30 Oct 2022
My friend and I arrived at the Messina Port off of the Norwegian Epic Cruise (11 day Greek Isles: Santorini & Athens to Rome Cruise). The Driver we were assigned was Marco who had been great communicating with me via Whats App prior to our arrival in Sicily. With that being said when we got off the ship he shared his location with me and finding him was smooth and stress free! The car ride was comfortable, fun, and Marco played great music for us. We customized our day because we had wanted to do a wine tasting at one of the Mount Etna popular wineries and Marco had suggested a handful to us so our day was planned around a tasting we had at 11 am at Gambino Winery. Our first stop was in a town called Taormina. We absolutely loved it. It was quiet and beautiful and our guide got us there before any bigger tours arrived so we got to enjoy the town in its normal setting! The view of Mt. Etna were stunning. We stopped in a few cute shops and then grabbed a seat with breathtaking views at Caffe Taormina and enjoyed some drinks, prosciutto, fresh burrata, and mouth watering olives! Marco told us we had about an hour and a half to explore and gave us a meeting point to find him so that he could get us to Gambino Wines in time for our tasting which we booked separately and paid for separately with the winery! This was one of the best experiences we had our entire cruise! This wine tasting was spectacular. The staff went above and beyond with the wine and the charcuterie board/food pairing that came with the upgraded tasting. It was worth every cent and extremely affordable. I believe the tasting was around 35 Euro Each maybe even cheaper. The wines were so good and the views of the water and Mt. Etna were like none I had ever seen before. When can you say you went wine tasting under an active volcano! When it was time to wrap things up to make sure we got back to the ship in time Marco came and got us and we were on our way. I highly recommend this company and hope you are lucky enough to get Marco has your driver! Thank you for such an incredible day and such awesome suggestions!