Naxos, the earliest Greek colony in Sicily, was founded in the 8^th millennium BC and located on the east coast, south of present-day Taormina. Even though the slopes of Mount Etna behind the city were ideal for cultivating grapes, it is of higher probability it was the immigrants who brought their fondness for wine growing and worship of the god Dionysos from their Greek homeland, the island of Naxos, to Italy.