Next year, Italy will introduce a flurry of new train routes, especially for tourists.
21.07.2023 - 08:09 / roughguides.com / Kiki Deere
Where is world's only penis café? Outside the progressive town of Taormina in Sicily, of course. Join Rough Guides writer Kiki Deere as she finds some phallic fun in southern Italy. The information in this article is taken from The Rough Guide to Italy your essential guide for visiting Italy.
My long hair brushes against an erect penis. I grab the bannister and my hand firmly grips a dark phallus. Excited male members line a windowsill.
Others pop out of corners. There's even a large one on the balcony. First thoughts? I'm on the set of a porn film? Perhaps visiting a female brothel?
Wrong. I am in Turrisi and visiting Sicily's penis café.
The penis café which first opened in Castelmola in 1947
I eagerly open the café menu, predictably penis shaped, and the first image is a courgette with two tomatoes.
A group of middle-aged ladies giggle nearby. The source of mirth is a large penis on their table. Their husbands shift uncomfortably in their seats, not knowing where to look.
But if the penis café sounds vulgar, I'm about to discover it's not that simple.
Phallic lamp handcrafted by Sicilian artisans
Massimo is the the third generation owner and keen to fill me in on the history.
«The café was opened in 1947 by my grandfather» he says. «It wasn't then as it is now, it was more like a post-war bazaar. A souvenir shop and café where customers came to drink almond wine. That's the traditional drink here. This area of Sicily was once a winery for the Greeks. And wine was sweetened with almonds before transporting.»
I sip my own almond drink, which nowadays is mostly white wine.
"Taormina was progressive in the mid-1800s', Massimo goes on. "Sicily in general was progressive. More so than the rest of Italy and perhaps even Europe".
Indeed. Poets, writers, painters and actors came to Sicily for its natural beauty. They loved the Mediterranean and fell for the Greek ruins and Mount Etna.
So Taormina became a magnet for 19th century artists wanting peace and seeking inspiration.
Massimo explains. «Painters looked back back to the Hellenistic period and saw nudes. Many of which were created in Castelmola. Photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden, set his nudes of young boys here. And so bohemian attitudes and sexual openness became a way of life. That's what my grandfather wanted to reflect in his café.»
A statue on display at the penis café Sicily
This must have been a liberal corner of Italy as I couldn't see my Italian grandmother here, calmly sipping coffee in the 1950's, surrounded by assorted phalli.
Massimo's family commissioned all the café's pieces which were created by Sicilian artisans. What's on display is part of a larger collection that remains behind closed doors.
«Valuable objects are best not displayed,»
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