Morgana

About this place Morgana

Morgana is one of those rare bars that exists in a category of its own. Located on Vicolo de Vigo — a narrow medieval lane off Taormina's main corso — the bar occupies a terrace that hangs over the Ionian Sea with views extending on clear days to the Calabrian coast. It is a tiny space by any objective measure: a bar, a terrace and no more. But the combination of location, history and atmosphere makes it something far larger. Morgana has been welcoming gay visitors since the 1970s, accumulating a clientele that has included Italian and international gay luminaries across five decades of Taormina summers. The bar appears in travel writing going back to the 1980s. The décor — antique tiles, Sicilian ceramics, candles and clustered tables on the terrace — is theatrical in exactly the Sicilian way: beautiful, slightly operatic, entirely functional. Drinks are cocktail-focused and not cheap. The view is worth any price. Open from late afternoon through the night in summer; reduced hours in spring and autumn; effectively closed in winter.