Taormina in 3 days
- pat kelly
- Jul 17
- 7 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
My favorite all time vacation was Sicily and Amalfi Coast when our kids were ages 10 and 12. It would be our family's second Italy trip. We had a great Tuscany, Venice and Rome trip a few years earlier. The kids were again adventurous and allowed for some history and churches -but always mix in the chill time and gelato or you may have a miserable situation on your hands. Southern Italy makes it really easy to keep everyone in a good mood. Our itinerary for this trip was Taormina then Siracusa on Sicily before Sorrento, Capri and Positano on the mainland.
If you are hoping to fly direct to Sicily, good luck. Our best flight option was to go through Frankfurt to Catania, Sicily. This gave us a bonus half day in Frankfurt. It was a fun day. We walked along the River Main and went to a great museum- the Stadel. The kids liked it, which was weird.
We had dinner in Sachesenhausen keeping it all a close walk from the hotel. Frankfurt was a nice break up of travel from Seattle to Sicily and we can all now claim Germany is on our travel list. Next morning, off to the land of my people (I'm one quarter Sicilian). Our first destination in Sicily was Taormina.
When exploring options for travel in Sicily, hiring a driver won out a couple of times over trains and rental cars, although we did a mix during this vacation. A private driver from the airport in Catania to Taormina was not very expensive and was very convenient. Catania is more of a real city than a tourist site so most tourists don't linger long.
When we got to Taormina, we dropped our bags at our Airbnb which they called Tao Blue.
Taormina is pretty small and our place was a short walk from all of the sites but in a quiet area with a great patio. We walked toward the Greek Theatre but stopped for some gelato.
Taormina is a picturesque kind of spot. So beautiful and perfect for half of a week. If you want to see all of Sicily and you've got 2 weeks, you could do a decent job. I wanted to see the Amalfi coast as well, so we stuck to the eastern part of Sicily. This leaves me the rest of Sicily (including my great grandfather's town of Trapani) for next time, and there will be a next time. My plan was Taormina and Siracusa would be the home bases with a few excursions mixed in.
The Greek Theatre was a few minutes walk from the Airbnb and it is the can't miss site in Taormina. The original theatre was third century BC, with the Greeks carving the seats directly from the mountain rock. Most of what we see today comes from Roman renovations in the 2nd-3rd century AD.
Of course the Romans had gladiators and animal torture instead of the Greek's plays. Fortunately, the wall behind the stage has decayed and the theatre now opens up to an incredible view of the Ionian Sea and Mount Etna (often with a little cloud of smoke for dramatic affect).
This was an awesome stop. Go early for less crowds ideally, but we did not find it too crowded in the afternoon. When you leave the theatre there are a bunch of touristy shops that we wandered through. We grabbed a couple t-shirts and some wine.
Next day was a side trip to Agrigento. This is the furthest excursion we would do in Sicily but the Valley of the Temples in Agrigento sounded too good to miss. For this trip, a group tour was the way to go as there are tours from Taormina, Catania or Siracusa.
The ride was easy and we caught a great view of isola Bella on the way (planning to hit that tomorrow). Agrigento was a wealthy ancient city founded by the Greeks in 581 BC. This city defeated the Carthaginians once but they got them in the end. Later the Romans rolled in; Saracens had a time; then the Normans. You get the point. Sicily is much stepped on.
The Valley of the Temples includes seven Doric Temples from 6-5th centuries BC. The degree to which they are preserved, especially the Temple of Concordia, is what makes this town worth visiting. The temples lie on an elevated plateau with the modern city in the back round. This first temple we got to was the Temple of Hera (or Juno)
.
This was one of my favorites. Although more of a ruin than Concordia, it looks cool. You wander past portions of the old city walls between the temples. These walls are filled with burial niches called arcosolia.
You end up at Concordia which is one of the two best preserved Greek Temples in the world (along with the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens). It was saved by being converted into a Christian church in the 6th century.
The columns taper upward and swell in the center so that they will not appear to narrow because Ancient Greeks were aware (and worried about) human optical illusions. It is hard to describe seeing a temple that looks so well preserved.
The next temple is more on the ruin end of the spectrum.
The Temple of Olympian Zeus was built to celebrate that victory over Carthage and is the largest Doric temple ever designed. It never got finished (and mix in a few earthquakes) and now you have only a few immense columns. It originally had 25 foot tall Atlases carved into the structure but these have been removed to protect them. After this temple, we headed back to the bus which had one stop on the way back to Taormina: Villa Romana del Casale.
This villa was owned by a wealthy Roman (possibly an emperor) and it was buried in a landslide in the 12th century, under 33 feet of mud. When excavated in the 1950s, the largest collection of Roman mosaics in the world was discovered. The mudslide froze the mosaic flooring in time. The bikini girls mosaic is famous for its resemblance to ladies in modern swim wear working out.
It was a fun pit stop but not sure the kids were that impressed with mosaic preservation. The tour was only about an hour and we were back on our way to Taormina.
The next day we popped over to Isola Bella which is about a 15 minute cab ride from Taormina, but there is also a scenic cable car, followed by a short walk down to the beach.
Isola Bella is very cool little island/ beach that is second only to the Greek Theatre on to do lists for Taormina. The island is tiny and is attached to the main beach by a little sandbar that is dependent on tides. The original owners of the island built a house and imported exotic plants. The house is now a museum but I don't remember much about the interior. The island and beach are very scenic and it was good photos everywhere.
We wandered around the grounds and the kids explored and swam in the water around the island. We stayed there for a couple of hours and then got a drink and some food on the main beach before heading back to town.
When we got back up to Taormina and dumped the beach clothes, we explored town. Taormina is basically on the edge of a cliff so the views are spectacular.
We headed over to Villa Comunale di Taormina which is a small park with an old cannon and views for miles.
We explored for a while and got some lunch/ shopping done. It is very easy to see all of Taormina with our few days but everything is beautiful. I'm sure I could hang out here for a few months if you forced me. We did our usual post lunch siesta back at the Airbnb.
On the way, we stopped off at something that looked interesting. It was old theatre being excavated in a neighborhood by the main road. This odeion was a 2nd century BC theatre discovered during renovations on the adjacent church- typical Italy construction issue.
The evening plan was Castelmola. When we looked opposite the ocean from our Airbnb patio we looked up at a very steep hill with another town directly above us. This is Castelmola.
It is a medieval village on a clifftop above what already feels like a city on the edge of a cliff in Taormina. We grabbed a cab for the fun drive up the hill. It drops you in Piazza Sant' Antonio which opens out over the view down to Taormina and the sea.
Castelmola would be fun to hang out in for a weekend but we just had a couple of hours so we walked up to the Norman castle that gives the town its name. This is mostly a ruin. You go for the view, obviously. When back in the main piazza, we got dinner and a bottle of their famous almond wine for later.
This was the end of our time in Taormina. Loved it. Next morning, we did a private car to stop number two: Siracusa.
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