taormina — Let's Go — The Girl Who Traveled

Taormina is a beautiful little city. Perched above the sea with a grandiose view of Giardini di Naxos below, it reminds me of the charming Greek towns of Oia and Crete. Due to the impending G7 summit next week, there was a ton of military and polic presence all around. I didn't mind though, I'm used to that being from NYC and it made me feel safer walking around. I think many tourists canceled or moved their plans as I didn't find visiting crowded at all at this time of year in mid-May.

I'm glad we stayed a bit further away in Giardini di Naxos as it's cheaper and more low key. In my opinion you can see the highlights of Taormina in two days.

Getting Around Giardini di Naxos and Taormina

The Interbus is the local city bus (blue bus). Fares are cheap, about 1.50 euro one way in between both towns. You can buy a one day pass for ten euros, but it's only worth it if you ride more than 6 times which you probably won't do in a day. You can buy tickets at the Recanati terminal if you're staying near Giardini di Naxos or at the Taormina bus terminal. You can also buy from the bus driver directly.

The timeliness with the bus is a hit or miss. Between the two towns there seems to be a bus (not the same bus but different buses going different routes but at least between these two destinations) every 15 minutes or so. We got lucky and was able to catch a bus from Recanati to Taormina and connect to a bus going to Castel Mola 5 min. after arriving in Taormina bus terminal. On the way back was a different story. The return bus from Castel Mola to Taormina took forever!! We waited over an hour and half to come back down. Even though there was a bus scheduled to depart it never came. It's a long walk down, good for a hike, but we didn't want to walk. A taxi between Taormina and Castel Mola starts at fifteen euros but since we had bought the one day pass we refused to take it. A taxi from Castel Mola to Giardini di Naxos was quoted to us at 35 euros.

Later in the day we walked down from Taormina to Mazzaro and then we took a bus from Mazzaro (where the beach is) back to Taormina. The bus was scheduled to leave at 17:20 but it arrived and left at 17:14 (we were there at 17:10 just in case). So plan accordingly! The next bus after 17:20 wasn't until 18:50.

Highlights of Taormina

I skipped the Greco Theatre since I saw a lot of that in Greece a few months ago. I'm sure it's nice but thought admission was steep at ten euros. What I did like visiting was:

the Public Gardens
walking around Corso Umberto
going up to Castel Moral
walking down to Mazzaro/Isola Bella

The Public Gardens

A nice walk with beautiful views south of city center. Can prob spend just 20 minutes around here walking around, smelling the roses and enjoying the overlook.

Walking Around Corso Umberto

Basically the city's Main Street and full of designer and local shops geared towards tourists. I like just people watching and going from one end of the town to the other (less than a mile walk). Definitely stop for gelato at Gelatomania (near the Port Messina side). Also if you walk to the other end where Excelsior Palace Hotel is, definitely walk towards the hotel and go down to the pool area (piscina) to find awesome views as well.

Castel Mola

Castel Mola is a tiny town perched father up from Taormina. You can walk here but it's a quite a hike. One hour is good enough to see the town and the remains of the castle at the top. Breathtaking views of the sea below and of Mt. Etna. There's shops and cafes in the town and the bus stop is also a wonderful overlook.

Mazzaro/Isola Bella

The walk from Taormina city center down to the beach is about half an hour. It's a nice walk and not too challenging if you like to walk in general! You also see more of town life and pretty views of the water. Walking back up is more challenging though as you will have to go up a ton of steps but going down is totally relaxing and fine.

Once you reach the bottom of the walk, you have to cross the street and go down more steps to actually get to the beach. About 5 minutes. The beach is pretty and not too big. Water is crystal clear and you can rent chairs from the restaurants there.

Isola Bella is an island that you can across a narrow sand path to and you have to pay admission to go on the island. I just went to see it but didn't bother to try to access it. It's pretty but that's all I can say! I didn't spend more than an hour here because of the delay we had with the bus at Castel Mola. By the time we got here it was 4:30 and didn't want to stick around til 6:50 pm for the next bus up so we took the 5:20.

The bus stop to go back to Taormina is right in front of Cafe Isola Bella (which is to the right once you come down from the stairs to Taormina). You can buy bus tickets at the cafe.

All in all, Taormina was nice to visit and glad to have seen it before the G7 summit rolls into town! The city shuts down to all visitors this upcoming Sunday the 21st.

Getting to Sicily

I did a lot of research on visiting Western Sicily vs. Eastern Sicily. Given that I was just in Greece a few months ago and Sicily has a lot of Greek influence/artifcacts, I decided to focus on Eastern Sicily which seemed to have more of its own character and I liked the proximity to Mt. Etna.

If visiting Palermo, you fly into Palermo airport. If visiting Taormina, Catania, Syracuse, or Ragusa, the Catania airport is the best.

I flew via Alitalia and had a connecting flight via Rome to Sicily. The connection was easy to make within an hour. I would say 30-45 minutes is cutting it close. Once you arrive in FCO (Rome's international airport) at Terminal 3, it's about a 10-15 min walk to the domestic terminal, terminal 1. You do have to go thru customs here at FCO (and not again in Catania) and it might be a good idea to grab euros at an ATM as you see one! I didn't see any in Catania airport but possible I missed thm.

The flight between Rome and Catania is short and smooth--only one hour! After we arrived in Catania, we tried to find Avis for our car rental but apparently, unlike other rentals, the Avis station is not in the airport! It's outside to the right of the terminal (just look for all the car rental signs), about a 3-5 min. walk.

I was a bit nervous about our car rental because I booked it through Autoeurope UK and not Autoeurope US. For some reason U.K. has better deals and prices than the US (by a significant amount of at least $100 USD) which is why I used it. I thought Avis would say something but they didn't say anything so it doesn't matter what resident you are. I think Autoeurope U.K. can negotiate better deals and rates with car suppliers than the US. We did get the excess insurance with Autoeurope but since we wanted to be really cautious and have roadside assistance we got the total coverage insurance. This was about 24 euros a day in addition to our already paid AutoEurope voucher ($259 USD, it was $360 when I booked months ago but a few weeks earlier I checked and the rate dropped and was able to get it at a cheaper rate!).

After we got our car we headed to Giardini de Naxos, about 45 min. away. There is a toll. booth along the way so just grab a ticket and proceed. When you exit the autostrada is when you pay. Our ticket was 1.50 euro and the booth is manned so you will get change.

Where to Stay in Giardini de Naxos

We are staying at Hotel Villa Daphne and though it's only been a few hours, I'm glad we came across it. The staff is super friendly and they have a small parking lot beneath the hotel for 10 euros a day. There is free parking a few minutes walk away though on one of the side streets. But it's also great for its proximity to the Recantini Bus Terminal Station. It's literally two minutes away by walking and here you can grab a ride to Taormina.

Accss to Taormina

Maybe we got lucky but despite the preparations for the G7 summit, we had no problem getting into Taormina today. The bus ride to and fro was no more than 30 minutes. Sure there's a lot of military and police presence but it makes me feel safer. Plus I guess I'm used to that from NYC. Will see how tomorrow goes with access! I expected security checkpoints or closed off roads but we didn't encounter any...yet!