Excellent way to put it.
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Thats too bad! There is alway "“un po di limone, per favore” probably incorrect but it works!
strawberries on tuna just seems gross.
Maybe this place? https://www.tischitoschitaormina.com/
or this? https://osteriarossodivinotaormina.com/?lang=en
Ive never been to Taormina because of the lack of solid recommendations there.
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We weren’t really blown away by the menus of any of the fancier offerings in Taormina. However, we loved the shop at La Bottega del Formaggio (donkey mortadella, Sicilian cheese with citrus, an amazing local pig prosciutto) so much that we ended up just doing takeaway tagliere for dinner both nights we were in town. (They do have a wine bar as well.)
As for lunch, we enjoyed Rosticceria Da Cristina (arancini were great, pasta was serviceable but reasonably priced). Bam Bar was fine for granita but definitely better places around Eastern Sicily. (I was similarly underwhelmed by Caffe Sicilia in Noto.) Our favorites for gelato were Levante, Don Peppinu, and the tackily-named but surprisingly good Gelatomania.
And agreed about hotel bars being amazing – we really enjoyed the Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo terrace overlooking the hillside as well as the Belmond Villa Sant’Andrea down on the water.
Oh, and if you’re a wine fan we loved the shop our AirBnB host ran, La Cantina del Sole. Great local wines and amari, including the most Frank Cornelissen wines I’ve seen in once place. He was in the process of adding a tasting room/bar last year and that may be open by now.
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White Lotus season 2 put me off Taormina… all y’all are redressing the balance
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We had planned a trip to Taormina in 2018 which included a stay at the San Domenico Palace, which at the time may have been in the $400 to $500 a night range? Yes, a splurge, but a somewhat realistic one. We had to cancel that trip for reasons but when we finally made it back there in 2024 the price for a night had ballooned to almost $3,000 per night. And this was in the off-season! Just looked for next weekend and it’s over $4k an evening.
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Right! I called the GH TIMEO in January 2023 for that May. After some back and forth about pricing, they came back with a special “friend” price of UNDER euro2,000 per night…“special pricing,” only for friends!!!
You know what would be worth that? Meekah’s photo of the cat riding alone up and down the cable car!
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I gotta figure out where I stashed all those 50 yr old slides. Ps the cable cars were red at the time. I remember I have another slide of little kids, dressed is cowboy outfits, playing cowboy in a tiny square … in Venice! Love to find that too.
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My eye is now on Vulcano…but I don’t see great reports about the food…
Just took a curious peek at Mazzaro Sea Palace…first glance tells me rooms begin at 3000 euro per night. Or maybe that’s in USD…not much difference there!
https://www.therasiaresort.it/en/index. (???). Anyone here been to Vulcano and, at same time, apologies for traveling way off. topic here…
Beautiful hotel, just priced a week next May, $700 CAD a night for the deluxe room.
I lived in Palo Alto decades ago and was close friends with an outdoor cat, Annie, who roamed the neighborhood in pure delight after moving from Kansas/being rescued as a newborn kitten on the highway in winter. One day I walked by the nearby Jack-in-the-Box, and saw her sitting on the drive-in call box. I was mesmerized watching her jump on the roof of the car after the order was placed, then watched the bemused car driver hand her a few fries after receiving their order. Then she jumped off the car and went back to the call box. Never got a photo.
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There is some great information here, but unfortunately we are heading out tomorrow, going to Ortigia. We have Sunday night unbooked, if you have any suggestions. Or any special spots there for gelato.
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Insane.
Yay! We lucked into a wonderful dinner tonight. We couldn’t find the pizza place we walked by yesterday, but came across a place that looked and smelled great - Pizzeria Hosteria Casa Ciampoli. After sharing the arancini we weren’t really all that hungry, so we had to figure out how we were going to do this. We finally settled on sharing the (sizable) caprese salad to start, and then each get our own pasta. It was wonderful. I did miss the basil on the caprese, but it was still great. Lulu’s pasta was a daily special- tagliatelle with shaved truffles and butter. It was fantastic. I got a pasta with anchovies, capers, pangritatta, and a chili oil, also wonderful, but I think Lulu’s was the best. She took her first bite and started giggling- always a good sign, right? Neither of us had room for dessert, but I would happily eat here again.
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Yay! That pasta looks fabulous. I have a feeling we walked by that place a few times.
But … no basil on the caprese? Odd.
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We made it to Ortigia. Stopped and had a mandarin spritz while waiting for our B&B to open. I love it here so much.
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Oops! The pizza place was in Taormina, not Ortigia 
I def did not walk by there.
Our hotel was just off the piazza you’re sitting on 
Such a beautiful little town 
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This sounds much more up my alley than the now-ubiquitous aperol spritz 
How are the little snacks everywhere on this trip?
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Apropos of nothing, I have really hated that aperol spritz succeeded campari soda as the favored aperitivo up north. tho I never really like THAT so much without a hit of orange juice it was and is still a better drink. Tho the resto we usually have cocktails now serves negronis instead and I like gin in my campari even less than I like aperol. I like fruity drinks like you had much better.
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There are a couple of great cocktail bars in Ortigia. BOATS is more or less a dive bar but it’s also on the pedestrianized street overlooking the Temple of Apollo. Order a drink inside from its fairly amazing menu (it’s a legit magazine) and take it outside like everyone else.
Also, Cortile Verga is in a beautiful palazzo courtyard and has some interesting cocktails (not as good as BOATS) and reasonably priced bottles of Sicilian wines.
Last but not least, get a seltz limone e sale from one of the chioscos in town. I prefer lighter touch on the salt, but it is surprisingly refreshing.
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Seemed like most places offered a Hugo spritz, which is made with sciroppo di sambuco (elderflower) and was a nice floral alternative to the Aperol version. Although more often than not I went for the Cynar version.
