It's Italian for perfect
Brendan O'Connor explains why he returns to the unbeatable resort of Taormina
BAY WATCH: The charming Sicilian destination of Taormina offers unadulterated relaxation by the sea
One of the great things about getting a bit older is that you stop being so hard on yourself. You accept who you are and your limitations. In your 30s there are fewer shoulds in life. Shoulds have ruined more holidays for more people I know than I care to think about. But as you get on in life, you realise that while you should probably explore India by train, and see the Forbidden City and dance by the moonlight in St Petersburg and abseil down the side of K2, you should also enjoy your holidays. And when you work hard and you want to relax on your holidays, a voyage of discovery through some really, really foreign place, which by its nature involves a voyage of discovery through yourself, is not always what you're after.
More and more, I can see the point of going back to places you like, places you know work for you. Sometimes you just want to get into a simple routine, to make that transcendent transition from human doing to human being.
So we went back to Taormina in Sicily. And we will go back there again, too. Those who travel more to the interior, to the allegedly real-er Italy, will probably pooh-pooh our lack of adventurousness, but, you know, Taormina may be picture-postcard perfect, and convenient and easy to negotiate, but what is wrong with that? And if this little resort is good enough for all the chic Italians who holiday there, then it's good enough for me. You would struggle to find a bad meal; it's practically impossible to find a bad beach; to have an unpleasant experience; even to find an ugly corner.
Not that we weren't more adventurous on this trip. Last time we came here there was a heat wave that kept us very much poolside, apart from one organised excursion to volcanic islands that proved hotter again.
This time, having spent a day or two by the pool, we got crazy and adventurous and hit the beaches. Again, the beach situation is almost too perfect to be true. You have two options. You can get in a cable car for three minutes, which brings you from the cliff-top town down to the waterfront, where you have a choice of perfect coves. Or you can simply have the proprietors of various beach clubs collect you in their little mini-buses to bring you up the coast a little bit. It's all foolproof and the more adventurous among you will reckon that those beaches can't be any damned good, seeing as there was no effort involved in finding them. But you'd be wrong.
However, within two days we had settled on the gorgeous cove that was straight across the road from the cable car terminus. The water was perfect for bobbing and swimming and they did the most delicious toasted panino for about two quid at the little shop. Again, you couldn't find a source of stress if you wanted to. There was no crazy driving/fighting/I'm doing the driving and I'm managing not to mess that up, the least you could do is read the map right. Neither was there any going a few miles further to find some mythical perfect beach the Rough Guide said you couldn't miss but which, when you got there, turned out to be full of dirty hippies with no food on sale because commerce is a drag.
And just when you were thinking it couldn't get more perfect, the evening came. We got into a routine, of course. The wife would go inside for a lie down and I'd sit out on our balcony (we stayed in the same hotel as last time, the lovely Monte Tauro, where, by the way, I ate the same breakfast every day) and watch the sun going down on the most perfect ocean view with a bit of music and maybe a book if I was feeling active. And then a shower and dress up a little and off to the passeggiata.
The cobbled medieval streets of Taormina are too perfect as well, with perfect little bars and cafes that you can sit outside watching perfectly turned-out Italians strutting up and down. And just when we thought it couldn't get more perfect Mount Etna erupted and put on a spectacular light show for about three nights. We had the best pizza we'd ever eaten at Vecchia Taormina and the best risottos and pasta everywhere else.
We had been determined this time to break out and explore, our excursions the last time having been limited to a trip to the volcanic Aeolian islands with buses and boats and hot springs all laid on. This time, we took the bus into Catania, the nearest city. I hate to disappoint you, and I was mildly disappointed by this myself, but it too was fairly seamless. A picturesque bus trip brought us to a beautiful old city full of real life, lunch in a perfect authentic restaurant with no menu and seemingly notional bills made up at the end, depending on how happy you looked. We just picked stuff out of our heads that we wanted and he made it and then wrote "20 euros" or something ridiculous like that on the paper tablecloth. We missed the bus we planned to get back but the driver saw us missing it and drove back around the block to get us.
And when we tired of each other we visited our friends who were staying higher up the mountains in the picture-perfect Castelmola, worth it for the hairy taxi drive and the tiny square where absolutely everyone congregated every night and ate thin, crispy pizzas and drank tankards of beer. The friends came down to Taormina a few other evenings, though they were so pleasantly catatonic from Castelmola that they found the laid-back pace of Taormina a bit hectic. We could have all stayed in the same place, but, as I say, you get older and you accept your limitations.
By the end of the week I had a stillness in me I had never really known before. I thought to myself, I could stay here another week. I think it was one of the few thoughts I had that week. In paradise you don't need to think.
GETTING THERE
Sunway (01-2886828; www.sunway.ie) operates a weekly charter service from Dublin to Sicily from May 23 until September 19, 2008. One week's B&B in the four-star Monte Tauro Hotel in Taormina starts from €1,163 per person, including flights, transfers and all taxes and charges. Other Sicily options start from €583.
- Brendan O'Connor
