Driving from Cefalu to Taormina

The freeway along the coast is scenic, apart from the occasional tunnels. Or you can use the regular State Road (SS) which runs even closer to the shore, but it will take much longer as the speed limit is low and it goes through the towns..

We’ve spent the last 30 days driving all over Sicily. Google will tell you the two fastest routes, but the highways, although excellent and with nice autogrills to stop at, will not be scenic much of the time. If you are ok with driving on squiggly roads over and through the mountains, there are several scenic routes. On this trip, we stopped in Santo Stefano di Camastra to buy some more of their special red and orange ceramics that we like, then drove over the Nebrodi mountains to Randazzo. After staying in Randazzo for several nights, we again drove through the countryside to Ortigia. Right now, the roadsides and fields are covered with wild flowers, and we saw lots of vineyards around Etna, too. I can’t actually tell you the exact routes we took —- our motto was “the squigglier the better” and we had time to putter and get lost, which you might not. We liked Randazzo very much, but you could also stop in Bronte to eat pistachios and things made with pistachios.

We are bummed that we missed Etna erupting by just two days!