Mount Etna, Lunch in a Winery and Taormina Private Day-Trip from Messina

My husband and I registered for the Mt Etna tour as part of our honeymoon in Sicily. We were picked up at our hotel by Giovanni and drove from Taormina to Mt Etna. Giovanni was full of information about the towns were drove through along the way. We even stopped at a local church to take a peek an observe the use of different lava formations. The drive on the mountain was amazing. We literally were driving through very varied terrain and learned all about the different types of trees, fruits, nuts an lava formations that exist today. The views of the top of the mountain as well as the surrounding areas was incredible. Mt Etna is truly a wonder and I'm so glad we reserved the day for this trip. Lunch at a local restaurant was lovely. We had a 4 course meal plus espresso on a beautiful outdoor patio. I will note– the tour asks for any food allergies when you purchase the tickets. It may be a good idea to confirm that with the restaurant when you arrive for lunch as there was a miscommunication with the fact I am gluten free.

This review compares our experience on Mt Etna and Taormina to other private guided experiences as that was our expectation. This was more a driver who didn’t speak much English, not an escort and not a guide. We are not sure we even saw the “right” part of Mt Etna as the driver took us where he wanted and said the Cable Car side was not worth it. We asked to go to the Cable Car and either shorten the Vineyard or Taormina, because we wanted to go up the Cable Car. The description from Viator wasn’t specific enough for us to demand or complain but a disappointing start. The vineyard and wine tasting were nice but nothing special as we have been to wineries all over the world. We cut that short. Taormina is wonderful and we had almost 3 full hours there. Driver dropped us and came back. The vehicle was a Mercedes van with no working passenger windows so taking pictures was hard, air conditioning was weak (32 Celsius/90+ F outside), driver didn’t have or offer water during the drive (something we had come to expect on these type of tours)- we had our own thankfully. The drivers communication was weak although his English is far better than our Italian. Nice man who meant well. Overall an average experience.

This was an amazing tour. We spent time at the lava pits at Mount Etna. There was a small square with shops where you could buy souvenirs made from lava rock. Next we went to the Gambino Winery. We were greeted with a glass of their white wine and beautiful views of the vineyard. Once inside we were treated to delicious food and wine pairings. We are now lifelong Gambino Winery customers. I would highly recommend this tour. Unfortunately, we did not make it to Taormina because we chose to spend so much time at the lava pits and winery. It worked out in our favor though as there was a political summit happening in Taormina while we were in Sicily. Our driver was friendly and happy to share information about Sicily and the sights we were seeing. Again, highly recommend this tour!