If you visit Taormina, Sicily—and with a direct Delta flight from JFK starting on May 23, the trip just became so much easier—you will inevitably find yourself touring the Ancient Greek Theater, just a short uphill walk from the center of town, and a stone’s throw from the Grand Hotel Timeo where you can enjoy a limoncello spritz before, or after.
The Greek Theater in Taormina.
The theater was built by the Greeks in the third century BC for dramatic performances, and to hold 5400 spectators, and was redone by the Romans in the third century AD to accommodate gladiatorial games. Columns within it were repurposed for cathedrals during the Middle Ages. Today you can tour the theater (wear sneakers, its rocky) and throughout the year you can enjoy views of the Calabrian coast and the Ionian Sea, and concerts by the Gipsy Kings and Simple Minds, Aida, Traviata, and Romeo & Juliet. What you will not see is Priyanka Chopra, Viola Davis, and Lisa from Blackpink wearing one of a kind Bulgari jewels, watching a specially commissioned dance piece created by the Royal Ballet’s Sir Wayne McGregor, alongside models in custom gowns by Francesco Murano and jewels from the Bulgari Polychroma High Jewelry Collection.
Viola Davis at the Bulgari Polychroma event.
That singular, by invitation-only evening inside this archaeological wonder was to celebrate the unveiling of this new Bulgari High Jewelry collection, one that showcases over 200 one-of-a-kind jewels and uses 56 different stone varieties. Like Bulgari itself, whose founder was born in Greece and then moved to Rome to establish the company, Taormina and its Ancient Theater fuse both these cultures and civilizations (some of the models wore Bulgari’s signature Monete creations from the Polychroma collection, pieces centered around authentic ancient Greek and Roman coins) making it an especially meaningful location for this year’s High Jewelry event.
To further underscore its commitment to preserving history and heritage, Fondazione Bulgari announced its support of two projects in Sicily: the restoration of a historic fresco at Palazzo Corvaja and a new partnership with the Antonio Salinas Regional Archaeological Museum in Palermo.
A model in a Polychroma design at the Greek Theater.
Editor-in-Chief Stellene Volandes is a jewelry expert, and the author of Jeweler: Masters and Mavericks of Modern Design (Rizzoli).
