Nicolosi-Taormina

General
The camping in Nicolosi is a few km out of the village in direction to Mt. Etna. In Italy generally, Italian used to have a long "Siesta" till 5 p.m.. That's why almost all shops (especially food shops) are closed in the afternoon (from noon to 5 p.m.). On Wednesday afternoon there are all food shops closed and they will not open in the evening! The camping in Taormina is very simple. More than one * we can't give to him. Further it was the most expensive camping, we were. But there's only one in Taormina! The entrance door looks like the camping would be closed, but it's open the whole year.

Distance
Around. 50 km, 900 m difference in altitude, downwards ;-), 1 km = 0,621 miles

Type
First steep but downwards, afterwards flat.

Additional Information
Nicolosi: The most famous road (Via Etnea) to the Etna passes through Nicolosi. This village was threaded and destroyed several times by lave from Etna, which crater are quite near.
Busses are driving from Nicolosi to the cable railway station (Rifugio Sapienza). Attention: tickets for the cable railway and jeep to the crater area (Torre Filosofo) are quite expensive

Latest updates regarding Etna can be found (amongst others) on the following websites:

• http://www.vulkan-etna-update.de/ (German)
• http://www.ct.ingv.it/ (Italian and English)
• Additional links to Live cams and others can be found here: http://www.stromboli.org/ (Englisch)

Taormina: Famous for the great view from the Greek theatre in direction to Etna. The town is situated on a rock step, about 200 m above sea level. More than 200 years age the French writer Guy de Maupassant praised the town "If someone could stay only one day on Sicily and would ask me - tell me, what I should had seen? - I would answer him without much hesitation "Taormina".".
In my opinion there is too much tourism. There are already so many people in autumn, how does it look like in the summer? Maybe things got better since 1998...

More information: http://www.taormina.it/