LovesSicily

I am puzzled why an "on your own" excursion in Taormina costs 52$? Is it not possible to walk around the town from the docking place?

No, it is not. If you dock in Messina or Catania you are 40-50 minutes away from Taormina. If you anchor at Giardini Naxos, you have to lighter in and take some sort of transportation up to Taormina. Taormina is situated on a large cliff/promontory, above Giardini Naxos.

While there are many sites to see along the way, please keep in mind that even with a private driver who knows the roads, Caltigirone is over 100 miles from Messina (one way). You could probably do a late lunch along the coast on your return trip to Messina. Only part of the drive to Caltigirone is on the Autostrada, the rest is on small two-lane roads and always take more time than anticipated.

If you hire a private driver ask him for suggestions. He knows the island and what is doable in the time you have.

This day trip is a little far afield to do from a cruise ship because of the distance, roads and traffic at various times of the day particularly around Catania.

It looks like the daily trains leave from either Gela or Catania. http://www.wikitravel.org/en/Caltigirone or http://www.thetrainline-europe.com .

We have only been to Caltigirone by car.

From Messina it would be at least a 2 hour (one way) trip. If you had a private driver and more than 4-5 hours in port it might be a feasible trip. Caltigirone is certainly worth the visit to see and climb the steps. It is best to visit in the morning while the ceramic shops are open. Most places in Caltigirone observe reposo and only a few bar/cafes will be open mid-day.

Yes, avoid SS 114, the coast road, it goes through all the small resort towns with many, many traffic lights and during the summer season heavy traffic.

You will take the A18 south to the Taormina exit, follow the signs for Taormina (the roads become small two lanes after the exit). There should be a toll collector at the booth and you will need no more than 5 Euro for the toll, each way. You will proceed up a winding, increasingly elevated road, about half way up, the road will be under a galleria, at the end of the galleria you will stop at a small circle, take the hard right to the parking garage, straight leads through the tunnel to the other side of Taormina and left takes you up to Taormina. If you want to drive up to Castelmola, make the left and continue up into town.

You cannot drive directly through town but have to bear right just outside Messina Gate onto Via Patricio then left onto Via Circonvallazione and continue to bear right Circonvallazione turns into Via Leonardo da Vinici. Via Leonardo goes all the up to Castelmola.

jdaa:

I would add that you must park in either parking garage just outside Taormina's main town and at Castelmola. The only parking is for residents, you will be ticketed if you do try to park in town. Since you are coming from Messina you would use the Lumbi car park. There are shuttles that take you up to the main town and drop you off, right outside Messina Gate. The parking garage for Castelmola is on the left hand side of the road about a 100 yds. from the main piazza in Castelmola. You leave the garage and walk up to Castelmola.

Not all the stores close for siesta, the restaurants and cafes are still open. Afternoon is more likely a better time to visit the theater as most of the tour groups are there in the morning. However, if you are there in the summer, along with other cruise ship groups, the town will be busy all day. You will still be able to get a taxi when you need it.

The taxi from Giardini Naxos will probably leave you at either the Catania Gate or Messina Gate. You can asked to be picked up at a certain time and place or get a taxi in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele which is a few yards up from Messina Gate.

The closest beaches for Palermo are at Mondello. Go to Trip Advisor in the Sicily forum where you can find information on how to reach Mondello and what kind of services are available.

Palermo itself has no beaches. It is not that kind of Mediterranean city.

Our experience with this drive is from years of land vacations based in Taormina rather than from a cruise.

Allowing for time getting off the ship in Messina, picking up your rental car and getting out of Messina, allow at least 2 to 2 1/2 hours to get to Siracusa. The newer portion the Autostrada has been completed and has cut the drive time. But, these things always take longer than planned for, especially if it's your first time driving in Sicily.

What is it you want to see in Siracusa? Ortygia, the Archaeological Park?

We used Sicily Travel last September for their Mt. Etna wine tour. Our original driver had a traffic accident on the way to our pick-up point. Sicily Travel made every effort and several phone calls to find us another driver, Ezio Scotto, who turned out to be a great asset for the tour. We had an outstanding day.

The "bus station" is approximately 700m from the port in a parking lot where Via D'Amico and Archimede converge. It is about three blocks from the train station. It is walkable but most of the walk is through the port and along Via VI Aprile. If you use Trip Advisor and search "bus from Catania to Taormina" you will find good, detailed info on how to do this.

You have not said how much time you have in port and should take at look at the bus timetables www.interbus.it to determine if they fit your time in port.

It's approx. 1400m from the train station to the beach (under a mile) but it is a narrow two lane road and walking this portion is not very safe.

If you use the "Search this Forum" bar at the top right you will find countless threads on this very topic with lots of information and recommendations.

If you are interested in this sort of thing, I might suggest you read Palmento - A Sicilian Wine Odysey by Robert Camuto. It's his personal account of visits, tastings and discussions with winery owners in Sicily. It gives good insight into the "quirkiness" of Sicilian wine making. It also might help with a list of wineries you would like to visit.

JRoeT:

While I cannot recommend any of the tours here www.Sicilytourguides.net, they do have a day tour of the Mt. Etna wineries, the only one I could find when I was doing research for our vacation in Sicily this last May.

We ended up making an appointment for a wine and food tasting at www.vinigambino.it which is located outside of Linguaglossa and is one of the wineries included in the above day tour. They presented a flight of four whites and four reds along with large platters of a variety of meats, cheeses, roasted vegetables and bread.

Having stayed in Rome a combined total of four weeks, I would say that three days would be ideal to see the major sites. It does take some planning and prioritizing. If you want to see the Vatican, buy tickets before you leave home or arrange for a private tour. We used Through Eternity for our Vatican/St. Peters tour and were extremely please with our guide. We have also taken the Scavi tour underneath St. Peters, again you must book ahead for this one. There are several threads on CC regarding all of these points . A good map of Rome will give you an idea of where everything is, distances and what sites are in a certain area of Rome. The big box book store carries a nice foldable map of Rome (and other major cities of the world).

Rome is a great city for walking and the historic center is signposted for all the major sites, something along the lines of Boston's Freedom Trail. We have not used the HOHO bus but have used the Metro and taxis when we didn't or couldn't walk any distance. Always be sure to use the Comune di Roma (white cars) taxis, the fare is fixed and metered.

We stay in an apartment (Residenza Giubbonari) on the Via Giubbonari near the Campo dei Fiori, there is a minimum 3 night stay.

But, if you don't have three days even one day in Rome is well worth the effort - it is a beautiful, vibrant city and very user friendly.