La Capinera In Taormina

19/04/2026: A quick reflection: I've been frequenting Taormina since I was 14, when, penniless and a little envious, I would spy on the "grown-ups" sitting at the Mokambo café, which wasn't your average bar but a mandatory stop, not for everyone, to start the evening. Playboys and dandies would set the already sultry summer evenings ablaze with their presence, smiles laced with seduction on tanned faces and white suits with unbuttoned shirts. The evenings continued at the "Giara" of the great Cico Scimone and then the Manuli brothers. I watched them—Turi Pollicina, Mimmo Cassaniti, Vito Costa, Carlo Spina, to name a few—and I waited until I grew up to be able to match or surpass them. Love, betrayal, and unscrupulousness passed over those tables, and little by little I managed to secure a table that was always reserved in that whirlwind of emotions called Mokambo. Together with lifelong friends Giovanni Costa, Seby di Giovanni, Alfredo Minissale, Ugo Pollicina, and Guido Costa, we spent decades doing what was natural to us: experiencing the nightlife in all its strangest facets, to the fullest and without limits. Years later, now married and "with my head in the clear," as they say, I found myself in Taormina last Saturday evening with my wife, and after dinner at "cu ti lu dissi," an excellent restaurant in Porta Catania owned by friends Fabio and Francesco, we decided to have a drink at Mokambo. We walked along the Corso, with many shops closed due to the late hour (9:10 PM), and to our great surprise, we found Mokambo CLOSED. Asking around, we were told that closing time was 9:00 PM. 9:00 PM. 9:00 PM. How sad. One of the historic symbols of Taormina's nightlife closed at 9:00 PM. But does the new ownership (Dolce & Gabbana) know that nightlife in Taormina starts after 9 PM? Shame on them!!! The time for weirdness is certainly over for us, but I believe an era that saw us as the protagonists of the last episode is over!!!

19/04/2026: Very expensive (€45), but good.