The limestone outcrop rising from Taormina's eastern shore became a nature reserve in 1998, yet its protected status traces back to a nineteenth-century English noblewoman who terraced its slopes and planted Mediterranean laurel, carob, and olive groves that still shade the rocky spine. Lady Florence Trevelyan, exiled from Queen Victoria's court under circumstances never clarified, acquired the islet in 1890 and built a villa whose stone arches now frame the Naturalistic Museum—a five-room collection of marine fossils, Sicilian flora specimens, and tide-pool dioramas curated by the University of Catania. The museum opens at 09:00 Tuesday through Sunday, charging a €6 conservation fee that funds reef monitoring and seasonal nesting-ground closures for the rare Kentish plover. Beach access remains free, though the 134-step stone staircase connecting the mainland to the islet limits the flow of day-trippers to those willing to descend the terraced cliff path. Most visitors now arrive by sea. An Isola Bella private boat tour departs from Mazzarò's pebble beach or Giardini Naxos harbour, circling the islet's sixty-metre perimeter in fifteen minutes before anchoring in the sheltered inlet where the sandbar surfaces at low tide. The reef drops to twelve metres on the northern face, creating a thermocline that draws schools of damselfish and Mediterranean rainbow wrasse between May and October. Coastal tours lasting ninety minutes to three hours extend the route south to the Blue Grotto—a sea cave lit by refracted sunlight between 10:00 and 13:00—or north past Cape Taormina's volcanic cliffs, where Bronze Age pottery shards erode from the sediment layers each winter. Private charters accommodate two to eight passengers and typically include snorkel gear, a Sicilian aperitif service of Nero d'Avola wine and almond granita, and a swim stop timed to the captain's reading of current and swell. The water clarity peaks in early morning, before onshore winds stir the shallows and pleasure craft churn the bay. Operators launching between 09:00 and 10:00 report visibility extending to eight metres on calm days, sufficient to distinguish the algae-draped amphora fragments scattered along the western drop-off. Tour itineraries vary by operator—some favour the broader Bay of Naxos loop, others focus solely on the islet's circumnavigation—but all require advance booking during July and August, when daily departures sell out seventy-two hours ahead. Tickets for group cruises start near €45; fully private tours commanding the deck and itinerary begin around €280 for a two-hour charter, with pricing adjusted for group size and seasonal demand.