Travel Schedule
Outward: 26.4. – Airberlin, leaving 17:05, arriving 19:05
Return: 3.5. – Airberlin, leaving 19:50, arriving 22:05
26.4. Taormina / overnight
- Airport 19:05
- Car rental from SIXT, Res.Nr. 9822199547 from 19:50
- Travel to Taormina, 53km, 50min.
- B&B Joan’s Heritage, 75 Eur including breackfast and is per room
Vico Zecca, 3, 98039 Taormina ME, Italien +39 0942 625365
@airberlin Comfortable on time arrival with Airberlin at Catania Airport 🙂 First Italian coffee in 2 months and life is good again. In almost any coffee bar in Italy coffee is better than any other in other corners of this planet. @sixt Unfriendly staff provided dirty Fiat Panda 🙁 Paid another 21 Eur per day for full coverage without retention so 300 Eur for 7 days unlimited of which more than half for insurance excluding full theft coverage for the Province of Catania 🙂 🙂 🙂
Route to Taormina took us through I believe the slums of Catania to the toll road. Nothing particular apart from the great view onto snow covered Etna. Had to adopt my Central Europe driving style 😉 and watch out for potholes not to break the car. Apparently earnings from toll one pays don’t make it back to the roads. Lanes through tunnels were closed as tunnels appeared to break down any minute.
Throughout all years and time spent in Italy my saying is “This is Italy but the food is good!”. We’ll keep that one in mind because is true in so many cases.
Eventually driving up the hill right into the heart of Taormina to the B&B where the reserved room was waiting which turned out to be nice, clean and worth the money.
After a quick Pirlo (Aperol Spritz) the stomach announced to get some delicious food so strolling up the traffic free road to next restaurant . I don’t fancy to go to restaurants in tourist places in Italy but as off season and the restaurant La Griglia looked promising with the owner assuring all is of great taste it took not long till the Sicilian specialties landed on the nicely prepared table.
So far so good but all in all the food was not more than ok and expensive on top compared to what I usually get in the north of Italy in province of Lombardia. For example the local salami although looking fresh had a bad taste that I can’t describe and the seafood spaghetti had lots of pasta with little seafood which even was of low quality, the fish I got was dry and the cherry tomatoes they served along were of terrible taste! I asked for local specialities and let them decide on their strength but I strongly hope for better while in Sicily!
Certainly this was NOT what I’m used to get like in Lombardia and Piomente and this time my saying did miss completely so it only can get better and hope to jump start next day with a great view over Taormina Bay.
I’m hoping now for a good sleep and that the mattress keeps the promise for a comfortable rest.
27.4. Taormina \ overnight
It was a day of visiting all the nice places as promoted by so many sites and it was quite an experience especially when at the theatre and although the admission was quite a bit of money one was asked again for two Euros just for heading to the place that is considered the best view spot.
Luckily today we’ve found restaurants that served nice food and a sort of wine bar called Arco Rosso with great vino biancho “Etna” and very delicious bruschette!
As it was a day of walking it’s now time to hit the hey very early.
28.4. Route to Siracusa
- Taormina to Siracusa, 119km, 1.30min. While circling the Etna experiencing on one side wonderful nature, on the other side I’ve never seen so much garbage piling up along the way from Etna to Catania. It just sucks so much. We were told it’s that the village authorities got paid to assign garbage disposal contracts and pay to companies controlled by mafia where as such companies did not pay their employees hence no garbage collection, unpaid staff and money down the mafia drain.
- Grand Hotel Minareto, Via del Faro Massolivieri, 26 96100 Siracusa (Italy)
135 Eur per night and room, details. Expect double or even higher prices during high season.
28.4 through 1.5. Siracusa – beach
- Exploring Siracusa, Ortigia
- Enjoying the hotel’s wonderful beach
- Excellent seafood and pizza
- Program
1.5 through 3.5. Siracusa – city
- Transfer from the beach to the city
- Grand Hotel Vila Polity ****, feel the glamour of past times at very affordable price (keep expectations low and you will enjoy)
- Stayed in Winston Churchill’s suite
3.5. Catania
- Transfer to Catania, 61km, 42 min.
- Visiting Catania
- Airport 18:00 with rental car return by 19:00
Varia: