The former Church of Sant’Antonio Abate was built in 1330. It is called “former church” because it is no longer used for religious functions. After being severely damaged during the bombings of the Second World War in 1943 and subsequently rebuilt, the church lost its role as a place of worship. There is a cool story related to this church: let's discover it!
The Palace of the Dukes of St. Stephen is one of the best examples of Norman architecture preserved in Taormina. Built between the mid-13th century and the beginning of the 14th century, the palace was an integral part of the medieval walls that delimited the historic centre of the city.
The main square of the city! Let's find out some interesting facts about the beautiful fountain and buildings in this square!
Taormina Cathedral, originally built in the 13th century on the ruins of a small church dedicated to San Nicola di Bari, was rebuilt and expanded at various times, initially in the 15th century, later in the 16th and finally in the 18th century. Let's discover it!
Corso Umberto is the main street of Taormina, which extends between two arches located at the ends: the arch of Gate Messina to the north and the arch of Gate Catania to the south. A beautiful walk!
IX April Square is located in the heart of Corso Umberto and is considered one of the most prestigious places in Taormina. This spacious square is famous throughout the world for the spectacular view it offers: from the distinctive profile of Mount Etna, to the view of the bay of Giardini Naxos, up to the hill that hosts the Greek Theatre.
The Church of the Madonna della Rocca stands on a steep mountain overlooking Taormina, near the Saracen Castle. It owes its name to the characteristic of being built directly on the living rock.
The Arab-Norman Castle of Taormina is also known as the Castle of Monte Tauro, as it stands on the top of the rock of the same name. An amazing place to visit!
An odeon is a type of public building from Greco-Roman antiquity, designed primarily to host musical, theatrical, or oratory events of a smaller scale than open-air theaters. The term derives from ancient Greek and means “a place intended for singing.” The odeon of Taormina is one of the few found in Sicily. Let's discover it!
Corvaja Palace is one of the main monuments of Taormina. Its construction dates back to the Arab era, namely the 11th century, when the first cubic tower was erected. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the palace was expanded and acquired its current appearance, with a fusion of Arab, Norman, Gothic, Catalan and Chiaramonte architectural elements.
The Greek Theatre, also known as the Ancient Theatre, probably dates back to the 3rd century BC, during the reign of Hiero II. More than 100,000 cubic metres of rock were manually removed to build the theatre. The Romans later renovated and expanded the building, adding columns, statues and ingenious architectural solutions. An amazing place that you are going to explore!
Trevelyan Park, also known as Municipal Villa of Taormina, was created in the mid-19th century thanks to the will of Lady Florence Trevelyan, an English noblewoman who was raised at the court of Queen Victoria, cousin of her grandmother, Lady Maria Wilson.
The first historical traces of Isola Bella date back to 1806, when Ferdinand I of Bourbon, King of the Two Sicilies, donated it to the Municipality of Taormina. Subsequently, around 1890, the island was purchased by the English noblewoman Florence Trevelyan for a sum of 14,000 lire. Let's discover more!
Could not get the app to work. We were excited to have this option to tour the area since it was crowded and a walking tour with a group would have been challenging. But never could get it to run.
While the information provided was interesting the interface was not great. Being web based you couldn’t work with it off line or easily skip by stops. Not bad! But not great. Some audio sections refused to play so we had to read the info. Not sure if that was an internet thing or the web. The other annoyance was the take me there button. Google maps interactive only, not connected to other options at all.
This is a very economical way to learn about the local sites and history of Taormina. It was a bit tricky to download, sign in and find the start of the tour but once done we started to get the hang of it. Couldn’t find one for the stops that had once been a nightclub but just missed that one out.
Rather boring content, delivered in a rather fake American accent ..................................
Taormina is a gem in the northern Sicily region. Our walking tour was excellent! Very detailed and well done. Thank you! Much recommended.
HORRIBLE. The description says “walking tour with audio from a local” but what they don’t tell you is ALL you get is the audio. The entry tickets are NOT included. I was traveling with my daughter, husband and her boyfriend to celebrate her college graduation and I purchased 4 tix for our last day to tour the theatre in Taormina. We waited in a VERY long line due to the cruise ship crowd (which was fine - Taormina was lovely and everyone should see it!), but when we got to the gate to enter, the workers didn’t recognize the tix or let us in with them. It was very frustrating. I requested a refund since I didn’t get to use the tix but they were zero help and blamed me. They need to be more clear so people understand the “walking tour” doesn’t actually include the entry to the stadium. I use Viator often and I have never had an issue, but this was beyond frustrating.
Interesting tour, and handy to be able to proceed at ones own pace and timing. However, the commentary was quite brief, with little detail, poorly pronounced, in an inauthentic, American, probably AI voice. In the end, it was never going to replace a knowledgeable tour guide with whom one could interact.
Excellent!! Very thorough guide and very informative list of recommendations as well
OMG we never got connected to internet in Taormina. Connections kept cutting in & out especially at 1st stop. I contacted operator for assistance changed browser as instructed & still no connection. We ended up figuring out itinerary on our own without audio or digital copy. Check internet connection before purchasing. I know it is inexpensive but we were really looking forward to at least getting some history about each site. Very disappointing. I even tried Viator helpline for assistance.
Really easy to use overview of the City on our first day. The app was quick to use and allowed for a lot of flexibility. Going at our own pace was a breeze.
Touring the city using Taormina Walking tour is a very good way to ensure you do not miss anything important. all informations are clear and to the point. It is all online and I took the written version, expecting some sort of document being provided at one point. Written means you read you phone, not a paper document and for someone like me who likes to walk away with something to hold on and remember the experience it is a bit frustrating. Despite this personal sensation, everything worked very smoothly and I walked away happy I seemed to not having missed anything important, Thanks a lot!
It should be made clear travelers will use their phones for the tour and not a different audio device. My husband's phone had been stolen and mine is old and doesn't work well enough. We don't understand why there was any meeting place if the tour was audio on a device with no guide. We were told by Viator to meet at a certain place to check in and no one was there. We looked for almost 30 minutes to find someone to help. The only good thing was I had a credit so it didn't cost more that 1 euro. This was a waste of time. We were very disappointed we didn't have information to make our walk in Taormina better. I am very disappointed in this purchase through Viator.
This was an excellent tour that we downloaded to our phones. It clearly explained the history and features of all the included sites. We did not have to guess what we were looking at as we walked around Taormina. It also included a link that provided instructions on how to get to the next site on the itinerary. There was no need to go to a mapping app. You did not have to go in the order it was organized. Well worth the cost. It was also incredibly helpful for my wife who is hard of hearing and has trouble hearing tour guides in group settings. Hopefully Matteo will develop tours in other cities as this was a fantastic experience.
A great introduction to Taormina for you to get your bearings and not miss some key places. The guide on the phone with the map was easy to use. The best thing was you could go at your own pace. So when walking from place to place it didn’t matter if you got distracted by something and ended up down a different little lane which believe me you will. We took our time stopping for lunch midway through and picked it up later. Doing this was so much better than an organised tour where you generally are rushed and don’t get a chance to really take it all in.
Amazing audio and written guide! This guide is really super value and easy to use. All the key highlights of Taormina are included and it enabled me to navigate around the town really easily. It’s SO helpful to have map links to each site. Descriptions were really informative and it really great to have a route mapped out. Without it I’d have definitely missed things! Really recommend downloading this guide via Viator. Thoroughly enjoyed my day sightseeing! This is a really well thought out guide and a very economical way of seeing Taormina.
Look. Guided tours in taormina are insanely expensive. I have never seen anything like it. So, this option is great for the price. I do wish the info given on various sights were more extensive. Like the whole theatre is over in 2 minutes. Why? Apart from that this is way better than spending all your travel budget on a 2 hour guided tour.
Fabulous, informative, easy to use tour guide! This is the second tour I have done like this and it won’t be my last, go at your own pace.
Download app in advance or open in browser. Had trouble occasionally with audio stalling. Would be nice if it used geolocation so the audio started where you are
A great idea of a self guided tour , was easy to use and follow the instructions, we found things we wouldn’t have seen otherwise!! Thank you 🤩
What a great idea 💡 we had a great tour using this , it was easy to follow and the information was great 👍 we found places on this tour we wouldn’t have seen otherwise Thank you Matteo
It was nice to do this tour in our own pace. I particularly enjoyed the little fun facts inbetween, e.g. on the swordfish tradition or the history of Taormina‘s name. The research for this guide could have been more thorough, though, historical facts weren‘t always correct (e.g. Taormina as older than Syracuse, which it isn‘t).
Fantastic way to learn about a town, local history, Also an easy way to do the tour; at your own pace, time & ease of not having to be with a large group
Good for independent sightseeing at your own pace. Easy instructions. Extra tips for your stay on included. Great idea.
This was great, made visiting all the historical landmarks super easy and also added some great insight at every stop. Highly recommend.
Joining instructions unclear and misleading. Meeting Point should read Starting Point. Couldn't access audio guide despite a number of attempts. User support ok but did not solve issues. Taomina well worth a visit.
We found it useful to be able to follow a guide as didn’t know the area could home in the the things that were of interest to use
You have to keep entering your password every time you want to pickup where you left off! You cannot download the tour so you use all your data to access the telephone network. Not worth using all my data. If you come in to Taoromina with a tour company, you have to walk to the end of Via Umberto to get to the “starting point” which is really ridiculous and a waste of time. The walking tour sucked and I wasted my $$. My tour should be refunded because I abandoned using it for all the above reasons. And ps I don’t need to text you on WhatsApp to figure out all the reasons why the tour didn’t work!
Different way of walking tour but very detailed and interesting. Plus you could read notes as well. Definitely use again
It was not made clear in the instructions to us that mobile data is required for the guide. Our children do not have mobile data so were unable to use the guide.
I enjoyed the concise information provided, the flow of the destinations and a gps map that made the navigation very simple
Excellent walking tour, done the right way around too, coping with some large hills. Great insight, not over bearing, so you got a wonderful appreciation for Taormina.
The audio guide was fantastic. Easy to follow, great information, and we did the tour when it suited over 2 days. The itinerary included top spots as well as hidden gems.
If you are visiting a town and you don't have all the time in the world to hire a guide in person or if it is too hot and you can only walk around for so much, this concept is great. With this virtual guide you are not wandering clueless, you get an itinerary which you can follow strictly or just skip parts that are to physical or you do not find them totally interesting. You actually tailor your own experience. There's plenty information both written and audio. Audio works without earphones. I was so happy with the concept that after buying one for Taormina, two days later I bought one for Siracuse as well.
Beautiful old town that captures Sicilian culture. Only downside is that is incredibly busy. Lots of shops, restaurants, coffee/ice cream places to visit. Beautiful views, especially at night. Definitely recommend.
Nice activity to do at your own pace. We avoided the heat (somewhat) by going later in the early evening. Clear instructions and informative info at each stop.
Convenient. Very clear English. Can do the walk at your own pace. Read the information as well as listen whilst walking.
This walking guide is fantastic. Easy to use links that open on your phone with audio and written guides to key locations. Lots of interesting information. A brilliant feature is the integrated link to Google maps to take you to the next location. This also helps you get back on track if you take a break. A simple idea that could be scaled to any city and work in exactly the same way.
This tour was audio through your phone and it was hard to follow the directions. We ended not completing the tour and just explored on our own.
This guide saved me so much time in trying to figure out the highlights of Taormina, where they are and what order to do them. I am so impressed with this guide that I purchased the guides for the rest of the cities I am visiting. I have purchased digital guides before but this the best one I have used. Love the link to Google Maps so you can instantly
Informative, user friendly and covers a lot of nice spot. We enjoyed the fact that we could decide our own pace for the tour.
This walking tour was very informative and would have been even better with earpods due to street noise. I would recommend starting it early in the day though because we didn’t allow enough time to finish as we started mid afternoon not realizing how extensive it was. The guide was very informative and easy to follow once you coordinate with your walking map on your phone. Great affordable way to see and learn about sites you would otherwise miss out on without this guided tour.
Good and effective self-guided tour, you can pause the self-guided tour and resume it naturally, unlike other self-guided tours.
It is very easy to download and use. The explanations are very detailed while being very easy to follow.
Impossible to retrieve the audio guide, to validate our ticket. Useless purchase. Does not include the theater (€14 extra per person)
I was never able to load the application. I am very disappointed. Please refund me; you have my contact information.
One can go at their own pace and allocate time individually and as desired. One can go at their own pace and allocate time individually and as desired. Super informative, and there is still much to learn about Taormina and Sicily.
a very comprehensive visit that one can do at their own pace; it is a very good way to visit the city
Very good and very practical!!! Moving at your own pace and accompanied by complete and interesting information is priceless...
Very interesting and descriptive guide; full of goodies and tips!
Great!!!! We were able to enjoy 200% of our day in Taormina, no time wasted or unpleasant surprise everything is explained with the times and possible prices. We skipped 3 sites a little further (20-25 min walk from the city center) but reading all the explanations and taking our time in the different places to visit we took 3h30. all tourist cities should offer this kind of visit is great because we are fully autonomous. Plan a well-charged phone to make sure you have enough battery for the day.
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