Eureka!

The age of the internet and search engines has meant the disappearance of some of VJV’s more distinctive titles, such as ‘Queen Victoria on a Donkey’, ‘Carthago Delenda Est’ and ‘The Cormorant Fisherman’, which were designed to catch the interest of our readers. However we still endeavour to come up with the occasional unusual title and when looking for inspiration for our Sicily winter sojourn, we had a true ‘Eureka’ moment when recollecting that Syracuse was the home town of Archimedes, who reputedly leapt from his bath exclaiming ‘Eureka’ when the displacement of water helped to solve the king’s request to calculate the gold content of his crown.

Although little remains standing of the one-time capital of ‘Magna Graecia’, Syracuse’s archaeological site and museum are both evocative and instructive, especially at a time of year when the ‘tourist crowds are away’.The final goal of the ‘Grand Tour’ was originally Naples until the 19th century when Philipp Hackert’s paintings of ‘Ports of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies’ inspired travel to Sicily and Mount Etna. Taormina, where our choices of hotels are located, is an immensely picturesque resort which enjoys a mild climate during the quieter winter season. It also benefits from a scenically captivating coastline and an excellent position overlooking the sea on the slopes of Mount Tauro with attractive narrow streets and a dramatically situated Greco-Roman theatre.