In Taormina for the Film Festival and the Palazzo Vecchio

Taormina has always attracted film stars. Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn and Richard Burton before. Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Colin Firth in more recent years. So, during these days when the 72nd edition of the Film Festival takes place (until 14 June), you can attend screenings inside the magnificent Teatro Antico overlooking the sea and Mount Etna and maybe bump into the stars of the big screen - Helen Mirren, Jane Campion are invited - strolling along Corso Umberto I, entering the Church of San Giuseppe or the Duomo. Maybe you can even meet them at the Blue Sky Bar in Palazzo Vecchio: this hotel housed in an eclectic 19th-century residence where the mullioned windows, arches and medieval vaults blend harmoniously with the contemporary interior design of the panoramic rooms and the botanical style of the colonial Orangerie for the enthusiastic admirers of chef Giuseppe Privitera at Ristorante Monsù, has set up a dizzying location for aperitifs. Going up in the glass-walled lift, one enjoys a magnificent view of the Pearl of the Ionian Sea and then, sitting on the blue-tinged lounges leaning against the turret, one enjoys cocktails inspired also by the surrounding landscape that embraces Etna from the smoking white plume to the roaring silhouette of Castelmola. Even the bar inside the Grand Hotel Timeo, the flagship of the Belmond brand, is no joke when it comes to the view over the bay of Giardini Naxos. And then you can order the red prawn carpaccio from Mazara del Vallo or dare a plateau of Oysters Gillardeau. It seems that D.H. Lawrence, Oscar Wilde and especially Truman Capote, the cultured and excellent guests of this hotel nestled beneath the scene of the Ancient Theatre, were fond of it. That epic is recounted at Casa Cuseni, home of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Grand Tour of the City of Taormina, surrounded by an extraordinary garden.