Taormina in Miniature
As Sicily's first resort Taormina boasts elegance and style and has been welcoming visitors for centuries. The town draped with bright coloured bougainvillea and geraniums offers breathtaking views, an Ancient Greek theatre and cafés and terraces overlooking the sparkling Ionian Sea with a smoking Mount Etna in the distance.
The choice of hotels, restaurants, shops and manicured gardens makes it Sicily's most popular destination. Below Taormina are tempting beaches, grottoes, coves and the tiny Isola Bella attached to the coast by a strip of sand.
One of the most iconic locations in Taormina is Piazza IX Aprile.
The square opens out of the main pedestrianised street Corso Umberto which runs from the medieval arches of Porta Catania and Porta Messina and is the main focus of social gathering in town. It is a perfect observation point looking out over the balustrade which boasts views of the Ionian Sea, the Bay of Naxos and the unmistakable view of Mount Etna.
Elegant open air bars entice you to enjoy a morning coffee or granita, a glass of wine or beer for lunch, an apertivo before dinner and then maybe an after dinner cocktail.
High above in the hillside a Saracen Castle and the Sanctuary of Madonna Della Rocca marked by a white cross that overlooks and surveys the square below.
In the square you will see the Torre dell’Orologio which is a medieval clock tower that separates Taormina from its classical and Hellenistic history, the Church of San Giuseppe with its beautiful baroque facade and the Church of Sant’ Agostino with its splendid rose window which now houses the town library.
Piazza Aprile IX is certainly a place to be seen and people watch.
Taormina is well known for its ‘vicoli’, a maze of medieval alleys and staircases that lead up and down from Corso Umberto.
In July this year an extraordinary miniature reconstruction of the square and its surroundings, unique in size and detail, went on exhibition at the Ex-Chiesa del Carmine, an ex church located close to Porta Catania, which is the work of Taormina artist Gino Castorina.
Since he was a teenager Gino has shown his great artistic talent in both drawing and music. Over the years, although he has never attended art school, he has improved his graphic technique by exploring the use of colours on varied materials. Painting on convex surfaces inspired his imagination and he began to explore the possibilities of a different project incorporating figures in spaces. This led him to the idea of a three dimensional painting for a reconstruction in miniature of Taormina and in particular Piazza Aprile IX.
Gino’s first work in miniature was set in a wooden casket depicting the nativity in the Ancient Greek Theatre of Taormina, with Mount Etna erupting in the background and a view of the bay of Giardini Naxos. The second miniature reproduced one of Taormina’s characteristic alleys in a glass case. These works of art allowed him to participate in an Italian TV program called “Buona Domenica” which inspired him to launch his project creating a museum of miniatures and he chose his hometown of Taormina.
Work on the miniature town took 11 years of craftsmanship, 10,000 working hours, 700 LED and micro lamps, 850 meters of electric cable, 350 metres of polystyrene, plus he used 5000 photos of buildings, furnishing and decor to recreate an exact replica. He also created 200 characters of tourists and local people.
In his own words Gino describes his passion for his project:
"With infinite passion, I wanted to tell one of the representative places of Taormina through the meticulous reconstruction of the monuments, ancient buildings and activities that surround the main square of the city, Piazza IX Aprile. The faithful reproduction in 1/22 scale of what for the inhabitants of Taormina is simply Piazza S. Agostino, required a careful study of the materials and the use of assembly techniques capable of restoring the most complete visual perception of the site. Since "beauty is in the details" nothing has been left to chance in reconstructing the individual parts of each building, stairway, paving: balsa wood, walnut strips, copper and brass filaments innervate for tens of meters a structure modelled in polystyrene according to precise design schemes, where quartz powder and acrylic pigments give the plasters chromatic shades that narrate the slow passage of time. I paid particular attention to the realization of the lighting system, using micro incandescent lamps and adjustable intensity LEDs, to reproduce the effect of sunlight, simulating in a realistic way the different phases of the day, from dawn to dusk."
Gino's passion follows in the footsteps of his father who was a well known photographer that inspired him with his own miniature constructions of Taormina's famous buildings. Some of which can be seen at the exhibition along with his black and white photos of the town from days gone by.
I had the pleasure of meeting Gino at his Taormina in Miniature exhibition with my friend Isabella.
As we arrived at the Ex-Chiesa Carmine the exhibition is so realistic it blew us away, the attention to detail and craftmanship is incredible in detail. In fact after showing several people my photos of the exhibition they actually thought they were photos of the real life Pizza Aprile IX. The buildings are complete replicas along with tiny decorative details and the terracotta tiled roofs. The cobbled floors of Corso Umberto and the alleyways that lead off of there are exact. The characters are tourists walking and enjoying drinks in the bars and cafes. There is a Sicilian folk band and a bride and groom arriving at the Church of San Giuseppe in a horse and carriage with the priest looking on. Local characters to look out for are Taormina's Mayor, the owner of Ristorante La Baronessa, who is enjoying the view whilst sitting on the restaurants balcony, and Gino himself who is playing the piano in the Mocambo bar. Did I mention he is a superb pianist as well? Hotels to look out for are The Metropole and the Hotel Vello D’Oro. The famous Wunderbar Cafe bustles with elite clientele following in the footsteps of names such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
The miniature Taormina comes alive with its lighting from dawn to dusk and as Gino switched off the lighting in the church and turned on his night lights the exhibition turned into a fairy tale town with the background lit with sparkling stars and the windows of the buildings lit up, with the street lamps glowing, which made myself and Isabella "ooh" and "ahhh" like small children.
The exhibition is for all ages to enjoy from young children through to the older generation.
So what is next for the exhibiton?
Gino hopes to extend the miniature town to create a whole complete Taormina town in miniature and dreams that it can be housed somewhere as a permanent exhibition for everyone to enjoy all year round.
Taormina in Miniature is on display until at least the end of December 2022
Follow Gino on Instagram for behind the scenes of the exhibition and see how he built Taormina in Miniature
www.instagram.com/ginocastorina_taorminamini
A big thank you to Isabella Randazzo of Weddings in Sicily Taormina for introducing me to Gino
Now enjoy my photos of the exhibition:
