Our first town of the one day tour will be Savoca, a characteristic medieval town. We will visit one of the fascinating catacombs of the Cappuccini Convent which hosts the mummified bodies of monks and nobles from Savoca.The bar Vitelli is the highlight of the tour: become famous in the scenes of the film The Godfather, here you can taste a delicious Sicilian granita and look at the photos taken during the shooting of the film.
Our second town will be the majestic Taormina. You can here visit the Greek Theatre (ticket is not included in the price), one of the major Ancient sites in Sicily, which offers a unique panoramic view of the sea and Mount Etna. Walking along Corso Umberto, you can visit the Cathedral and enjoy the stunning view of Capo Taormina bay.Here in Taormina you will enjoy a free Sicilian snack: delicious tasting of products typical from Sicilian culinary tradition as the famous “tavola calda – hot table“. You will eat different arancini, pizza, calzoni, with Sicilian Doc wine.
Next stop will be in Castelmola, a characteristic medieval suburb suspended between the sky and the sea. Castelmola is considered a big balcony on Taormina, also here you will enjoy a fantastic view of Etna on one side and the Ionian sea on the other. From the square Sant’Antonio begin our walk in the alleys. Around the small streets it’s possible to see small shops that sell souvenirs, laces and embroideries made by locals women. Finally the last stop in Castelmola is the visit of the “Bar Turrisi”, a very typical bar for a good coffee or a tasting of almond wine, typical Sicilian dessert wine.
This tour was an absolute highlight of our trip! Savoca is a stunning, tranquil Italian gem, and lunch in Castelmola was truly superb. Taormina completely lived up to the hype, but the best part was our guide, Damiano. His extensive knowledge of all things Sicily made the experience unforgettable.
This tour was excellent. The pace was just right and our tour guide Damiano was excellent. He gave us information the entire trip while driving some very perilous roads.
Great wat to see these towns, no parking or traffic hastles, and they know exactly where to go. The scenery along the way to the towns is as good as the towns themselves. Would have been nice to have some more photo opportunities, but I guess it's hard to stop. A very worthwhile, scenic, historical and interesting tour, well worth doing. A lot (lot!!) of tourists.
The tour guide Damiano was absolutely incredible. Very good driver in a busy city. The experience was greatly enhanced by his knowledge. Having a trip that hits the 3 cities in 1 day with a lunch was perfect and well executed. The price was very reasonable. Would be great for a big or small group. Ultimately the guide made the experience fabulous
Had such a wonderful and insightful time. Tour guide was amazing and he shared much of his knowledge about the towns and culture. Would go again!
Wonderful overview of three beautiful towns. Diego was a knowledgable guide Lunch was lovely Taormina. Was Beautiful great people watching. Would of liked to spend less time there because it’s basically very high end shopping
We spent a lovely day visiting these small towns. All had beautiful views and worth a visit. Our driver/tour guide was wonderful and gave good insights and brief history of site. Taormina was beautiful but really a huge tourist trap.
5 stars ! Great day visiting these 3 cities. Our guide was fantastic and did a great job navigating the small widong turns!
Wonderful tour. Loved all the places we visited. The included lunch was so delicious! Guides Mateo & Diego were friendly and so knowledgeable. Nice we had free time as well. Would highly recommend.
It's a very hilly drive, so be prepared for the turns as well as the scenery. Savoca was a peaceful delight, but a lot of climbing uphill. Castelmola was quiet but compact. And Taormina was a crowded outdoor shopping mall that used to be a real town. The guide had some information for us, but was mainly just a driver. It's still worth the motion sickness to see the three towns in one day.
For the most part, our guide Damiano was knowledgeable & drove safely in spite of the other drivers. We all felt that more guidance prior to arriving @ each tour location would have been useful. Because the map for Taormina lacked scale we had no idea how much time it would take to reach the points of interest. The group all agreed that the van should have been equipped with a step stool to aid with entry & exit. Lunch consisted of a 3 course meal with local wine & tasty shots of almond liquor to round out the culinary experience.
This was a fun day, castelmola was amazing and we could’ve done without Taormina which is like the Disneyland of Sicily. The Driver was a bit fast and walked a little too fast for middle-age folks.
I want to thank Daemiano (correct spelling?) for a great day out: expert driver on very adventurous roads, local expert historian, and just great guy. Savoca, Castelmola and Taormina are just classic Italy that should not be missed. Stunning views of Mount Etna. Pleasant lunch in Castelmola with wine. Also, instantaneous communication with Sicily Day by Day via the Viator app. Very gracious and accommodating. Thank you all for making the day a dream.
Excellent day trip. Collected and dropped off at our air BnB. Super intelligent and knowledgable guide Danilo who made our day interesting and most enjoyable.
This was a really relaxing and fun experience. I loved that we got plenty of time to explore each town individually while also being able to learn about the individual interesting parts of each towns history. Our tour guide was so lovely and friendly and very knowledgeable. I highly recommend!
Great day trip, beautiful places. We had a wonderful time. Damiano , our driver, was nice and tried to explain lots about Sicilian history.
Our small group of 8 visited three locations near Catania by van. Our driver and guide, Diego, was personable and knowledgeable. The van was noisy inside and Diego should have used a portable microphone to communicate better to all passengers, especially those in the back seats. The pasta and wine lunch was average. The trip was not rushed and we had adequate time at all locations.
Pick ups were prompt and organised. Danielo gave us a very comprehensive history lesson of Crete on the way to Savoca. The explanations of the sites visited was also very good. Ample time at each site to see and visit. Lunch at Castelmola was good.
A well organised tour of three beautiful places. Knowledgeable guide who spoke excellent English, relaxed lunch and the right balance of free time.
There are winding roads to get to the 3 locations. Tour guide was driving too fast through the winding curves of the road. One member of the group got sick and threw up. Tour guide did not stop the car or offer to help when the car arrived at the destination. Then, he left us and did not join us for lunch. Left us outside in the rain while he ate inside. Only provided us 1 hour and 50 minutes in Taormina rather than the full 2 hours, which made it harder to sight see in enough time. Those 10 minutes (or more) would have been useful and desired.
The guide Andrea was excellent!!! He drived carefully, giving all the historical and social details on everthing that was in our itinerary..
Thoroughly enjoyed this trip. Communication with the vendor was excellent. Our guide, Andrew, was prompt, informative, knowledgeable and a great driver! A word to the wise: there is a lot of walking up steep hills.
Tour was cancelled due to expected bad weather. Local operator kept in contact about the situation and advised the decision with as much notice as possible
Great all-day tour. We started in the lovely village of Savoca (where Coppola filmed The Godfather), then went to Castelmola where after seeing the castle ruins we had a great included lunch and sample of almond wine, and finished the day in beautiful Taormina. Antonio, our driver with Sicily Day By Day Tours, was the best!
Marco was an amazing guide. I am pretty sure that when booking this experience the listing said that our driver was not a guide— absolutely fortunate that Marco was with us. We learned so much about Mt. Etna along the way and Castlemola + Taormina. He walked us through Savoca to give us some backstory. It was incredible. Our trip had my husband and me, a mother/daughter duo, and two single ladies. The ride was comfortable and the company was even better.
We did the tour with Sicily Day by Day Tours and it exceeded our expectations. Our tour guide Giovanni was a wealth of information on each location and organised a delicious lunch for our group. We recommend this tour.
Andrea was very good. His English was very good and he gave clear instructions about where to meet. We had plenty of time in Savoca , amazing views. We did not have enough time in Taormina because the line to get into the Greek theater —-which was THE entire reason for visiting Taormina—- was too long and we did not have enough time to see it and then get back to the meeting point. Amazing views in Taormina but mobbed with too many people. We are happy we made it a day trip and not overnight. Van was new and air conditioned. It was a long day for Andrea and we appreciated him so much
The 3 villages and our driver/guide, Christian, were amazing. What a shame therefore that the Tour Company let everyone down by not providing the air conditioned minivan it advertised in the Tour information. Unfortunately, due to an accident on the highway, we were forced to sit in an extremely hot vehicle for too long. Still recovering from a recent kidney transplant, this was not good for me personally.
Excellent tour with Andrea. He was very knowledgeable about Catania overall including every location on the tour. It was well worth the money and time spent. I would highly recommend!
Driver Giovanni was excellent and friendly. Traffic and driving in Italy is stressful so we appreciated his car handling skills. The excursion includes solo time and optional out of pocket admission to historic venues. Many historic ruins. Walking and inclined paths take their toll on the elderly and mobility challenged. Be forewarned! Overall a good opportunity for exploration at a fair price.
Our guide was a wealth of knowledge. We had four other couples from around the world and enjoyed their company too. The only issue we had was the van we were in was quite noisy, and it was sometimes difficult to hear our guide.
Our tour guide was excellent in providing continuous updates on where we were and what we were going to do. He was extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of the locations visited and gave us enough free time to search out on our own.
We absolutely loved the locations that we visited but what was listed tour details was far from what we received. We were picked up in old van that had no air conditioning so windows down in extreme heat made hearing information very difficult. We had delays along the way which made us short on time at Taormina which was extremely disappointing. On our paperwork it says back at Catania by 7pm but were were back by 5.30!!
Giovanni, our tour guide was excellent. Very knowledgeable and made the tour fun as well. Savoca and Castelmola were the best.
This tour was an amazing opportunity to see all the small Areas Of the Catania area. I experienced knee pain before the trip, but Angelo and the others on the tour were gracious and welcoming.
I enjoyed walking around the little towns we visited. Taormina was the most beautiful but it was also crowded with tourists. Can't be helped. There were five solo travelers in that tour which made it more fun and the conversation lively. We had a very nice tour guide, Christian, who told us about the towns we visited and shared details that we would have otherwise missed.
This was an excellent tour and our tour guide Danilo was the best. So knowledgeable, so friendly and just an all around great person. All 3 towns were incredible with extraordinary views!
Salvatore was a wonderful guide!! He made our day a fantastic experience with his wealth of information, great spirit and excellence all around. Highly recommend this tour!!
Salvatore our guide was brilliant, very knowledgeable and explained everything!! Enjoyed the free lunch too and option to see three different towns!
We had a very pleasant, but very hot day. Lunch was great and the group was lovely and came from several different countries.
Our guide, Marco, was amazing. He was engaging, knowledgeable, and very attentive to everyone in our group.
We took this trip with Mirco and had an excellent experience. It exceeded expectations (even with some rain) and we had the best small group. Everyone was engaged and Mirco was well prepared with information prior to each stop. Lunch in Castelmola was a delight and there was olenty of time to explore each stop. Highly recommend.
Andrea was an excellent driver who was knowledgeable about these three towns. We had lots of time on our own to explore and I enjoyed the tour very much.
Daniello was the most amazing driver and guide. His knowledge and love for Sicily is clearly evident as he explained the history of these areas to us in easy to understand English. He even parked the car in a cool spot while we toured with our free time. Beautiful mix of different areas. Full day we'll spend! Take this tour! Wear comfortable shoes. Excellent way to spend the day and to learn more about beautiful Sicily. What a great value too! We also met new friends. Thanks Daniello!
An excellent tour with an included lunch which was pretty good as far as included lunches are concerned.Our guide was excellent throughout the day and would certainly recommend this tour if you are on hoiiday in Catania
We really enjoyed our trip to Savoca, Castelmola & Taormina. Marco is an excellent guide - very knowledgeable and helpful. We definitely recommend this tour.
Wonderful experience. I strongly recommend it as you can visit stunning places. Taormina is pretty, but Savoca and Castlemola- OMG are breathtaking.
Wonderfully interesting tour of 3 beautiful areas in Sicily. Great tour guide who was very informative and helpful.
Giovanni was an excellent guide. As well as being a good driver he was very well informed on many subjects. We had a thoroughly enjoyable day.
This’s an amazing trip, the driver Mirko it very calm and very good service person. The trip we visited good value, Taormina it elegant & beautiful. Castelmola smaller town lunch at Caffe S. Giorgio foods very delicious plus almond wine for dessert. Savoca is a small village love the vibes, the godfather movie films here ….. must go to the San Nicola Church, I took the Tuk Tuk car to the church so much fun. Highly recommended for this trip.
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