This was part of our Sicily (2026) trip, when we did a day trip from Catania to Taomina.
(Click here to see all our trips.)
Taormina is about a little more than an hour away by bus or train from Catania. Bus is more convenient, because Taormina train station is farther away from the center. Interbus/Etna has a bus about every 30 minutes.
We made our own breakfast (croissants, eggs, potato fritas, apples and coffee) and ate in the apartment. The bus station was about 10 minutes away. We arrived at 8:40am and were able to get on the 9am bus (10.20 euros for two). Even though many people were on the same bus, the bus still had a lot of empty seats. There were more people boarded the bus at other stops, but there were still enough seats for all. We were in the low season now. I was not sure whether there would be a lot more tourists in the high season.
The lady in front of us talked loudly on her phone. We were worried that she would be on the phone all the way. She stopped her phone conversation in about 15 minutes, then she was chatting loudly with her husband. The passengers behind us also spoke loudly. This seemed to be the norm in Sicily!
The bus followed a route close to the coast. After we passed the Taormina train station, the bus moved along the coast, and the view was splendid! Rei informed me that White Lotus season 2 was filmed in Taormina, and he was searching for the filming location excitedly.
The most famous attraction of Taormina was its amphitheater, Teatro Antico. Almost everyone got off the bus walked towards the amphitheater, so we simply followed the crowd.
It was only around 10:30am, and there was basically no line in front of the ticket office. We paid 16 euros each to enter. There were already several tour groups there.
The amphitheater was magnificent! We took many photos there. The best view of the theater was from the top row, and that’s also where most tourists gathered.
The amphitheater started as a Greek theater, and then became a Roman theater with an orchestra section and a low wall to protect the spectators. It was said that the place also provided an excellent view of Mount Etna, but the weather was cloudy today. However, we could still see two nearby attractions, Madonna of the Rock and a castle. Both places looked far away and sat on top of tall mountains; we didn’t plan to visit them.
There’s an onsite cafe, where we ordered an arancine (the famous Sicilian fried rice ball), an apple tart and coffee. Taormina is a resort town and tourist attraction, so the prices are high. It rained a little while we ate, but the light rain shortly stopped.
We spent more than an hour here. When we left around noon, we could see that the ticket line became very long. Fortunately, we arrived early.
Then it was time for the downtown sightseeing. We first entered Porta Messina. There was a church on the right, which was built upon an ancient theater Odeon with the ancient ruins still partially visible. We met a Gate 1 tour in front of the church.
We walked a while on a high-end shopping street, but decided to detour to the public garden. The verdant garden was sitting on a cliffside with fantastic ocean views. There were many tourists there taking photos. We found out that tourists to Taormina all enjoyed taking photos. They didn’t just take one or two photos but taking multiple photos in the same location with different poses and angles, sometimes even blocking the traffic!
We returned to the busy shopping street to continue walking towards Porta Catania. There was a large plaza with splendid ocean views and a public restroom (1 euro each).
There’s a beautiful fountain in front of Taormina Cathedral. The center piece of the fountain had a minotaur, the emblem of Taormina. There were also mythical horse statues around the fountain. It’s very interesting. The inside of the cathedral was also magnificent with a “last supper” sculpture in front of an altar.
There was a sign on the left (facing the cathedral) pointing to an old mosaic piece on the floor. It’s a very well preserved Greek mosaic locked inside an enclosure.
We finally reached Porta Catania and then walked back to the bus station. We were about time to catch the 2:45pm bus back to Catania. The bus was again not full. The bus reached Catania Centro first before continuing to the airport. Fortunately, we figured out just in time to get off the bus!
Amy 'n Rei 