We have only stayed in hotels before so this was a new experience. We chose an apartment for more privacy because we didn’t want to wear a face mask in a hotel. It was also cheaper for our one week visit. We chose a different apartment initially. We changed to this apartment because we could cancel the booking one day before arrival, instead of two weeks in advance. We wanted a more flexible arrangement because of unpredictable quarantine rules imposed by the Government in England.
We were met in the town by Samantha after walking up the hill from the bus station. She then led us to the apartment. My wife had two shoulder bags and I had two heavy Overloaded cabin bags. The climb from via cappuccino is very steep and takes 5-10 minutes. The path is mainly with steps but not all with steps. I was happy and a bit ashamed to accept Samantha’s offer to take one cabin bag up the final stairway! We briefly met Graziella and Later saw Alessandro in passing. They all live on the ground floor, I believe.
As other visitors say, the view is exceptional and is lovely to wake up to. You also have a lot of space at this apartment. Samantha showed us around the place and gave good tips on places to eat. A bottle of red wine had kindly been left for us and there were some breakfast items available. She later helped us find a place to print some tickets for a concert at the ampitheatre as they had to be printed for that particular event.
We used the pleasant double room. There are also two singles. All three are served by one air conditioner in the corridor which in my opinion might not be enough to keep the rooms cool when the weather is 30c+ and very humid, as it was during our visit. The living room is very nice with a great view. It has its own air conditioner. We sunbathed on the roof terrace a few times, the sun dropping behind the mountain behind the building at 4pm.
Taormina is a beautiful resort. You can get directly to the small beach at Isola Bella by bus or by cable car (plus a short walk). The beach was very crowded in late August and the charge for sun beds was high. There are other beaches nearby. We walked along the beach at the bottom of the cable car station but didn’t stay.
We took direct bus trips to Messina (interesting duomo and good for shopping) and Syracuse (the old part called Ortigia is very nice). In Taormina, Villa Zuccerro (pizza), trattoria di Nino (grilled fish) and Bam bar (almond granita) were super. We had lots of aperol spritz, wine, pistachio ice cream during our visit and regularly visited the Crai supermarket in via cappuccino.
Guests are likely to be visited a few times a day by two small grey tabby cats so don’t leave your doors open if you prefer them to stay outside! To be honest I have always been indifferent to cats (I much prefer dogs) and my wife doesn’t like them much so I ignored them for the early part of the holiday. I then found myself warming to the smaller one which wanted to be stroked and I started giving them milk and food scraps. When we left to go to the airport the cat ignored the food and began following me which made me feel sad to leave it behind!
We are 63 and 55 and fit for our age but the twice a day walk up to the apartment was challenging and probably best suits younger, sporty people, as the owners suggest. But I feel better for all that exercise and, to put us to shame, there’s a 95 year old lady who does that walk every day with the aid of a stick!
In summary we had a great holiday, nice apartment, great views, good hosts,