East Sicily | Taormina & Ortiga

Ancient Greek Theatre of Taormina

Just an easy 75 min ride north and south of Catania you’ll find Taormina and Ortiga. Once small living, breathing architectural marvels they’ve since become tourist destinations. Despite the proliferation of local branches of top international luxury brands and trinket shops eager to unload useless merchandise they’re still very much worth a visit.

Here’s a brief account of what it’s like to ride up on two wheels.

Ortiga

Ortiga, while technically an island, lies only meters south of Siracusa. The relationship here is analogous to Ragusa and Ibla. Like Ibla, Ortiga is treated as both a part of and separate from its larger adjacent community. Siracusa itself was the home of the Greek mathematician and the original pre-Renaissance man, Archimedes, who lived there in the third century BC.

For our half day outing we chose to take the E45 south from Catania on the way down and secondary roads back.

The E45 autostrada, as I mentioned in our baroque town post, is an easy, modern experience. The highway runs too far inland for a full appreciation of the shoreline, but it does offer glimpses of the sea along the way.

Riding into Siracusa proper is pretty stress-free. Several parking lots close to the two streets connecting Ortiga to the mainland make it equally easy to leave the bike behind while one continues to explore on foot.

But timing does matter. We chose the first lot on the northwest side of the island and found the designated motorcycle area nearly empty when we entered around 10am. Three hours later the lot was completely full with riders waiting for new spots to open.

The island itself is delightful. In late March it was warm and not yet saturated with tourists. Lots of nooks and crannies to explore. The more narrow, the fewer fellow explorers. Walking across the island in any direction takes just minutes. Once at any edge views of the sea await. There’s even a small beach or two.

On the way back, we did hug the coast line a bit closer by taking SS114 instead, but good long stretches of it serve as local access to various industrial zones and loading decks so the experience is mixed. Limited traffic and occasional peaks of the Mediterranean — yes — but this is one of these times where the autostrada outshines the local option. May as well enjoy the quick pretty ride instead.

Taormina

Of all the cities we’ve seen on the island, Taormina is perhaps the most beautifully situated in Sicily. Naxos, the town below at sea level is already quite interesting, but what makes Taormina dramatic are the rocky outcrops rising vertically several hundred meters up from the Ionian Sea. The town’s centro storico sits right on top of them.

As with Ortiga, we took a long half day to visit on two wheels, but picked the same local highway along the coast both ways. Unusually, we rode two-up on the Tenere. Min was still recovering from her Ibla accident and we assumed that the approach could be technically tricky potentially forcing her to put weight on the recovering leg so we chose not to take the risk.

We were not wrong. Coming from the sea around Naxos one needs to tackle a series of very tight switchbacks which come to an end right at the edge of the ZTL regulated centro storico. ZTL is a system of traffic management limiting access to the historic districts throughout Italy to certain types of vehicles and/or specific times of day or week.

Even more so than Ortiga, the heart of Taormina is primarily a walking experience. The two primary parking options are a paid, covered parking lot one turn shy of town entrance at the end of the serpentine and sun exposed designated motorcycle spots right outside of the city gates.

Getting to Taormina from Catania along the local SS114 is a mix of a quickly moving shoreline highway lined with villas and a succession of congested small town centers going about their daily lives. We enjoyed the ride quite a bit especially since we were finally able to exchange our first impressions in real time with Min sitting right behind me, but some may find the small town traffic a bit tedious, especially if selecting the route both ways. Taking the autostrada instead is a valid option. You still get all the views, just not the local flavor.

Taormina is more popular than Ortiga. The town sits only 50km northeast of Etna so tourist tours often combine the two in their offerings. The sheer drama of its location overlooking the Mediterranean from above is impossible to resist, a fact confirmed by the Greeks having chosen to build a ten thousand seat stone theatre on the site over two thousand years ago. The ancient theatre is a MUST-SEE both for its architecture and the expansive views of the seas to the east and the hills and mountains to the west. Truly breathtaking.

Between what’s visible from the Ancient Theatre and the maps showing many twisted roads surrounding Taormina and Castelmola, there’s much to be explored and enjoyed around this area on two wheels. We didn’t have the time for a deeper dive this time around, but I’ve taken note of it for our next visit to Sicily.

Alright, keeping it light this time around. Our next blog entry will take us all the way to Athens.