Taormina/Catania, Sicily

Having now booked our departure flight to Albania from Catania, thankfully we wouldn’t need to drive the whole way back to Rome. The costs of the car hire had been racking up so we were keen to drop it off as soon as possible. One of the most talked about destinations in Sicily is the town of Taormina. Known for its beautiful beaches, the old town is actually situated high on the steep hills that tower above the coastline. Without many camping spots available we decided that we could go drop the car back a few days earlier and rely on public transport the remaining couple of days. We assumed that as Catania is the largest city in Sicily there should be enough options to get by. Now what was that lesson we learnt in Bordeaux again? Oh that's right... Don't make assumptions!

While we had the car we wanted to get another wine-tasting experience so made our way straight back up the side of Mt Etna to Gambini Wines. We had booked a wine-tasting and lunch experience that turned out to be fantastic. After lunch, our next priority was definitely to finally see some noteworthy beaches. We made our way straight to Isla Bella, a highlight of Taormina. Of all the places we’d been in Sicily, this was the busiest by far. We found some space on the pebbly beach and enjoyed a relaxed afternoon in the sun and crystal-clear water. Having still not booked accommodation for the night we hedged our bets that we would find something later that evening and went to explore the town. The contrast from the rest of Sicily was crazy. Like walking into a street mall of a city it was bustling with boutiques, bars and people. A massive change from the deserted towns we’d seen so far. After dinner, we left to try to find the one campsite on the map between Taormina and Catania. We arrived after 8 pm and set up our tent in the headlights of the car.

The next day we had a quick wake-up swim and drove into Catania to drop off the car. Now relying on public transport, we found our way to a bus stop and managed to catch a bus to our apartment in the town. Not without the monir issues of bus schedules and actual buses arriving being quite different things. The first impression of Catania was how dirty and grim it looked. Our apartment was in a very run-down area. We dropped our bags and with the plan to spend the next couple days on the beach set out to the nearest beach. Unfortunately, we couldn't find anything like Isla Bella. We decided to grab a beer from the beach bar and threw our towels down. There, we experienced a crazy mix of DJing by some random person at the bar.

Keen to see if there were any better areas for dinner we grabbed some rental scooters and found our way to the central district. Thankfully it had a better buzz than the area of our apartment. We found a fun little back alley and finally got to enjoy a quality pasta and couldn’t resist grabbing a pizza to takeaway. (Breakfast sorted 😂)

On our final day in Sicily we planned to find a better beach. After another failed attempt at what we now knew to be extremely unreliable public transport, we opted for the scooters. A quick Google search showed there was only one beach recommended so that was our destination. We made our way to the north and found a bay surrounded by large black boulders and littered with people. Obviously the best option around we set ourselves down to soak up the last of the Sicilian sun and chill out. We made our way back into the centre for a delicious dinner and that was it for Italy.Read more