The venue

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The Conference will take place at Villa Diodoro Hotel




Town of Taormina

The town of Taormina is Sicily’s best known resort and the whole place is devoted to tourism, including high class international tourism. Taormina stands in a unique and picturesque position, the beauty of which has been praised by many famous writers, some of whom, such as Goethe and D. H. Lawrence, lived here and wrote about their love for the place. Although the beach itself is quite small it is very characteristic and situated at the foot of steep perpendicular cliffs. The town itself retains much of its late medieval character and there are outstanding remains of the classical Greek amphitheatre, still used in the summer for film festivals, concerts and the performance of Greek tragedies. The main street is a pedestrian zone and full of fascinating little boutiques and shops, quality restaurants and excellent patisseries and ice-cream parlours, where the famous and traditional almond and pistachio sweets are always freshly available.
Off the main street there are tiny “piazzas”, the local squares and majestic 15th to 19th century palazzi, attractive baroque churches, and narrow streets with delightful splashes of colour on the flower-filled balconies. There are several pleasant walks around the town and in the neighbouring villages, immersed in all kinds of beautiful flowering plants, oleanders and  palms.
There is a wide variety of accommodation, ranging from B&Bs to luxury hotels, and the local people are always friendly and welcoming.    
You can walk almost everywhere in the town and a cable car service takes you down to the beach.

Places of interest
Teatro greco, the ancient Greek Theatre;  Museo Archeologico at Badia Vecchia, the Archaeological Museum with its relics of Roman Taormina; the fine 14th century Palazzo Corvaia, in which there is the tourist information office, decorated with unusual black and with lava inlays; Museo siciliano d’arte e tradizioni popolari, the folklore museum with its wax-works and exhibits of antique Sicilian Carts; in the middle of Corso Umberto I there is a restored 12th century clock tower which you can walk through, Torre dell’orologio; behind the cathedral you can see the impressive former convent of San Domenico, now a luxury hotel. You can finish your walk in the public gardens, Giardino pubblico, beautiful shady gardens financed by a Scotswoman, Florence Trevelyan, who settled in Taormina in 1899; A short walk beyond the easternmost town gate, Porta Messina, takes you down to via Fontana Vecchia and via D. H. Lawrence, to the villa where the English writer lived for three years in the 1920s and, after another steep walk, there are the ruins of the medieval castle from which you can enjoy overwhelming views of both the town and the coastline.