Visitors4 in Taormina - Day of Strolling, Shopping & Food Tasting

[Visitors4]

Having done research for our first visit to the port of Messina, Italy, we decided to visit the seaside, hillside town of Taormina. We also had the goal of tasting certain food specialties of Sicily. There were many ship shore excursions offering visits to Taormina, however, they didn't offer enough time in Taormina and/or was combined with other sights that we were not interested in. Taormina is about an hour car drive from Messina port, and the ship was in port 10:30 AM - 8:00 PM. 

 

Here's how we did Taormina - 

• We opted to do a 5 hour private car tour to Taormina & Castelmola. The company we used is Sicily with Sebastian and our driver, Alessandro Calcagno helped make for a great day. Castelmola is a small town at the top of the hill where Taormina is also located. A road up with many switchback turns, the views from Castelmola are amazing including views of Mt. Etna in the distance. We spent about an hour in Castelmola. 
• We descended into Taormina and just in time for lunch! Food tasting begins! We arranged for Alessandro to pick us up in 3 hours. We headed to Da Cristina to try Sicilian arancini (rice balls). It is a very popular and busy spot and there are some outdoor tables. We had four arancinis and each with different fillings. An inexpensive and most delicious, very satisfying meal! 
• Taormina's main street, Corso Umberto, is perfect for people watching, shopping and simply taking in the sights, sounds and smells of a beautiful town. If you don't get distracted to the many small side alleys, you can easily stroll from one end to the other end of Corso Umberto in short time. We did that, and stopped in at shops that intrigued us. Many specialty shops and less of the tourist souvenir shops. We also saw a wedding party in the main square. We were told that September is a very popular month for weddings in Italy.
• Next food tasting? Cannoli tipped with pistachios from Lab Pasticceria Roberto. Light, not too sweet and so good! (Btw, one of our group members is from Sicily)
• We headed next to Villa Communale di Taormina. It's a quiet respite from Corso Umberto. It was formerly private gardens, and offers amazing views of the sea and Taormina. We took a few wrong turns to get to the park, but it was definitely worth the effort! 
• Next food tasting? Granitas at Bam Bar! This spot can be very crowded and touristy, but the granitas are a very good refreshing mid-day treat! At this point, we knew we were going to be delayed meeting Alessandro, so we contacted him and let him know we needed about 30-45 minutes more. Extra time beyond the allotted time for a private tour may incur additional charge per hour. The benefit of touring independently! 
• As we headed back to our original car drop-off point, we did our shopping purchases (we held off so we didn't have to carry bags during our visit). We purchased at - La Bottega Buongustaio (olive oil and pesto) and Rapicom SRLS (Moor planters). We also bought linens at a shop which we don't have the name of - it is an understated looking shop on Corso Umberto (not far from and on same side of Corsco as Rapicom SRLS) which had the most lovely designed and crafted clothing for children and also sold linens. 

 

It was a fabulous day in Taormina and Castelmola, and definitely would return! There are so many side alleys with shops and restaurants that we didn't get to explore. If you are looking for a day of strolling, shopping and eating with gorgeous views, Taormina and Castelmola is perfect! To our surprise shortly after returning home from our cruise, we saw Taormina as the featured town in a popular streaming television series! 

 

Closing Thoughts - If you are meeting an independent tour or seeking a taxi, ship and port instructions are to meet guides/drivers after you go thru the small port terminal. The problem is that it is not very organized, and is crowded with passengers seeking their guides/drivers. Vehicles cannot parked there because the area is small and is right off a busy main road by the port. It was very challenging to find our driver. After an hour including assistance from the port staff, we found our driver - he was behind a fenced area right by the ship's disembarkation ramp and also had been there looking for us for an hour. If you are meeting a guide/driver, highly recommend confirming in advance the exact meeting point with guide/driver. We didn't visit the Greek Theater due to time, and our thought was also that we were going to visit the Acropolis and Ephesus later in our cruise. There were many people in Taormina but it wasn't unbearable crowds; there was room to breathe! It also wasn't unbearably hot the day we visited but weather can be unpredictable. We traveled in early September. 

[euro cruiser]

1 hour ago, Visitors4 said:

If you are meeting a guide/driver, highly recommend confirming in advance the exact meeting point with guide/driver. 

Yes, or have a cell phone with which you can call or text the driver.

[fishiecrackers]

That sounds so perfect. Our cruise was changed from Messina to Siracusa, making it much more time-consuming to visit Taormina. I really wanted to do basically exactly what you guys did! Food and Villa Communale! Now we have to choose whether to do a shore excursion of 5.5 hours (2.5-3 of which will probably be driving), do it on our own (logistically very tricky), take a private transfer back from the shore excursion so we can stay longer ($$$), or just stay and explore Siracusa/Ortigia. Which is the most logical choice, but hard to let go of my Taormina dreams. 😞

[Visitors4]

Fishcrackers , 've had to make decisions like that in other port destinations too. When the port is far distance from the area we want to visit, the deciding factor often for us is how long we are in port. If you're really set on Taormina and have enough hours in port, perhaps look into a private local tour round-trip. My experience with local tour companies is that they will advise if they can accommodate a tour within a guest's port schedule (and often, they are more conservative in time to get you back to the ship on time). 

[fishiecrackers]

2 hours ago, Visitors4 said:

Fishcrackers , 've had to make decisions like that in other port destinations too. When the port is far distance from the area we want to visit, the deciding factor often for us is how long we are in port. If you're really set on Taormina and have enough hours in port, perhaps look into a private local tour round-trip. My experience with local tour companies is that they will advise if they can accommodate a tour within a guest's port schedule (and often, they are more conservative in time to get you back to the ship on time). 

One huge issue I'm having with this day is the timing in our schedule. We will have done a few days in Venice, a few in Florence, a few in Rome, then embarkation day, then a big Pompeii/Amalfi coast day. I feel like at this point in the trip we will just want a chill day, not one with a lot of traveling. And I don't want to book anything super expensive in case we are just toast and want to stay on/close to the ship. Because Siracusa is so far away (and there are 5 of us), anything private is super pricey, and I don't want to pay a ton to drag 3 tired and cranky teenagers around, haha.

 

So I've pretty much made my peace with skipping Taormina, and just sleeping in and then going and walking around Ortigia for a few hours and getting the food similar to what we would've gotten in Taormina, but my husband is being very sad about it. At this point our decision is to keep the ship excursion booked bc it's only $50/pp, and just see how we feel at that point in our trip. If we have to cancel or lose the money, it's not a ton, but if we're still feeling up to it, we'll do it.  

 

Anyway, not to hijack your thread, but thank you for the port reports!

[little britain]

@Visitors4 - you omitted to give the price?!  thanks!

[Visitors4]

The tour with Sicily with Sebastian was 90 Euros per person (pricing as of our 12/2021 booking). You can do an inquiry on its website to ask about current pricing.