I returned to Taormina last year for the first time in well over 30 years.
We didn't stay at the Timeo this time, Airbnb having changed all that. Instead, we found a wonderful rooftop apartment with a panoramic view of all the region --the Timeo's gardens below, the Ionian sea down to the right and Etna perfectly framed in the distance.
My first trip to Sicily was in the Spring of 1978, and Etna was then in eruption. At the time, I didn't realize how rare that was. After dark, it looked like the peak of the mountain was ringed in multi-colored neon lights.
I must have been to Taormina a half dozen times in the intervening years, but left to my own devices I can be a pretty lazy tourist, and I never bothered to get any closer to Mount Etna than the hotel terrace. Brenda is a much more dynamic traveler, and we arranged with our airport driver for a day trip up Etna (which of course was not erupting this trip), plus a few hours drive around the surrounding countryside.
Other than Palermo and Taormina, and undoubtedly a few other exceptions, Sicily is filled with towns which give all appearance of being extremely poor and under-animated. Traveling from Taormina to Mount Etna, you go through several of these sleepy communities which time seems to have forgotten.
Zafferano-Etna, at the bottom of the volcano landmark, is more colorful and animated than most. It has a stunning view of the valley below, and undoubtedly attracts a few tourist stopovers, like ourselves, on the way up Etna. But make no mistake about it, Zafferano is not exactly booming. Less than prosperous it may be, but the town church is vast and grand, sumptuous even. Somehow incongruous with the simple wedding party upon which we stumbled.
Brenda and I had just arrived in the main square one morning last Spring when we saw them preparing to climb the church stairway.
Neither bride nor groom was in the first bloom of youth. The bride's hair was Marilyn Monroe-blonde, except at the roots, and it contrasted with her dark Sicilian eyes and eyebrows.
We initially steered clear of the group, because before seeing the bride-to-be, we had somehow assumed it to be a funeral.
The local photographer was posing everyone in pre-ceremony group portraits when we arrived upon the scene. The bride's father was missing one of his front teeth, and he looked ill at ease in his dress suit. When he could bear it no longer, he unbuttoned his shirt collar before going into the church. The groom seemed in a kind of daze, staring at the ground and looking the most uncomfortable of all.
The bride's dress was mainly white, but with peachy overtones and mauve sleeves; the bridesmaids wore nearly identical miniature versions. Bride and bridesmaids wore elaborate make-believe paste necklaces. The mother was in dark burgundy, but the other women were dressed in black. Apparently black is the tradition at Sicilian weddings, which explains why we originally took them for a funeral party.
The bride entered first with her father, and the groom followed immediately after with HIS mother by his side. All to the organ accompaniment of Wagner's Bridal Chorus. We stood in the vestibule, and watched them proceed down the long aisle. As the ceremony began, I suddenly realized that we were about the only "guests." There were not more than a dozen people, not even filling the first two rows.
With the exception of the little bridesmaids, no one seemed at all happy. In fact, most of the principals appeared seriously morose. There was undoubtedly a story there somewhere, but I was never to know what really led up to that moment in the Santa Maria della Provvidenza Church.
I look back at the photos sometimes, and I wonder how their lives are going. Not great, I suspect, but then I could be wrong.
Your input is welcomed: frank.pleasants@libertysurf.fr
CROSS REFERENCING … a look at other postings
Taormina was first featured in "Room Without Bath" from Hotel Musings No. 5, again in "Clementina, Still Lady of the Manor" from Hotel Musings No. 7; lastly in Hotel Musings 12, "The Beginning and the End of Duncan" (to access, click on highlighted title).
