Taormina hotels collection

At the theatre in Taormina, the stage wall has partly collapsed, and Etna has taken its place at the back of the set. The Greeks chose the site; the Romans rebuilt the whole in brick. The Palazzo Corvaja alternates black lava and pale stone across its façade. An Englishwoman, Florence Trevelyan, laid out the public gardens and raised pavilions of brick and wood in them, before buying Isola Bella, tied to the shore by a thin bar of sand and pebbles. In the morning, the sun comes up out of the Ionian Sea and touches the summit of the volcano first, still white in April.