[Ohiogirl]

if you get a chance. Our cruise ship docked in Messina (as far as I know, just an industrial port across a strait from the Mainland). We took a taxi to Taormina (about an hour) - 4 of us - taxi driver talked the whole way there, met us at a friendly restaurant for lunch (I'm sure he got a free lunch of of the deal, but who cared)? and made our day. For the 4 of us, it was about the price of the train for 2.

We agreed on a price beforehand, but didn't pay until we were delivered back to the ship as promised. He dropped us off, met us for lunch, and drove us back, stopping at a couple of scenic points for pictures on the way home.

He spoke understandable broken English - had been to the States (Chicago) a couple of times to visit cousins, and was just a hoot.

We had planned to walk or taxi from the port to the train station, but were told (by a bunch of taxi drivers) when we got off the ship that there was a train strike - who knows if that was true, but this was way fun and one of the highlights of our trip.