Isola Bella – or Ìsula Bedda, in the Sicilian language – is aptly named…
The ‘Beautiful Island’ of Taormina isn’t the only place of this name in Italy. There is a perhaps more famous one on Lake Maggiore, but it is the only one in Sicily.
It lies off the coast of Taormina and is home to various rare birds and lizards. It first became the property of the city in 1809, but was sold to an English conservationist, Florence Trevelyan, in 1890. It didn’t come back under state control until it came up for auction in 1990. It is now an officially protected natural site.