Taormina beaches

The beach at Isola Bella, Taormina. (Photo by Alain Tougas)

The beaches below Taormina, Sicily

The beach at Mazzarò, Taormina. (Photo courtesy of Comune di Taormina.)

Mazzarò Beach

The funivia (cable car) from just outside Taormina's Porta Messina carries you down the steep hillside to the seaside hamlet of Mazzarò.

Mazzarò Beach is a typical Italian pebble beach, ranked with umbrellas and chairs for rent. You can also rent a paddle boat to explore this and neighboring coves, including Isola Bella.

Isola Bella Beach

The beaches of Isola Bella below Taormina. (Photo courtesy of Comune di Taormina.) To the right of Mazzarò, past the Capo Sant'Andrea headland, is the region's prettiest cove, where twin crescents of pebble beach sweep to form a sand spit leading out to the minuscule Isola Bella islet, now protected as a wildlife refuge by the WWF and UNESCO (tel. +39-0942-628-738; open daily 9am to one hour before sunset; adm).

You can walk to the tiny Isola Bella bay in a minute from the bottom of the funivia, but it's more fun to paddle a boat from Mazzarò around Capo Sant'Andrea, which hides a few grottoes with excellent light effects on the seaward side.

Spisone and Letojanni Beaches

The beach at Letoianni, Taormina. (Photo by gnuckx) North of Mazzarò are the long, wide beaches of Spisone and Letojanni.

These beaches of tiny, multi-colored pebbles are more developed than Isola Bella or Mazzarò, but considerably less crowded than the biggest beach in the area, Giardini:

Giardini

The beach at Giardini-Naxos, Taormina. (Photo by Itay Travel Experience)

Giardini (sometimes called Giardini-Naxos) is a 20th century beach resort of ten-story hotels running almost uninterrupted along a long stretch of sand south of Isola Bella.

Giardini is by far the biggest beach resort area along this stretch of the Siclian coast—but only meant for those who want an Italian resort town of passable pizzerias and regimented beach umbrellas.

This swathe of package tour modernity lies between the ancient site of Naxos and the Giardini-Naxos train station.

How to get to the beaches

On Via Pirandello just outside the north end of Taormina, between the bus depot and the Porta Messina gate into town, lies the upper station of the funivia (cable car; tel. +39-0942-23-906; www.taorminaservizipubblici), which runs every 15 minutes down to the beaches on the coast just below.

There's also a local bus that leaves Taormina for Mazzarò, Spisone, and Letojanni, and another that heads down the coast to Giardini.

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