Cefalù - First Impressions & Sicily Food Festival

After spending some days in Catania, we took the train towards Palermo, but with a stopover in Cefalù for some beach vacation, before heading for the next city. And just because my parents were on vacation in Cefalu at the same time, they convinced us to visit Sicily foremost. And we were lucky, that at this time a food festival took place in Cefalu, so we were able to try out delicious, local food and beers. For us it became an italian "beer exchange", as it is called in Germany, which is a beer festival, that takes place every summer in various cities.

But apart from that, the city is the perfect vacation spot with its beautiful cove, a wide range of gastronomic facilities and a great railway connection to explore the region of Palermo.

Taormina - Like a movie set

Since we did a trip from Catania to Taormina by bus, we just had a few hours to explore the city. We would have loved to stay there all night long, because that's our favorite part of the day, but I think the last bus drove back at 10pm.

The city already became a popular tourist spot in the early 19th century with famous visitors such as  Oscar Wilde, Nicholas I of Russia and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and after visiting I know why.

It is just such a beautiful, little city with so many cute shops and photogenic details to discover in all those alleys. And then you have this magical view, you want to look at for hours. It's like the perfect, typical italian town, that you know from the movies and the cities style is definitely comparable to the chic Amalficoast. 

Da wir nach Taormina mit dem Bus von Catania aus gefahren sind, hatten wir wieder einmal nur begrenzt Zeit. Und da wir uns alles immer stundenlang angucken, wie zuvor das antike Theater oder den Stadtgarten, blieben uns für die Stadt selbst nur knapp 2 Stunden. Aber ich kann verstehen, warum sich die Stadt bereits Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts zu einem touristischen Hotspot mit Besuchern wie Oscar Wilde und Goethe entwickelt hat. Sie ist wie der perfekte, typisch italienische Ort, den man aus Filmen kennt und vom Stil und der Atmosphäre vergleichbar mit den Orten der Amalfiküste. Nicht nur die Aussicht ist magisch und man würde sie sich am liebsten stundenlang anschauen, man kann auch so viele Details an jeder Ecke und jedem Haus entdecken, dass selbst die kleinsten Gässchen photogen sind. Man könnte meinen, die Stadt hätte ein Set-Designer entworfen.