgeous hotel overlooking the sea. On my first morning, I woke up and stepped onto our enormous balcony only to be blinded by the radiant white light of this thing called the sun. I felt like I was emerging from months of living in a dark cave, that I had never truly seen the sun until this glorious moment of brightness and warmth.

As we basked in the sunshine, reclining in sun chairs with magazines and sunglasses, it was soon evident that I had grossly underestimated the strength of the Mediterranean sun. I regretted the moment in gloomy Gdansk when I had held a bottle of sunscreen in my hand, considered packing it, then put it back in the drawer thinking, ‘It’s only March, the sun can’t possibly be so strong that I need sunscreen!’ I was both shocked and euphoric to discover that my shoulders and nose had been burned to a mild red by the end of the sunny day.

Some mild culture shock can be expected when traveling to a new country. The hardest thing for me to comprehend was there was absolutely not enough space for anything, anywhere. In Canada, everything is built relatively recently, so the roads were designed to fit large vehicles with plenty of space to breathe. In an older city like Taormina, in contrast, the roads were made for horse-drawn carriages, so it’s a wonder that modern vehicles fit!

On our way to Taormina, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest with panic as our bus teetered around hairpin curves on sloped roads which were so narrow that other cars had to pull over just to let the bus squeeze by. I was convinced the bus– giant in comparison to the skinny strips of road– would topple over the side of the cliff, or at the very least get crushed and scratched by the rocky cliff wall on the opposite side. I scrunched my eyes shut and focused on eating a handful of pecan nuts to prevent myself from crying out, “STOP THE BUS! I CAN’T TAKE IT! I’M GETTING OFF!”

During the rest of our stay, I was continuously astonished by incredible ability of Italians to squeeze their cars into tight spaces. No street was too narrow for an Italian driver to navigate through! Pedestrians pushed their backs flat against the buildings on either side as the car passed by, merely centimeters from the people and walls. I was not surprised to see that most of the cars parked in Taurmina had scratches and dents on the bumper!

Even restaurants were crowded inside, and we had to turn sideways to edge between tables and chairs and reach our seats. Yet, somehow, the lack of space turned out to be just the right amount of space. Buses and cars successfully squeezed through narrow roads, and restaurants felt perfectly spacious and comfortable as soon as we were seated.

And what spectacular food! I would have liked to spend a lifetime in Italy just to enjoy all the food! I tasted it all: Linguini, pizza, capuccino, olives, cannoli, panna cotta, tiramisu, swordfish (a Sicilian specialty), bread dipped in olive oil, and local wines. I enjoyed two scoops of cold and refreshing gelato outside the entrance of an ancient Greek theater. Built about 2300 years ago, this enormous theater was by far one of the oldest structures I have ever seen. It was amazing to imagine that thousands of years ago, the Greeks were entertained by watching plays and performances similar to the way we still do today.

The town of Taormina was so beautiful and full of character that it left me speechless. It was to picturesque to be real! It felt like it was somehow staged, like a clever entrepreneur had built a facade on the architecture and hired actors to mill about the town and speak rapidly and passionately in Italian. Even at night, the warm night air was cozy and welcoming, and the streets were still alive with locals and tourists enjoying dinner or a glass of red wine. It was absolutely magical to walk through town, both in the sunshine and the moonlight.

On the whole, my experience in Sicily was sublime. Taormina was a charming town to visit, made perfect by warm weather and lovely company!