The Baia delle Sirene — the Bay of the Sirens — is the crescent of water immediately north of Isola Bella, tucked under the headland where the cliffs below Taormina begin to break up into rock and pine. It is one of those places whose name is doing some work: sirens, in Homer, are what you find on a coast beautiful enough to make sailors forget where they were going.
Standing on the road above it, you can see why somebody made the connection. From the water, it is even more obvious.
Where the Bay of the Sirens actually is
The bay lies between Isola Bella and Capo Sant’Andrea, on the short stretch of coast that connects Mazzarò to the reserve. Above it sits the promontory that gives the whole area its shape; below, the seabed shelves from pebble into a clear, cold blue very quickly.
The name is used loosely by locals for the small bay and the headland together, so if you ask three people where the Baia delle Sirene starts and stops, you may get three answers. What everyone agrees on is the water, which stays remarkably clear even in August, when the more sheltered bays start to feel like bathwater.
What makes it worth the detour
Three things, mostly.
The rock. The headland is riddled with fissures, overhangs and small caves at the waterline. Approach it slowly and you can see where the sea has been working on the limestone for a very long time, undercutting it into shelves where fish gather in the shade.
The colour. Because the bottom alternates between pale rock, sand and deep-water shadow, the bay reads as three or four different blues at once, and the boundaries between them move as the sun does. Around midday it is at its most dramatic; late in the afternoon it softens into something greener and more peaceful.
The quiet. Relative quiet, at least. The bay has no easy road access of its own, which keeps the crowds thinner than at Isola Bella a few hundred metres south. Most of what you hear is water against stone.
Seeing it from a boat
This is a bay built for arriving by sea. From land you get a view of it; from the water you get inside it — close to the rock face, into the shadow of the overhangs, over the patches where the bottom comes up pale and you can count the fish beneath the hull.
Our coastal excursions pass this way as a matter of course, because it sits on the natural line between the Blue Grotto, Isola Bella and the coves further round towards Capo Sant’Andrea. On a calm morning the engine comes down to nothing and the boat drifts, which is when people generally stop talking. There is usually a swim stop here or just beyond it, depending on where the wind is coming from that day.
If you are snorkelling, work the edges rather than the middle. The interesting life is where the rock meets the sand — wrasse, damselfish, the occasional octopus doing an unconvincing impression of a stone.
When to go
- Early morning for glassy water and the best visibility for snorkelling.
- Midday for the strongest colour, when the light drops straight into the bay.
- Late afternoon for shade under the headland and a gentler, warmer light on the cliffs.
- Avoid days with a strong easterly, when the swell rolls straight in and the bay loses its clarity.
Can you reach the Baia delle Sirene without a boat?
You can get to the shoreline near it on foot from Mazzarò and the Isola Bella area, but the bay’s best corners — the overhangs, the small caves, the deeper water off the headland — are only really accessible from the sea.
Is the water good for swimming?
Very. It is clear, it deepens quickly, and in high summer it is warm enough to stay in for a long time. As anywhere on this coast, it is pebble and rock rather than sand underfoot, so water shoes make life easier.
How do you visit it by boat from Taormina?
It falls on the standard coastal route from the Taormina and Giardini Naxos area, so any excursion along the cliffs will take it in. If you want to build a morning around it — the bay, the caves and a long swim — the crew can plan that: see the reservations page, or message +39 342 110 9242 on WhatsApp with your dates and we will tell you when the light and the sea are likely to be at their best. You can also see the rest of what we run along this coast on the Taormina Boat Service site.
