Taormina-Messina

General

The first part is along the beach and very beautiful. The closer you get to Messina, the more traffic you will have with partly very narrow streets. From Messina there is (or at least was in '98) a train driving up to Milano. You should reserve a seat, especially in high season because it gets crowed. A special experience: The whole train gets on a ferry to cross over to mainland Italy (Calabria).

Distance
Around 60km

Type
In general flat with some smaller hills

Additional information
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/

Messina: Messina was ever a lifefull and strategical important seaport: Its position at "Stretto", the straits of Messina, and its sickle-shaped natural harbor were as made for an city foundation. Historical buildings are not easy to find in Messina; a powerful earth- and seaquake destroied almost all buildings on the 28. of December 1908. More than 60 000 people died by this catastrophe. Bombardments of WW 2 did the rest. Nowadays is Messina a very important traiding centre and the third biggest city of Sicily.