Reporting from the OIB satellite office in Taormina Sicily:
For the ultimate escape, fantasy, indulgence, magic carpet ride this Sicilian retreat gorges in rich history. It has everything, perfect weather, euphoric vistas, art, opera, renaissance, ancient Greek theater. The shopping district here makes 5th Avenue look like a miserable mouse.
Taormina played host to season two of White Lotus. If you haven’t seen it the story line is this: what do debaucherous, disgustingly rich couples do on vacation to get in trouble. Most of it was filmed at the Fours Seasons San Domenico Hotel that caters to the ultra wealthy. Madonna and Sharon Stone stay there. It’s like $3K per night.
Plenty of other stays in Taormina within reach without mortgaging the house.
Navigating Taormina is a fun workout loaded with undulations. The closest US city I can think of with its twists and turns in elevations is San Francisco.
When I was a kid I came here and I marveled at the scenery. A modern highway system was not yet in place so when driving the serpentine narrow curves to the mountain you had to lean on the horn to alert the oncoming car. One false move could deliver a swift drop into the Mediterranean Sea.
Taormina is rich in history in so many ways that even influenced the artistic community in America.
Because of it’s beauty the artists gravitated to Taormina, my uncle Giovanni among them who had a voice for the angels and could reach a high C for you opera aficionados. He entertained in minstrel shows for decades. It was a magnet for the gay community, and those beyond Sicily such as young American writer Truman Capote, who were often ridiculed outcasts seeking a place of acceptance and civility.
The shopping district goes on and on.
Italian dictator Mussolini threw in with Germany’s Hitler and Japan’s Hirohito and Tojo to form an alliance for world supremacy. America was reluctant to get into the WW II as France folded to Germany and England was teetering with Churchill at the helm. The tri-alliance changed Dec. 7, 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Overnight no more American pacifists. America was fighting two wars – in Europe and Asia.
It was trying for Italians who had become US citizens. My uncle Armando, born in Italy, did not want to fight his brothers in Europe. He was sent to the Philippines as a medic to treat unspeakable things. Funny thing about uncle Armando who lived to be 95, he flew off the handle on the smallest things, maintained his composure on the big stuff.
(My maternal grandfather Joseph Fusci was also born in Sicily and emigrated to the US, settling first in New Orleans before making his way north to New York, then Bridgeport.)
My dinner view in Taormina, I kid you not.
My uncle Giovanni and my paternal grandfather Leonardo were enlisted men assigned to the mainland of Italy where the fighting was fierce including the brutal battle of Cassino. My uncle had a higher rank than my grandfather so papa saluted his son.
My father Emilio was just under the age of military requirement now the man of the house looking after his mother and three younger siblings
It was terrifying for my Sicilian family. Your home was not your home because military men took it over. First Germans, then Brits and Americans. My father encountered all of them. Though he had no formal education my father had a gift for picking up languages.
As the allied forces made gains ammo installations were targeted in Sicily. Sometimes the bombing missed, hitting civilian enclaves. Many died.
My father and his family coalesced what they could for rations, retreating into the Sicilian mountainside for cover, living off what was a available, my father and grandmother slipping back into small town Mascali to regroup and return. News was slow then.
It’s hard to believe more accessible food options exist than Taormina. If you’re a fish and seafood lover this is the place. Yes, plenty of meat and pasta options as well.It took a while for word to come back but the Italian army was under siege and the repulsed Italian people turned the tables on Mussolini who died at the hands of his own in 1945. A few days later Hitler would have the good sense to kill himself before the same would happen to him.
My uncle Giovanni was prescient. This will not turn out well if they continued to fight. He ordered his men to turn down their arms. Germany was reeling but not enough for German soldiers, once allies, to shove him into a concentration camp in Hamburg. Entertainment became a twisted stew of ridicule to satisfy the German brass. My uncle was forced to dress in drag. He went into the concentration camp a tenor and came out a soprano.
Eventually uncle Giovanni returned to his beloved Taormina, scarred but persevering.
Meanwhile, back in Sicily Patton’s army reached the island with amphibious crafts which made my father’s eyes bulge. He had never seen anything like that. British soldiers as well joined forces and climbed their way into the Taormina mountainside to reclaim the land from Germany.
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Taormina was free and so too Sicily and the rest of Italy. A few years later the Italian people dispatched dictatorship rule for a Republic, a holiday to coincide every June 2. I was here for the recent celebration.
