Sicily in April 2015

Taormina has to be the undisputed highlight of the east coast of Sicily. We stayed there for just one night in December 2012 before taking the car ferry from Messina to mainland Italy the next day. If you stay inside the walls of the old town, be prepared for a winding trip up the road, and if you drive your own car, there's a not-cheap parking garage, where you'll go on foot from there. The setting, the Greek amphitheater, great food make for an outstanding visit.

We stayed in Modica, a great town with even greater food (and Chocolate!) the night before, a bit away from Siracusa. Had we stayed in Siracusa, we would've looked at staying on Ortygia island, which sounded interesting. Since Rick Steves doesn't publish a Sicily guidebook, we relied mainly on the Lonely Planet guidebook for lodging recommendations.

Toarmina sounds like the best place so far, thank you for your help.

It's been about 10 years since I was there. We stayed on the beach in Giardini Naxos and went to Taormina as a day trip. Our hotel was the Ramada but I'm not sure it's a Ramada anymore. If you do a search on booking.com it'll show hotels and apartments, or search on some rental sites (VRBO, Homeaway, etc) for rental homes. It's a beautiful beach and a nice town.

A couple of years ago I stayed at Hotel Nazionale in Taormina. Just a short flight of steps off the main street, easy access to public garage (discount for hotel guests), and a huge terrace with views of Mount Etna. Less than E100 for a double at that time, breakfast included.

I have rented three different times apartments/houses of varying size through legendofsicily.com. Some have parking, some do not. I've obviously been Very Happy, as I intend to go again! The owner of this business also offers a numer of tours/day trips
that we've also been on. Absolutely loved going to Gambino Vini for a wine tasting. It's incredibly beautiful. They also have a web page/facebook page. I've always taken friends on every trip and every single one of them absolutely loved Claudio Puglisi (the broker) and the apartments and tours. I only wish you could have more than three nights.

Thank you, I will look into the accommodation recommended. One other question we will be renting a car at the Catania airport and driving it along the Ionian coast, how are the roads over there and are there a lot of tolls?

Toll-free and in fabulous condition! Although many roads are not 4-lane Autostradas, traffic (granted, in December for us) moved well, and drivers are courteous. In towns, the streets are narrow and parking spaces could be tight. Smaller vehicles work better than bulky ones!

Just to second what Cyn said - the autostrade in Sicily are amazing. They're new, and come complete with pullouts every few hundred feet (perfect for consulting a map or making a phone call). The signage is clear, too. My sister was driving me around Washington, DC recently, and the highways there seemed positively barbaric in comparison.

It's once you get off the autostrade that navigation can get difficult. If you are driving to Taormina (a great place, by the way), be aware that the center has a ZTL; drive carefully to avoid it. And Ortigia in Siracusa has one too, but it's only applicable on weekends (Friday evenings, Saturday afternoon and evening, and much of Sunday).

What is a ZTL ?

Taormina (a great place, by the way), be aware that the center has a ZTL; drive carefully to avoid it. And Ortigia in Siracusa has one too, but it's only applicable on weekends (Friday evenings, Saturday afternoon and evening, and much of Sunday).

We have rented cars from the airport in Catania and it is a piece of cake. i think that you will probably have to rent two cars for that many people. We used mostly secondary roads rather than the freeways and found them very good. Just remember not to panic if you see a car coming towards you passing another car . Simply pull over a bit and make the road into three lanes. I know it sounds bad, but it isn't.

A ZTL (Zona Traffico Limitato) is an area where the govenment is limiting the amount of vehicle traffic, found especialy in popular and/or historic sites. You could arrive home from a trip to Italy and months later, if you hadn't paid attention over there, get a ticket in the mail. Here's a Website with more info http://www.italybeyondtheobvious.com/dont-mess-with-ztl-zones.