Taormina or Catania for our last night ?

An entire month in Sicily and you don’t plan to visit Taormina at all?
Seems strange to me but we all have different preferences.

A 2:45 pm flight is no reason to decide to where you must stay the night befor ; you still have plenty of time to have a normal morning in either location

mreynolds .. Its clearly beautiful 'The Pearl of the Meditteranean'.. I take it that's a must-see in your opinion, OK thanks !

If you stay a month in Sicily, Taormina should be your choice for the last week, or at least the last 3 or 4 nights, not just the last night. It’s an excellent base to see that corner of Sicily, including Mt Etna

I agree with the others, I would definitely visit Taormina instead of Catania, if I had to pick one.

Definitely Taormina…for as long as you can…beautiful!!!

Taormina is nice when no cruise ships are in port but is worth visiting. Catania is a gritty town (a lot of ash from Mt. Etna). All the main sites in either Taormina or Catania can be seen in a day.

I’ll be the contrarian and say stay in Catania the night before the flight. It’s close to the airport so less worry about something happening on the way to it.

Lyn: these type of comparison / generalizations are always very hard to make for others as everyone's preferences are different

I am sure this may cause disagreement and not saying they are directly comparable but hope this will give you an idea of expectations and if you know what you personally like I think I will help:
But I kind of equate Taormina like I would Positano or Capri and Catania would be more similar to Naples or Palermo

With a 2:45 PM flight out of CTA ; there should be no worries about something happening in route if you are only an hour drive away
I live an hour away from my home airport ; I don't worry I will miss a flight out of Boston due to something happening along that journey ; provided I allow ample time for possible traffic related delays.

Taormina definitely. We had a car pick us up for our 10am flight home from Catania.

Yet again.. a Big Thanku all !. It's an overwhelming result, so I'll take a night off Lapari Island and make a 2N stop in Taormina, to transfer to the airport from there.
You are correct mreynolds: everyone has their own opinions and reasons. I had been influenced by a colleague who lived in southern Italy for 5 years (perhaps she was looking for isolation by the end), on the strength of her experience I was initially going down a track of ½ the holiday on Lapari! Plus, we had started out wanting a base from which to do trips. However, we are now doing a complete driving, bus, train holiday!! with stops of 3-6N in some awesome spots.

I don’t know where you are spending your nights in Sicily, but to me Catania deserves only one night: the night before your flight. The Aeolian islands are actually very nice, so they deserve a fair amount of nights too.

Roberto de Firenze.. If curious here's the latest, tho its still months away so lets see what actually comes to be :)

Flight arr Catania. Transf to Ortygia x 6N; Ragusa x 3N; Trapini x 4N; Palermo x 4N ; Cefalu x 3N ; Lipari x 4N; Taormina x 2N.

Depart Catania for a week on the Amalfi.