Well, it’s taken quite a while to get to these, but Taormina, Savoca, and Castelmola Galleries are now uploaded…
Taormina is probably the fanciest of the Sicilian towns and is very popular with tourists. You’ll find plenty of high-end luxury stores, restaurants, and hotels, along with amazing sites and views from up on the hill… I’m a little more low key and budget-minded, but I still found a reasonably priced Airbnb right next to the center; though it was off-season, very small, and had a bit of a hill to manage coming and going every day. Worked for me though, and I was able to find plenty of spots for good food at reasonable prices too. See more on my costs for this stop below.
Taormina itself is perched on a hill with the gorgeous views you’d expect from a place of this caliber, and there’s another part of town on the coast with beautiful beaches. To get down you can take a taxi, bus, or gondola. There are a lot of great beaches in other neighboring towns too, along with Isola Bella (a cool little island you can walk to; the water was only about ankle deep when I went), and some great small villages in nearby hills. The hop on hop off buses (there are 2 companies) have multiple routes that take you to these nearby villages. I only went to two in my short stay here, but they were great. Savoca is famous for The Godfather films, and they definitely don’t hold back on that marketing, it’s a beautiful village that’s laid out in a way that very easy to walk. My other stop was to Castelmola which is way up on a hill inland from Taormina; awesome views and a nice little village.
If you click on the picture carousel below it will take you to the Sicilia Album where you can find galleries for each of these stops.
My costs for this stop weren’t bad at all in my opinion; 4 nights with food and entertainment ran me around $350. Of course, that leaves out the big expense of getting there. But still, I ate pretty well; had a really nice meal the first night, and a whole lot of gelato and cannoli over the whole trip. This also includes the trips to Savoca and Castelmola on a hop on hop off bus one day, the gondola down to the coast another, and entry into the Teatro Antico di Taormina. I’m good just walking around taking pictures, enjoying views, and eating sandwiches, pizza, etc. This is how I keep my costs down and plan to do this traveling for an extended time. This is actually spending a bit more than I hope for the long run, but I’m enjoying myself a bit for this first stretch of my traveling. After the holidays things should slow down a bit.
