If you’ve had enough politics, Taormina’s Villa Comunale is a lovely place to escape from the hustle and bustle of the boutiques, restaurants, and G7 conferences happening throughout town. With its lush plantings and shaded pathways, you’ll feel like you’ve escaped to a different era. There is a reason for that! Villa Comunale was given to the town by English aristocrat and nature conservationist Florence Trevelyan (1852-1907), who once enjoyed bird watching from its cliff tops. Originally designed to be a private a pleasure garden, the Villa Comunale was initially called Hallington Siculo, or Sicilian Hallington; Hallington for Hallington Demesne, the town from which Trevelyan hailed in Northumberland, England and to which she never returned once she settled in Sicily in the early 1880s.