Tag: italy
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Teatro Greco and Latomia del Paradiso, Siracusa
In Siracusa, the Teatro Greco (Greek Theatre) is a major historical and cultural landmark. It overlooks Siracusa and commands a view of the bay and Ortigia. The theatre was first built in the 5th century BC, rebuilt in the 3rd century BC and renovated again in the Roman period. This aerial view of the theatre…
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Siracusa (Ortigia), Sicily, Part 2
This is part 2 of our post on Siracusa (read part 1 here). The city of Siracusa was named as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2006. This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in ancient times, when it was one of the major powers of the Mediterranean world. Piazza Duomo with the Duomo di…
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Siracusa (Ortigia), Sicily, Part 1
Siracusa is one of two cities we stayed for several days on the eastern part of Sicily. Taormina is the other, see our earlier posts about it here and here. The city of Siracusa itself is not very scenic, so we stayed instead on the island of Ortigia (or Ortygia in English) at the southeastern…
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Arancini at Strit Fud, Taormina
This post is about arancini, Sicilian rice balls. The name derives from their shape and color, which is reminiscent of an orange (the Italian word for orange is arancia, and arancina means “little orange”). My Italian colleague told me about it. The first time we saw the arancini was at Catenia airport but we were running…
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La Grotta Azzurra, Taormina, Sicily
Taormina, being a historical tourist attraction, has plenty of restaurants catering to every price point. This was the best dinner of the entire trip, we all agreed, even better than one in the Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo. Ristorante La Grotta Azzurra was recommended to us by our local contact. We even had a business card signed…
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Taormina, Sicily – part 2
Taormina was easily reachable from the regional international airport, Catenia, where we flew in from Geneva. In our last post, we posted photos of views from Taormina, the town being situated high up on the mediterranean coast. Here are some photos of the town itself. The Piazza IX Aprile is spectacular, both for its views of the…